RFID chip, short for Radio Fre­quen­cy Iden­ti­fi­ca­tion chip, is a non-con­tact auto­mat­ic iden­ti­fi­ca­tion tech­nol­o­gy. It auto­mat­i­cal­ly iden­ti­fies tar­get objects and obtains relat­ed data through wire­less radio fre­quen­cy sig­nals.

An RFID chip mainly consists of 3 parts:

1. Anten­na: Used to send and receive radio fre­quen­cy sig­nals;
2. Chip: An inte­grat­ed cir­cuit chip that stores object infor­ma­tion and process­es sig­nals; It has low fre­quen­cy, high fre­quen­cy, ultra high fre­quen­cy;
3. Encap­su­la­tion: Encap­su­lates the anten­na and chip to phys­i­cal­ly pro­tect them.

The working principle of RFID chips:

1. The RFID read­er gen­er­ates an elec­tro­mag­net­ic field to pow­er the anten­na and exchange data.
2. The anten­na receives the sig­nal and pro­vides ener­gy to the chip to wake it up.
3. The chip process­es the sig­nal and sends the stored object infor­ma­tion to the anten­na.
4. The anten­na sends the infor­ma­tion to the read­er, and the read­er obtains the object infor­ma­tion and decodes it.
5. After read­ing is com­plete, the RFID read­er stops the radio fre­quen­cy sig­nal and the chip enters sleep mode to save ener­gy.

The main application areas of RFID chips:

1. Logis­tics and sup­ply chain man­age­ment — Used for car­go track­ing and ware­house man­age­ment.
2. Access con­trol — Embed­ded in employ­ee ID cards or mem­ber­ship cards for entry and exit con­trol.
3. Retail and con­sumer — Embed­ded in prod­uct tags for shoplift­ing pre­ven­tion and self-check­out. 
4. Trans­porta­tion and park­ing — Embed­ded in vehi­cle license plates for toll col­lec­tion and vehi­cle man­age­ment.
5. Man­u­fac­tur­ing and equip­ment man­age­ment — Used for auto­mat­ed iden­ti­fi­ca­tion of indus­tri­al equip­ment and tar­gets on pro­duc­tion lines.
6. Health­care — Used for patient and drug man­age­ment to improve effi­cien­cy and safe­ty. 
7. Secu­ri­ty and sur­veil­lance — Used for per­son­nel access records and behav­ior mon­i­tor­ing man­age­ment.

As an auto­mat­ic iden­ti­fi­ca­tion tech­nol­o­gy, RFID has a very wide range of appli­ca­tions. With tech­no­log­i­cal progress, RFID chips have become more pow­er­ful and low­er in cost. They will gain wider appli­ca­tions in the future, pen­e­trat­ing into var­i­ous indus­tries and chang­ing peo­ple’s lives and work.