Hitachi shows off a microchip smaller than a grain of powder

[GunTeng]

The Japanese electronics maker Hitachi has revealed radio frequency identification, or RFID, chips that are just 0.05mm across and look like grains of powder. They’re small enough to be embedded in a sheet of paper, a company spokesman said.

RFID chips store data, but they need to be brought near special reading devices that beam energy to the chips, which then send information back to the readers.

The technology is already widely used to track and identify items, for example monitoring the distribution of food products or guarding against forgery of concert tickets.

The Oyster card system used on London’s public transport network uses RFID chips to store information about passengers’ season tickets and pay-as-you-go balance.

The new chip supercedes its predecessor from Hitachi – the Mu-chip, which at 0.4mm across was about the size of the full stop at the end of this sentence.

The latest chip, which is yet to be named, is 60 times smaller than the Mu-chip but can handle the same amount of information, which gets stored as a 38-digit number.

However, unlike the Mu-chip, its replacement needs an antenna, the smallest of which are about 4 mm long – giants next to the powder-size chip.

There are no plans yet to start commercial production of the new chip, the company said, adding that it was so small and new that researchers were still trying to come up with an application for it.

http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/...cle1429461.ece

Now that is small. Imagine if they dropped the prototype..
Can anyone here imagine a use for such a small chip? If you have any ideas post them.

[Graham]

Very cool, but why shrink something to 0.007mm, only to find you need to use a 4mm long antenna?! I know a lot of research happens for the sake of it, but admitting there is no use for it yet...how about spending millions developing something that can be put to use, like helping fight cancer?

[sonyfan6]

RFID tags will replace bar codes in the near future, however what Hitachi is showing is worthless. The size is utterly unimportant. What matters is the cost. You need to make them using inkjet printing techniques on a flexible substrate so sheets of the RFID tags cost pennies. The idea is to make them in the same way and for the same cost that newspaper is printed. This leads into the concept of ubiquitous electronics, which will flood the market with new products in the next 20 years. Ubiquitous electronics will be the new 'plastic' for those that have seen the movie the graduate. In 20 years time everything you buy will have electronic devices imbedded inside it.

[coolguy]

wow this is crazy. its nuts how the tech is going so fast.
and they are makeing every thing smaller,.................

[GunTeng]

Very cool, but why shrink something to 0.007mm, only to find you need to use a 4mm long antenna?! I know a lot of research happens for the sake of it, but admitting there is no use for it yet...how about spending millions developing something that can be put to use, like helping fight cancer?

Maybe they plan to patent it so that they can earn tonnes of money when they sue someone at a later date..

[Zoibie]

Maybe they plan to patent it so that they can earn tonnes of money when they sue someone at a later date..

ah well at least that shows they think ahead

Just brain storming but where would this actually be used. Where would it be this necessary to have something that small?

[GunTeng]

Possibly as security tags on all prducts, where when I purchase is mae, it is somehow scanned & data erased?

But then , people will go shop lifing with magnets..lol.

I have no idea what they could do with something like this or how far they could take its application.
Maybe they could hold a competition & see if anyone can find one inside their cereal packet..lol.

And you wonder why they have no idea what application to use it for?
But then, you have to wonder why they bothered?
Do you think it was a waste of resources?