Programmable Organic Chipless RFID Tags Inkjet Printed on Paper Substrates

• Published in: Applied sciences Vol. 11; no. 17; p. 7832
• Main Authors: Moras, Miquel, Martínez-Domingo, Carme, Escudé, Roger, Herrojo, Cristian, Paredes, Ferran, Terés, Lluís, Martín, Ferran, Ramon, Eloi
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Basel MDPI AG 01-09-2021
• Subjects: authentication; Cellulose; chipless RFID; Conductivity; Electronics; Inkjet printing; Manufacturing; Manufacturing industry; Market penetration; Near fields; organic inks; Polyethylene; printed electronics; Questioning; Radio frequency identification; Screen printing; secure paper; Substrates; Tags; Transistors; Transmission lines; Viscosity
• ISSN: 2076-3417; 2076-3417
• DOI: 10.3390/app11177832

In this paper, an organic, fully recyclable and eco-friendly 20-bit inkjet-printed chipless RFID tag is presented. The tag operates in the near field and is implemented by means of chains of resonant elements. The characterization and manufacturing process of the tag, printed with a few layers of a commercial organic ink on conventional paper substrate (DIN A4), are presented, and tag functionality is demonstrated by reading it by means of a custom-designed reader. The tags are read by proximity (through the near field), by displacing them over a resonator-loaded transmission line, and each resonant element (bit) of the tag is interrogated by a harmonic signal tuned to the resonance frequency. The coupling between the reader line and the resonant elements of the tag produce and amplitude modulated (AM) signal containing the identification (ID) code of the tag.