Effect of sintering method on the read range of brush-painted silver nanoparticle UHF RFID tags on wood and polyimide substrates

Nowadays there is an increasing interest to add functionality in various products and versatile electronics manufacturing methods are needed for different applications. In this study, brush-painting of silver nanoparticle UHF RFID tag antennas directly on wood veneer and polyimide film substrates was examined. Two sintering methods, heat and photonic sintering were tested for these antennas. According to our results, the tag antennas brushed on polyimide film showed read ranges of over 8 meters with both sintering methods. The tag antenna brushed on wood veneer did not respond after heat sintering, but showed a read range of about 2 meters after photonic sintering. The novel manufacturing process is presented and the achieved results are discussed in this paper.