Conductive Inks
RFID
Flint Sets up
Conductive Inks, RFID Unit: The new division will develop printed
RFID antennas, smart packaging and printed electronics. Conductive
Inks, RFID are critical to the use of RFID to track individual
products because they enable antennas to be printed right onto
packages, as part of the normal commercial printing process. Printed
antennas are recyclable and cost less than solid copper antennas.
Gillette, for example, says it expects to reduce the cost of RFID
tags by 20 to 40 percent by using printed antennas on its packages.
The one
drawback of printed antennas is that the performance has not been as
good as solid copper antennas, particularly for 13.56 MHz RFID tags,
which require highly conductive antennas. But Lawrence said
performance is improving for UHF tags. In addition to Conductive
Inks, RFID antennas, Flint plans to develop inks used to
create electronics for smart packaging. Lawrence
pointed to blister packs that automatically record when someone
takes a pill during a drug as an example of the kinds of
applications where conductive inks can be
applied.
What are
Conductive Inks, RFID? Conductive Inks, RFID allow electricity to
flow, letting inks act as wires, resistors or antennas. They may be
composed of finely dispersed conductive particles, or more exotic
materials such as conductive polymers. The inks are used to produce
conductive patterns on both flexible and rigid substrates.
Conductive Inks, RFID serve as antennas for RFID, receiving a
wireless flow of information from an RFID-enabled
computer.
The most
well-known application of Conductive Inks, RFID has been in circuit
boards where using etched copper is not an option. Their efforts
have been focused on using high-speed printing processes to print
antennas for RFID.
Are antennas
printed with conductive inks as powerful as traditional copper-coil
antennas? Many companies are exploring the use of inks in place of
stamped or etched metal antennas at the various frequency bands used
for RFID. It has seen that ink antennas compare favorably to copper
at ultra-high (860 MHz to 950 MHz) and microwave (2450 MHz)
frequencies. At high frequency (13.56 MHz), an additional processing
step, such as elevating temperature or electroplating, can make ink
work as well as coil antennas.
Some of the
benefits of using Conductive Inks,
RFID:
One of the
major challenges in the widespread use of RFID for retail solutions
is cost. Today, RFID tags cost between $.30 and $.60 each. For
luxury products that can easily absorb the additional $.50 per unit,
RFID is an excellent inventory-tracking device. The search for
cheaper tags, however, is critical for RFID use in lower-cost
consumer goods. A $.50 tag on a tube of toothpaste, for example, is
cost-prohibitive.
Conductive
Inks, RFID are cost-effective in two ways. The material cost of inks
can be much lower than that of traditional stamped or etched metal
antennas. Stamping and etching processes are considered subtractive,
because they discard unused metal. Since high-speed printing
processes are both fast and additive, applying a conductive ink
antenna or circuit can be significantly cheaper and faster than the
alternatives.
Conductive
Inks, RFID have traditionally been applied using screen printing. As
a member of the Auto-ID Center, they are actively
working with leading technology companies specializing in offset
lithography, flexography, gravure and screen printing for
conductive-ink applications. In January, Flint signed an
exclusive agreement with R.T. Circuits to license its lithography
technology for printing conductive inks. This is an important
development because they expect many companies, particularly
large-scale retailers, to ask suppliers to put RFID tags on products
before shipping them.
Conductive
Inks, RFID, which contain particles of conductive silver and/or
carbon, can serve as channels for the wireless flow of electronic
signals. The most well-known application for conductive inks is in
antennas for RFID, a next-generation coding technology. Conductive
inks are also used in "smart" labeling and packaging applications.
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