http://www.eetimes.com/news/latest/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=190500004

EE Times: Latest News
HP develops grain-size wireless chip

Spencer Chin
EE Times
(07/17/2006 11:05 AM EDT)

MANHASSET, N.Y. - Hewlett-Packard Co. has developed a miniature wireless
data chip the company said could broaden access to digital content in
the physical world.

Measuring 2 to 4 millimeters2-the size of a grain of rice-and could be
attached or embedded in almost any object to make available information
and content now found mostly on Web devices.

The chip, developed by the Memory Spot research team at HP Labs, is a
CMOS memory device with a built-in antenna. According to the company,
the chip could be embedded in a sheet of paper or attached to surfaces.
It could eventually be available in a booklet as self-adhesive dots.

Potential applications include storing medical records on a hospital
patient's wristband, providing audio-visual supplements to postcards and
photos, preventing counterfeiting in the pharmaceutical industry, adding
security to identity cards and passports and supplying additional
information for printed documents.

"The Memory Spot chip frees digital content from the electronic world of
the PC and the Internet and arranges it all around us in our physical
world," Ed McDonnell, Memory Spot project manager, HP Labs, said in a
statement.

The chip has a 10 megabits-per-second data transfer rate-10 times faster
than Bluetooth wireless technology and comparable to Wi-Fi speeds- with
a storage capacity ranging from 256 kilobits to 4 megabits in working
prototypes. It could store a very short video clip, several images or
dozens of pages of text. Future versions could have larger capacities.

The chip incorporates a built-in antenna and is self-contained, with no
need for a battery or external electronics. It receives power through
inductive coupling from a special read-write device, which can then
extract content from the memory on the chip. Inductive coupling is the
transfer of energy from one circuit component to another through a
shared electromagnetic field. A change in current flow through one
device induces current flow in the other device.

HP researchers envision the read-write device being incorporated into a
cell phone, PDA, camera, printer or other implement. To access
information, the read-write device is positioned closely over the chip,
which is then powered so that the stored data is transferred instantly
to the display of the phone, camera or PDA or printed out by the printer.

"We are actively exploring a range of exciting new applications for
Memory Spot chips and believe the technology could have a significant
impact on our consumer businesses, from printing to imaging, as well as
providing solutions in a number of vertical markets," Howard Taub, HP
vice president and associate director, HP Labs, said in a statement.