How to Create a Chipless RFID from a Bottle Cork

A scientific report appearing in nature. com1 introduces a novel, non-cloneable, chipless RFID tag, created out of the cork of a bottle, for authenticating the wine, liquor, oil, or other liquid product contained in that bottle.

Chipless RFID is a type of radio frequency identification (RFID) tag that doesn’t use a microchip. Instead, it relies on printed, encoded materials or resonant structures to carry data. A resonant structure, in the context of chipless RFID, is a physical pattern or component that vibrates at specific radio frequencies when exposed to an electromagnetic signal. These resonators act like a fingerprint, allowing the structure to store data without using a chip.

The report describes how a chipless RFID can be created out of a precise pattern of graphene formed on the surface of the cork by a laser. It is the carbon-rich compounds found in cork that allow it to act as a precurser of graphene (which is a one- atom-thick sheet of carbon with excellent electrical conductivity).