TRUE (Thin-film Rectifiers for UHF Electronics)

Including radio-frequency (RFID) capability within everyday objects opens-up a wealth of market opportunities, from the ability to interact directly with the consumer, to scan-free retail and accurate stock management. Ultimately this is the platform on which the Internet-of-Things (IoT) is based, however, the cost point of the incumbent silicon solution prevents this becoming a reality for all but the highest end consumer goods. Flexible electronics, with its substantially lower circuit and system costs, is ideally suited to expand the range of applications that can be addressed by RFID. In this project PragmatIC, a pioneer in the design, development and manufacture of non-silicon flexible integrated circuits on plastic substrates (FlexICs), aims to achieve a step-change in the front-end performance of the RFID circuitry (operating at 900MHz) and reduce the overall power consumption of the flexible circuit. This is expected to open-up a multi-$Bn opportunity over the coming years, in particular linking with the UK's digital manufacturing strategy, based on the sub-cent system costs that can be achieved.