SBIR Phase I: Low Cost Screen Printable RFID Antenna

这项小型企业创新研究第一阶段研究计划将开发一种用于射频识别(RFID)天线应用的可打印导电油墨。目前，大多数RFID天线都是蚀刻的或线线圈，要么是铜，要么是铝，由绕线的铜线或涂有铜的蚀刻薄膜制成。这些需要昂贵的工艺来形成天线。此外，目前的天线很脆弱，很容易损坏，使得RFID标签毫无用处。用于丝网印刷工艺的银色油墨也很昂贵，因为它含有贵重的金属，存在环境问题，而且缺乏性能。这项工作的目标是开发一种可用于廉价丝网印刷工艺的高导电性油墨。然后将这种油墨涂在适当的衬底上，以制造和测试柔性RFID天线。这些RFID天线的成本预计将比可比的铜天线低约90%，这将鼓励人们采用RFID技术，并提高RFID技术在各种识别和跟踪应用中的可靠性。应用包括高频标签天线、读取器(从小到大)感应器天线、RF空中接口增强和无源场聚焦耦合器、无芯片天线调谐巴伦(平衡/非平衡)电路和无芯片可打印RFID。这将导致更换成本更高的铜质天线，以及性能优于银色墨水天线的天线。在需要低成本和可靠性的情况下进行商业应用，例如可能跟踪文档和机密信息。

This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I research proposal will develop a printable conductive ink for Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) antenna applications. Currently, most RFID antennas are etched or wire coil, either copper or aluminum, made by wire winding copper wire or etching films that have had copper applied to them. These require expensive processes to form the antenna. In addition, current antennas are fragile and susceptible to breakage, rendering the RFID tag useless. Silver inks, used for screen printable processes, are also expensive because of the valuable metal, present environmental problems, and lack performance. The objective of this work is to develop a highly conductive ink that can be used in an inexpensive screen printable process. This ink will then be applied to an appropriate substrate to fabricate and test flexible RFID antennas. These RFID antennas are expected to be cost about 90% less than comparable copper antennas, encouraging the adoption and improving the reliability of RFID technology for a wide variety of identification and tracking applications. Applications include high frequency tag antennas, reader (small to large) inductor antennas, RF air interface enhancements and passive field focusing couplers, chipless antenna tuning balun (balanced / unbalanced) circuits, and chipless printable RFID. This will result in replacement of higher-cost copper antennas and one that will out perform the silver ink antennas. Commercial applications in situations where low cost and reliability are desirable, such as tracking documents and confidential information are likely.