DOD Sees Tiny RFID Chip as a Way to Verify Electronics

Northrop Grumman is heading a four-year project for the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA) to devise a tiny radio frequency identification chip that could prevent the counterfeiting of electronic parts that end up in avionics or circuit boards for other devices. The goal, explains Scott Suko, a Northrop Grumman consulting engineer, is to develop a near-field high-frequency (HF) RFID dielet. The resulting chip—which would measure only 100 microns by 100 microns (0.004 inch by 0.004 inch) in length and width, including an onboard antenna and temperature sensor—would be embedded in integrated circuits or circuit boards.