Samsung Electronics develops new RFID reader

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Samsung Electronics has just announced its successful development of a new single-chip radio frequency identification (RFID) reader that will be used in mobile devices. These embedded RFID reader chips will function in a way to provide consumers with product or service information retrieved from FRID tags incorporated in different items, including movie posters, clothing and museums as well as tourist exhibits. I suppose this works great if you’re walking throughout a museum, where your PDA (which the museum provides, of course) with this embedded RFID reader will be able to display far more information on a tiny screen, allowing you to browse at your own pace without waiting for the video to loop from the beginning. This also allows the museum to include even more exhibits by maximizing their shelf space.

 

According to Dr. Chilhee Chung, senior vice president of Samsung Electronics’ System LSI division, “We are enabling anytime, anywhere mobile access to information. RFID chip reader systems allow consumers to pull context-specific information into their mobile devices while on the go. Our mobile RFID single-chip technology is an important step in the evolution of ubiquitous computing environments.”

Although the long term plan would be to embed this chip into various commercial devices such as cellphones as well as handheld readers currently used in retail stores, the initial use for this new Samsung RFID reader chip will be seen in card-type readers that plug into mobile handsets, providing consumers with instant access to the new chip technology. It has been specially designed to function for a UHF range of 900MHz, integrating an analog front end, a base-band modem, a processor, and a memory chip. The chip itself measures a mere 6.5mm x 6.5mm, and sips very little juice (850mW to be exact), making it perfect for mobile applications.

Press Release