SBIR Phase I: Low Cost Screen Printable RFID Antenna

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.