Appendix B. Passive Tag Manufacturing OverviewThe passive tag manufacturing process is currently a subject of intense activity as vendors strive to bring cheaper tags with more capabilities to the market. The traditional process of tag manufacturing is costly compared to the estimated cost for producing the widely anticipated 5¢ tag. The volume of such tags is anticipated in the billions per year. At a minimum, the output capacity of the existing manufacturing processes must increase in the order of a magnitude to meet this demand. This appendix examines the basic tag-manufacturing process. Most likely, the steps in this process will not change drastically even as the tag-manufacturing process changes, unless a radical process innovation occurs (for example, printing a complete tag on the item with a conductive ink). The basic tag manufacturing steps are as follows:
The following sections discuss these steps. |