Printing: The way to produce smart RFID tags in the future

Screen printing is one of the oldest printing technologies and it has been used for printing labels for a long time. Now, it is also used as a better way to print silver ink on smart tag RFID antennas. The pattern of these silver inks is associated with a silicon chip or SAW chip (surface acoustic wave chip, less common) in the tag.

RFID and SAW chips are produced using photolithographic technology, but this technology is gradually being replaced by printed transistor circuits. Most of the latter are still in the experimental stage, and some have entered the stage of experimental production. For example, the British company Plastic Logic has adopted inkjet and spin coating technologies. However, Canadian X-INK Corporation and several other companies have introduced new types of finer, more conductive inks that can use flexographic, offset, and other high-speed printing methods to produce RFID antennas. Insulating or semiconducting inks supplied by U.S. pottery chemical companies, etc. will replace silicon chips with printed transistor circuits. Originally, they used the ink jet method to print, and later used other printing methods such as flexography, gravure, and the like. If these inks and technologies can really enter the practical stage, we will have a new method of automatic identification of goods - RFID.

Why RFID tags will rise?

RFID uses radio frequency or related technologies to read data from very small devices (such as tags), with little or no obstruction or directionality. It can also read multiple data at once. You can hide them in a tag while still reading the data automatically. You can also have 1,000 such tags go through an electronic reader, which can read the data in a blink of an eye. take out. This means that RFID can gradually replace bar codes, anti-theft tags, anti-counterfeiting features and other similar functions. It only needs one tag with RFID, and it is estimated that the market potential can be trillions of dollars each year.

History is always repeating whether you need or need such a label. Long ago, the bar code was printed on the label, but now almost all of the bar code is directly printed on the package as part of the packaging or product graphics. RFID will repeat this process. Today's market is the market for RFID tags, although the largest orders are owned by Texas Instruments, Alien Technology and Matrics, and Hitachi, Japan instead of traditional label companies. Symbol Technologies has now acquired Matrics. Most of Symbol's businesses are focused on barcode systems and are currently adding new business scope. The same is true of leading global label providers such as Avery Dennison, Rafsec, Dai Nippon Printing and Toppan Printing. It is estimated that these companies may launch RFID tags that are truly suitable for high-volume applications next year, and may even exceed the millions of outputs that the electronics companies mentioned above have. They will not just put RFID bare chips bought from others into their own labels. This method can only add little value. They will do almost everything themselves.

10-year boom of RFID tags
The label industry will have about 10 years to develop the prosperous RFID label market, but then things will start another cycle. Just like the bar code that entered the mature period, most of the RFID will be directly printed on the products and packaging. At this time, the RFID tag market began to disappear.

Prompt validity label
Fortunately, many other new label markets will also emerge in the next decade. If you can prompt the use of effective self-adjusting labels. Currently, such labels are non-electronic, relying on color-changing compounds to indicate the expiration date, and of course not displaying a date at all. These time indicators (Time Temperature Indicators, TTI) may not be accurate enough, there will be inconsistencies between batches and batches, and the effects of light and humidity will also be biased. Although their cost is very low, one only needs a few cents, but soon their sales will reach $1 billion/year. They do not show a clear warning over a large area, usually only a small change in color.

Electronic reminder period label
Now consider the electronic reminder validity label that has not yet been born. In its initial form, it will be a label that will monitor the product's time period and display the word “expired” at the appropriate time. Then, a more advanced form is that when you put milk in the sun, its validity period is automatically subtracted from the appropriate value. It can be used with RFID, but it is not required. This printed display may also be used for other purposes, such as displaying clear instructional information in large, even luminous fonts. However, while companies such as KSW Microtec and Infratab are using similar labels (using large size displays, RFID, and more detection points, etc.) to open up the market, a large number of opportunities still exist in terms of the effective period of prompt, mass-produced units. It costs only a few cents. Someone will open up a new label market with great potential. For sensitive products such as pharmaceuticals, labels that may indicate the validity period may become legal requirements.

Then, the prompt validity function developed to the mature stage can be directly printed on the product or package, eliminating the need for a label as a carrier. This development cycle is somewhat similar to bar codes and RFID tags. The good news is that there will always be another label market. For example, Arla Foods, the largest dairy company in Europe, is currently experimenting with a milk carton. When you put this box in the sun, it emits a sound "Please put me back in the fridge."

Author: Peter Harrop PhD

Reprinted from: International Packaging Printing Processing