Microwave

Engineering

Fabrication

Materials science

Inkwell

Radio frequency

Telecommunications

Ultra high frequency

Computer science

Substrate (aquarium)

Geology

Inkjet printing

Oceanography

Alternative medicine

Microstrip

Nanotechnology

Dielectric

Electronic engineering

Resonator

Composite material

Medicine

Wireless

Band-pass filter

Optoelectronics

Electrical engineering

Pathology

Permittivity

IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques

In this paper, inkjet-printed UHF and microwave circuits fabricated on paper substrates are investigated for the first time as an approach that aims for a system-level solution for fast and ultra-low-cost mass production. First, the RF characteristics of the paper substrate are studied by using the microstrip ring resonator in order to characterize the relative permittivity (epsiv <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">r</sub> ) and loss tangent (tan delta) of the substrate at the UHF band for the first time reported. A UHF RFID tag module is then developed with the inkjet-printing technology, proving this approach could function as an enabling technology for much simpler and faster fabrication on/in paper. Simulation and well-agreed measurement results, which show very good agreement, verify a good performance of the tag module. In addition, the possibility of multilayer RF structures on a paper substrate is explored, and a multilayer patch resonator bandpass filter demonstrates the feasibility of ultra-low-cost 3-D paper-on-paper RF/wireless structures.

RFID Tag and RF Structures on a Paper Substrate Using Inkjet-Printing Technology