Printing technology is involved in the manufacture of RFID tags, which will be a very beneficial attempt. With the continuous in-depth study of printing process parameters and the continuous improvement of conductive ink formulations, printing technology will definitely play an important role in the manufacture of RFID tags.
RFID tags, or radio frequency identification tags, are a type of smart card. RFID is a kind of identification method that uses wireless radio frequency for non-contact two-way communication. It appeared during the Second World War, began to be used in the 1970s, and began to be used on a large scale in the 1990s. Technology has been widely used in all areas of our lives, such as the simplest access control card, bus ride card, campus card and so on. In the application of RFID technology in the retail industry, a widely recognized model is the "future store" model.
In the store of the future, all goods are affixed with RFID tags. There are two places where customers come into contact with RFID technology in stores: so-called smart shelves and smart checkout counters. Smart shelves are equipped with RFID tag scanners on the shelves, which can automatically prompt the goods to leave the rack and place the wrong position, to solve the problem of timely replenishment and correct delivery; the traditional cash register no longer exists in the store, but is Smart cash register replaced. The smart cash register can be realized by a screen installed at the exit of the RFID tag scanner. When the customer's trolley passes through the screen, all purchases in the vehicle are scanned instantly, and the intelligent cash register automatically transfers the total cost of all goods from the customer's credit card. This makes it easy for customers to check out, and no longer has to wait in line at the traditional cash register for a long time.
1. Cost barriers of RFID tags
From the above application mode, we can see that RFID tags bring us more convenient and efficient consumer life. However, there is still a long way to go before RFID tags are attached to every product. One of the bottlenecks here is the relatively high cost of RFID tags. For now, the cost of each label has fallen below $ 1, reaching 20-70 cents. This does not matter for high-priced products, but for many low-priced products such as toothbrushes and pencils, it will be regarded as a cost barrier. Therefore, to fully promote RFID tags, the manufacturing cost of the tags should be reduced on the premise of ensuring the performance of the tags.
Second, the advantages of printing technology in label cost
RFlD tags can be divided into three major categories: passive RFID tags, semi-active RFID tags and active RFID tags. The RFID tags on retail packaging are generally passive RFID. It is a passive RFID tag because it needs to accept the reader to emit electromagnetic signals, induce current, and then send electromagnetic signals to the reader to achieve label and reading. Information transfer between devices. The structure of such tags is generally: substrate, chip and built-in antenna (coil). Current coil manufacturing methods include: copper wire winding method, chemical etching method, electroplating method and direct printing method. Among these four methods, the direct printing method is worth developing, because this method has the advantages of high-speed printing of antennas and low cost of consumables, which can significantly reduce the cost of RFID tags.
Third, the driving force of conductive ink
In the direct printing antenna technology, conductive ink is an important driving force. Without the development of conductive inks, there would be no application of printing technology in the manufacture of RFID tags. Conductive inks are composed of easily conductive particles, resins or more special raw materials, such as conductive polymers. After the conductive ink is printed on the substrate and dried, the distance between the conductive particles becomes smaller, and free electrons move in the direction of the applied electric field to form a current, which has good conductive properties, so that the ink acts as an antenna. The quality of the ink is of great significance for improving the conductivity and reducing the ink consumption. A good conductive ink formulation requires good printability. After printing, it has the characteristics of strong adhesion, low resistivity, low curing temperature, and stable conductive properties.
4. Research on direct printed antenna technology
At present, the method of directly printing antennas is still in the research stage. When printing the antenna of RFID tags, the antenna coils of RFID tags with different operating frequencies will correspond to different turns, coil thickness and the distance between each turn (for example: HF band uses 13.56MHz chip, usually it requires The number of coil turns is 6, and the thickness is about 20μm. UHF band uses 868MHz and 950MHz chips, and the coil cross-section thickness is about 4μm.), So the thickness of the printed ink layer, the width of each line and the graphic contour after drying Strict tolerance range (for example: the error of two overlapping overprints must be within 0.1mm). When studying the direct printing antenna using the silk screen method, the following beneficial experience is obtained: the hexagonal hole shape is used for the mesh, which is conducive to the complete transfer of conductive ink; the conductive ink is better to use solvent-based ink; and the excellent ink drying conditions are created (For example: reduce the wind speed in the oven, the heating temperature is 140 ℃, the heating time is between 30 seconds and 120 seconds), which is conducive to the accurate shaping of the printed coil pattern contour.
At present, a rotary screen printing equipment company in Switzerland has manufactured a dedicated production line for smart label printing. In the study of direct printing of RFID tags in the gravure printing method at the Stuttgart University of Media, Germany, the following beneficial conclusions were obtained: the best plate-making method is the electronic engraving method using diamond, and the resolution is selected at 5080dpi. At this time, there are almost no jagged edges, and the required units can be accurately transmitted; the image file format required for front-end platemaking uses a bitmap format, so that the graphic information is not easy to lose; for the structure of the dot, a special different from the traditional Open type of net hole. If the traditional mesh is used, the mesh between the mesh will divide the conductive ink and cannot form a coherent path; the open mesh will not only retain the mesh wall but also easily solve the problem of dividing the ink on the mesh wall. Printing technology is involved in the manufacture of RFID tags, which will be a very beneficial attempt. With the continuous in-depth study of printing process parameters and the continuous improvement of conductive ink formulations, printing technology will definitely play an important role in the manufacture of RFID tags.
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