The Effects of ESD in Multiple Testing Environments on Adhesive-Label RFID Tags

The purpose of this study was to determine the ESD susceptibility of commercially available label-enclosed RFID tags. Six different types of adhesive labels with RFID transponders were subjected to ESD in different testing environments. Initial data shows that most of the tags were sufficiently protected from fairly large discharges by their covering material. The magnitude of discharge and distance of the discharge to the IC did not have the expected effects on the tags. Instead, the presence of a ground plane and low label resistance were correlated to larger damage rates. The type of antenna and IC also played a role in susceptibility.