What are the manufacturing processes of RFID antenna
Time：2021-09-28 15:50:01 Author：Suzhou Cowin Antenna Electronics Click：
1、 The importance of RFID antenna to RFID system
In the process of wireless communication, antenna is an essential component. RFID uses radio waves to transmit information. The generation and reception of radio waves need to be completed through antennas. When the electronic tag enters the working area of the reader antenna, the electronic tag antenna will generate enough induced current to obtain energy and be activated. For RFID system, antenna is a crucial part, which is closely related to the performance of the system.
For example, in a warehouse management project, the cost of RFID antenna accounts for less than 1% of the total cost. However, if the RFID antenna with poor performance is selected in order to blindly reduce the cost or other reasons, there will be problems such as unstable reading, missing reading, serial reading, reading failure and so on. In this case, the cost will not be reduced, but will increase several times. Therefore, when deploying RFID system, we need to pay attention to RFID antenna.
2、 Three main processes of RFID antenna manufacturing
In order to meet the different requirements of RFID performance parameters in different application scenarios, the manufacturing processes of various rfid antennas have emerged. At present, the most commonly used RFID antenna manufacturing processes mainly include coil winding method, etching method and printing method.
(1) Coil winding method
When making RFID tag antenna with coil winding method, the tag coil should be wound on a winding tool and fixed. The number of turns of the antenna coil is required to be large. The coil can be either circular or rectangular. This method is generally used for RFID tags in the frequency range of 125 to 134khz. The disadvantages of making antenna by this processing method are obvious, which can be summarized as high cost, low production efficiency, poor consistency of processed products and so on.
(2) Etching method
Etching method often uses copper or aluminum to make RFID antenna, which is close to the etching process of flexible printed circuit board. Etching method can be applied to mass manufacture of electronic labels with 13.56MHz and UHF bandwidth. It has the advantages of fine circuit, low resistivity, good weather resistance, stable signal and so on. However, the disadvantages of this method are also obvious, such as cumbersome production procedures, low production capacity and so on.
(3) Printing method
Printed antenna is a circuit that directly uses conductive ink to print conductive lines on an insulating substrate to form an antenna. The main printing methods have been expanded from screen printing to offset printing, flexographic printing, gravure printing and other production methods. The printing method is suitable for mass production of 13.56MHz and RFID UHF electronic tags. It is characterized by fast production speed, but its application range is limited due to the large resistance of the circuit formed by conductive ink. Due to the progress of printed antenna technology, the cost of RFID tag antenna is effectively reduced, which promotes the popularization of RFID application.
In the process of wireless communication, antenna is an essential component. RFID uses radio waves to transmit information. The generation and reception of radio waves need to be completed through antennas. When the electronic tag enters the working area of the reader antenna, the electronic tag antenna will generate enough induced current to obtain energy and be activated. For RFID system, antenna is a crucial part, which is closely related to the performance of the system.
For example, in a warehouse management project, the cost of RFID antenna accounts for less than 1% of the total cost. However, if the RFID antenna with poor performance is selected in order to blindly reduce the cost or other reasons, there will be problems such as unstable reading, missing reading, serial reading, reading failure and so on. In this case, the cost will not be reduced, but will increase several times. Therefore, when deploying RFID system, we need to pay attention to RFID antenna.
2、 Three main processes of RFID antenna manufacturing
In order to meet the different requirements of RFID performance parameters in different application scenarios, the manufacturing processes of various rfid antennas have emerged. At present, the most commonly used RFID antenna manufacturing processes mainly include coil winding method, etching method and printing method.
(1) Coil winding method
When making RFID tag antenna with coil winding method, the tag coil should be wound on a winding tool and fixed. The number of turns of the antenna coil is required to be large. The coil can be either circular or rectangular. This method is generally used for RFID tags in the frequency range of 125 to 134khz. The disadvantages of making antenna by this processing method are obvious, which can be summarized as high cost, low production efficiency, poor consistency of processed products and so on.
(2) Etching method
Etching method often uses copper or aluminum to make RFID antenna, which is close to the etching process of flexible printed circuit board. Etching method can be applied to mass manufacture of electronic labels with 13.56MHz and UHF bandwidth. It has the advantages of fine circuit, low resistivity, good weather resistance, stable signal and so on. However, the disadvantages of this method are also obvious, such as cumbersome production procedures, low production capacity and so on.
(3) Printing method
Printed antenna is a circuit that directly uses conductive ink to print conductive lines on an insulating substrate to form an antenna. The main printing methods have been expanded from screen printing to offset printing, flexographic printing, gravure printing and other production methods. The printing method is suitable for mass production of 13.56MHz and RFID UHF electronic tags. It is characterized by fast production speed, but its application range is limited due to the large resistance of the circuit formed by conductive ink. Due to the progress of printed antenna technology, the cost of RFID tag antenna is effectively reduced, which promotes the popularization of RFID application.