Printing of UHF modulators on embedded silicon in semi-passive RFID

Conference: Smart Systems Integration 2008 - 2nd European Conference & Exhibition on Integration Issues of Miniaturized Systems - MOMS, MOEMS, ICS and Electronic Components
04/09/2008 - 04/10/2008 at Barcelona, Spain

Proceedings: Smart Systems Integration 2008

Pages: 8Language: englishTyp: PDF

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Authors:
Nilsson, H-E.; Mattsson, C. G.; Sidén, J.; Geyer, U. (ITM, Mid Sweden Unviersity, Sundsvall, Sweden)

Abstract:
In the following work we present a study on printed Schottky diodes as UHF modulators in semi-passive RFID solutions. In our approach we have used embedded silicon as a substrate on which we print the UHF device. Silicon is one of the most common materials in nature and unprocessed silicon wafers can be considered as a low cost material in comparison to many other materials. The thin silicon structures are embedded in a flexible substrate and the actual device is formed by printing different types of contact inks direct on the silicon structures. The printed modulators are designed to be used in a demonstrator RFID tag with a printed battery, a printed antenna and a silicon digital ID generator working at 30 kHz. The lack of high speed and low voltage printed digital technology prevents us from doing a fully printed RFID tag demonstration. However, the ID generator needed is working at low frequencies and fully printed UHF RFID tags should be possible in the future. A first version of the final RFID tag demonstrator has been evaluated using the TagMasters 2.45 GHz RFID reader and a reading range of 3 meters has been demonstrated.