Applicability of metallic nanoparticle inks in RFID applications

Mark Allen, Kaarle Jaakkola, Kaj Nummila, Heikki Seppä

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleScientificpeer-review

49 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Radio frequency identification (RFID) antennas for HF and UHF frequencies are ink-jet printed using commercially available silver nanoparticle ink. Quality factors of 5.3 and 9.4 are obtained for coil antennas targeted for 13.56 MHz when the printing and sintering process is repeated two and three times, respectively. The measured maximum effective aperture of the printed UHF antenna is only some decibels lower than that of an equivalent etched copper antenna and the maximum reading distance with 0.5 W (ERP) transmitted power is 3 m for continuous reading. These results suggest that obtaining a low enough series resistance for printed coils is challenging while printed RFID antennas for UHF do not set as strict requirements on conductivity. With a perfectly optimized structure, a UHF tag antenna printed in just one layer of ink can be practically equal in performance with the traditional etched copper and aluminum tags.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)325-332
Number of pages8
JournalIEEE Transactions on Components and Packaging Technologies
Volume32
Issue number2
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2009
MoE publication typeA1 Journal article-refereed

Keywords

  • Ink-jet
  • Nanoparticle ink
  • Printed antenna
  • Radio frequency identification (RFID)

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