Retail solutions, RFID Solutions, People Counting Solution, EAS Solutions, Mobile DVR Solution, ESL Solutions for Retail, Security & Loss Prevention Solution – www.tractility.com RFID that is wireless radio frequency identification technology, is a non-contact automatic identification technology, it through the radio frequency signal automatic identification object and obtain relevant data, identification work without human intervention, can work in a variety of harsh environments. 20 century 80’s with the gradual maturity of large-scale integrated circuit technology, RFID system volume greatly reduced, make RFID technology into the practical stage. At the same time. A variety of RFID tags frequently appear, which also shows that people on the production of RFID tag antenna research work has entered a new stage. In this paper, a variety of printing solutions for RFID tag antennas will be described.
Advantages of RFID tag antenna printing method
Table of Contents
At present, RFID tag antenna has three production techniques such as etching method, coil winding method and printing method. Compared with the etching method, coil winding method, RFID tag antenna printing method has the following unique advantages.
- (1) The traditional etching method of metal RFID antennas, not only the process is complex and costly and long production time of the finished product and the use of conductive ink printed RFID tag antenna efficient. And inexpensive, which is a great help to reduce the production cost of RFID tags.
- (2) The use of Focal method of RFID tag antenna can be more accurately adjusted to the main technical parameters of the tag, the use of the tag performance to the best effect. RFID tag main technical parameters are: resonant frequency, Q value and impedance. All RFID tag antenna production methods can be used to change the number of antenna turns, size and thickness of the wire diameter of the method to obtain the optimal performance of the tag. However RFID tag antenna printing method can also precisely adjust the local width of the antenna, ink layer thickness, etc.
- (3) As RFID tags are increasingly widely used personalized requirements are increasingly RFID tag antenna printing method can be easily changed according to the requirements of the shape such as affixed to the surface of objects of different curvature, angle to meet customer requirements, and does not reduce any use performance.
- (4) RFID tag antenna printing method can be in accordance with the user’s requirements, in different substrate surface printing, such as PVC, PET-G, PET, ABS, PC and paper-based materials. If the coil winding method. It is difficult to use PC and other materials to produce RFID tags used to adapt to harsh environmental conditions.
- (5) With the widespread use of RFID tags, more and more IC chip manufacturers are joining the team to produce RFID chips. Due to the lack of a unified standard, various performance parameters are different. The production of RFID tag antenna with the printing method has a strong flexibility. Suitable for each manufacturer to provide the chip. Can be matched with various types of chips and modules using various forms of packaging to achieve the best performance.
RFID tag antenna printing technology
RFID tag antenna printing is a direct use of conductive ink on the insulating substrate printed conductive lines to form the antenna, also known as the add method of production technology.
1. Conductive ink
In recent years, the development of conductive ink has greatly promoted the application of printing technology in the production of RFID tag antennas. Conductive ink is a functional ink, there are mainly carbon paste, silver paste and other types. Carbon paste conductive ink is a heat-setting ink, cured film has a protective role of copper foil and conductive current. Has good electrical conductivity and low impedance. Carbon paste conductive ink ink layer is not easy to be oxidized, and has stable performance, acid and alkali resistance, strong wear resistance, good thermal shock resistance, etc.: and silver paste conductive ink is ultra-fine silver powder and thermoplastic resin as the main body of a liquid ink, in PETPT, PVC and other sheet materials can be used with extremely strong adhesion and coverage can be low-temperature curing, with conductive controllability and ultra-low resistance value.
It can be said that there is no development of conductive ink there is no printing technology in the RFID label manufacturing. For RFID labels with built-in printed antenna, a good conductive ink formulation, requires a good printability. After printing the ink layer with strong adhesion resistivity low curing temperature, conductive properties and other characteristics of stability.
2. Printing method
At present, RFID tag antenna printing method has been expanded from only screen printing to offset, flexo gravure printing and other printing methods currently more mature production process for screen printing and gravure printing technology. The choice of printing process printing, SIRFID tag antenna, should be from the size of the print substrate surface properties, ink adhesion performance, cost, process and other aspects of comprehensive consideration.
(1) Screen printing RFID tag antenna
Screen printing is the preferred printing method for RFID tag antennas. This is because the nickel foil perforated mesh (not by metal or nylon woven into the mesh) is more suitable for printing conductive ink whose mesh is hexagonal. Also available electrolytic forming method into a round hole shape. The entire mesh surface is flat and thin, which can greatly improve the stability and precision of the print. Screen printing RFID tag antenna has the following advantages.
- ① This is a green technology, can achieve one-step printing does not contain aggressive materials.
- ② Conductive ink can make the printed antenna more flexible.
- ③ The price of printing equipment is lowerj.
- ④ Can be printed on a variety of substrates and can print cross lines.
(2) Rubber brush RFID tag antenna
Offset printing has the advantages of high efficiency, high precision and high resolution but offset printing ink film thickness is small, which does not meet the requirements of antenna printing.
Although this can be accomplished by multiple printing, but its fine line registration control presents a new challenge.
(3) Flexographic RFID tag antennas
Flexographic printing can use water-based inks and uV-curable inks. Flexographic resolution is usually around 601/cm fine printing up to 801/cm, ink film thickness in 6-8m. More suitable for RFID tag antenna printing requirements. With the development of thin plate technology, flexographic printing accuracy continues to improve but due to the printing pressure of flexographic printing will make the plate deformation, therefore. The edge of the print part will have a print pattern. So that the antenna edge of the print is irregular. Affect the precision and impedance of the antenna, easy to produce scrap.
(4) Gravure RFID tag antenna
Gravure resolution of up to 10001/cm. ink film thickness of 8-12um. but because the printing pressure is too large. When printing RFID tag antennas there are – certain difficulties.
Inkjet printing is one of the fastest growing printing methods in recent years, its versatility is unmatched by other printing methods. This pressure-free printing method can be computer digital information directly sprayed onto any shape of the material. Its ink system is more complex. Water-based UV inks can be used. However, inkjet printing can have deviations in inkjet position, and small ink droplets can appear in blank areas, affecting print quality and producing edge effects.
Some people refer to the RFID industry as a sunrise industry, RFID tags will also gradually replace the traditional bar code labels, and will have an important impact on packaging and anti-counterfeiting printing in the next few years. For the printing field. In RFID tag production, printing technology can be used to produce RFID tag antenna, which brings new development opportunities for printing enterprises.
Source: China RFID Antenna Printing Solutions – Actility Technologies Company Limited (www.tractility.com)
Actility provides powerful security solutions for retail store management to prevent asset and property losses, improve transaction security, and provide intelligent analysis. We produce AM/EM/RFID systems, EAS tags, EAS soft tags, EAS safer, lanyards, detachers and all kinds EAS accessories products. Infrared people counter and camera people counter is available. If you want to have more information about the article or you want to share your opinion with us, contact us at [email protected]
