Emerging Trends for Embedded RFID and UHF Item-Level Tagging

Rich Fletcher is a graduate of MIT, where he received his PhD in chipless RFID technology and wireless sensors. Rich also holds two undergraduate degrees from MIT in Electrical Engineering and Physics. Rich has 11 years research experience in RFID, participating in a number of projects in industry and the military as well as academia. Rich was a member of the inventor team of the Bistatix RFID product line at Motorola and over the years has consulted for a number of companies, including MasterCard, Seimens, Becton-Dickinson, US Postal Service, and NASA. Prior to his graduate work, Rich spent five years as a research scientist at the US Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright-Patterson AFB developing novel passive microwave devices and antennas. Rich has been a member of the Materials Research Society for 14 years, and a 5-year member of IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society and Microwave Theory and Techniques. Rich currently heads the Packaging and RFID Special Interest Group at MIT AutoID Labs which studies the electromagnetic problems associated with integrating RFID technology for supply chain applications. Rich is currently also a visiting scientist at the MIT Media Lab and is founder of TagSense, Inc, an engineering and consulting firm specializing in RFID hardware, wireless sensors and RFID security.

Founded in March 2000 as an MIT start-up company, TagSense was originally formed as a developer of innovative low cost RFID and sensor technologies for the toy industry. Building on its experience with low-cost design and electromagnetic materials, TagSense has since grown to provide RFID technology and consulting services to a wide variety of industries and companies worldwide. TagSense currently has offices in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where it maintains facilities for electronics prototyping, antenna design, and electromagnetic testing.