Influence of printing material and printing ink layer on RFID antenna operation

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) enables non-contact quick and easy data transferring through electromagnetic waves in the radio frequency range. The technology of RFID tags in the clothing and the textile industry is not commonly used yet, however, it enables the tracing of materials or textile products from their creation to sale, the identification of textiles and their protection against theft. In the research, the possibility of using of functional screen printing technique with an electrically conductive printing ink based on silver particles for the printing of passive RFID tags on textile material is showed. For printing, the two textile materials; polyester woven fabric, lyocell nonwoven textile and comparatively paper were used. The suitability of the selected textile materials for the printing of electronic structures for working passive UHF-RFID tags was tested. As a reference printing material that enables a high-quality print of electrically conductive structures, paper was used. The electrical conductivity of conductive patterns printed on textile materials and paper was measured, the quality of the prints and their abrasion resistance were assessed and the read range of the RFID tags on different printing materials was checked. It was found out that the best electrical conductivity of the prints was achieved on paper and slightly less electrically conductive prints were on the lyocell nonwoven textile. The RFID antennas printed on lyocell had the same range of operation, i.e. 150 cm from the receiving antenna of the reader, as the prints on paper. On the polyester fabric, it was not formed such an uniform layer of electrically conductive printing ink as on the lyocell nonwoven textile, therefore the prints on polyester were less electrically conductive and the printed RFID antennas operated at a shorter distance, only 60 cm from the receiving antenna of the reader. The abrasion resistance of the surfaces of printed RFID antennas was poor on all printing materials, because the ink transferred from the prints to the rubbed samples; the worst surface-resistant were prints on the lyocell. © 2018, University of Ljubljana. All rights reserved.