HP's Grain-size Wireless Chip

Today HP has announced the development of a miniature wireless chip small enough to embed in almost any object. The experimental chip has been developed by the "Memory Spot" research team at HP Labs in Bristol, England and is based on the CMOS (complementary metal oxide semiconductor) standard. This is a widely used type of semiconductor but has been shrunk by HP so it's just 2mm to 4mm square in size -- equivalent to a grain of rice.

The new chip has a 10 Mbps data transfer rate which is superior to both RFID tags and Bluetooth and is comparable to Wi-Fi speeds. It offers storage capacity ranging from 256 kilobits to 4 megabits in working prototypes, although future versions could have larger capacities. Information on the chip can be accessed by a read-write device that could be incorporated into a mobile phone, Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), camera or printer.

To access information, the read-write device is swiped over the chip, which is then powered-up so that the stored data is transferred instantly to the display of a device or printed out by the printer. Users could also potentially add information to the chip from their mobile devices. The miniature chip incorporates a built-in antenna and doesn't require a battery. It receives power through inductive coupling, which is the transfer of energy from one circuit component to another through a shared electromagnetic field, via a special read-write device, which can then extract content from the memory on the chip.

Some of the potential consumer and business-based applications that the chip could be used for include storing medical records on a hospital patient's wristband, or providing audio-visual extras such as music and commentary to digital postcards and photos. HP also believes that new applications could be developed which would help fight counterfeiting by adding added security to identity cards and passports. The Memory Spots could also supply additional information to any printed documents.

HP estimates that the miniature chip will be commercially available in about 2 years but believes there may soon be a time when they are obtainable in a booklet of self-adhesive dots, since these chips are easy to make.