Inkjet printed paper based frequency selective surfaces and skin mounted RFID tags: the interrelation between silver nanoparticle ink, paper substrate and low temperature sintering technique

Abstract

Inkjet printing of functional frequency selective surfaces (FSS) and radio frequency identification (RFID) tags on commercial paper substrates using silver nanoparticle inks sintered using low temperature thermal, plasma and photonic techniques is reported. Printed and sintered FSS devices demonstrate performances which achieve wireless communication requirements having a forward transmission scattering parameter, S₂₁, depth greater than −20 dB at 13 GHz. Printed and plasma sintered RFID tags on transfer paper, which are capable of being mounted on skin, improved read distances compared to previously reported single layer transfer RFID tags fabricated by conventional thermal sintering.