Comparison between the characteristics of screen and flexographic printing for RFID applications

Abstract

© MIDEM Society. In this paper, we investigated and compared the characteristics of novel smart card RFID antennas which were printed using two different fabrication technologies: industrial screen printing and industrial flexographic printing. After the printing process, the drying processes were optimized separately for each of the printing techniques in order to achieve optimal performances for the proposed antennas. The characteristics of the antenna were analysed by measuring several parameters such as resistance, backscattered power, antenna impedance and return loss. The effect of the lamination process on the readability and operability of the final cards were analysed in detail. The possibility of using the printing processes in the realization of RFID antennas was investigated in terms of fabrication speed, and repeatability of the printing. We have proved that industrial screen printing and flexographic printing techniques can be used equally well for producing RFID smart cards. Flexographic printing has proved to be a faster solution, but screen printing has shown higher repeatability.