Comparative Study of Inkjet and Thermal Printing for Fabrication of Passive UHF RFID Tags

Rizwan, M., Kutty, A. A., Kgwadi, M., Drysdale, T. D., Ukkonen, L. and Virkki, J. (2016) Comparative Study of Inkjet and Thermal Printing for Fabrication of Passive UHF RFID Tags. In: 10th European Conference on Antennas and Propagation (EuCAP 2016), Davos, Switzerland, 10-15 Apr 2016, ISBN 9788890701863 (doi: 10.1109/EuCAP.2016.7481956)

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Abstract

The need for novel substrate materials and optimized additive manufacturing methods is growing fast as new applications are developed constantly, especially along the emerging paradigm of the Internet of Things. This paper presents a comparison of thermal and inkjet printing for the fabrication of passive UHF RFID tag antennas on commonly used polyimide (Kapton) and on novel polyester-based substrate (Flexcon THERMLfilm) materials. The optimized printing parameters are studied for both substrates using thermal-printed aluminum and inkjet-printed silver materials. Two different tag antenna designs are printed using both methods and their performance is evaluated through wireless tag measurements. According to the measurement results, both printing methods can be used to effectively fabricate passive UHF RFID tag antennas. In addition, the ease of fabrication, the flexibility of printing parameters, and the compatibility with different substrate materials of the two printing methods are studied and discussed in this paper.

Item Type:Conference Proceedings
Additional Information:This research was done as part of the European Commission Marie Curie IRSES project "AdvIOT". The research work was supported by the Academy of Finland, Emil Aaltonen Foundation and TEKES.
Status:Published
Refereed:Yes
Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID:Kgwadi, Monageng
Authors: Rizwan, M., Kutty, A. A., Kgwadi, M., Drysdale, T. D., Ukkonen, L., and Virkki, J.
College/School:College of Science and Engineering > School of Engineering > Electronics and Nanoscale Engineering
ISSN:2164-3342
ISBN:9788890701863
Published Online:02 June 2016

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