Medical Device Link.

TRACK AND TRACE

Today, printing a product code usually involves marking a label or package with a bar code. But tomorrow, you could be printing electronic product codes (EPCs) in the form of a radio-frequency identification (RFID) tag.

Tagsys prints a secondary antenna in its Gen2 AK tag using conductive ink.

Some experts predict that in 2016, billions of RFID tags will be printed, mostly on labels but some directly on products and packaging without the need for a label, reports Peter Harrop, chairman of IDTechEx. The company organizes such events as Active RFID Summit in Atlanta, November 14–15, and Printed Electronics USA in Phoenix, December 5–6. The firm has also produced the report, “RFID in Healthcare 2006–2016.”

“Printed electronics will increasingly be the most cost-effective way of making packages prompt, record which tablet was removed when, be individually identified at high speed even when obscured, and be protected against counterfeiting by automatic record keeping of where it is destined and from whence it came,” says Harrop.

Robert Nolan, principal of NanoMarkets, says that printable electronics are likely to have a “critical impact on the smart-packaging market over the coming decade.” In the report, “Smart Packaging Markets 2006–2013,” the market research firm states that “RFID antennas are currently being printed, but not yet the circuitry, which is mainly created using low-end silicon semiconductor technology.”

Harrop adds that RFID antennas, which were “previously made from etched copper or punched foil, can now be printed for all UHF and microwave and some HF tags where range is not critical.”

“New, finer, silver conducting ink for sensors and interconnects can now be used in rapid lithography, flexography, and gravure printing,” says Harrop. “Semiconducting and dielectric inks are being developed by the German chemical company Merck and others.”

For instance, Parelec Inc. (Rocky Hill, NJ) offers its conductive inks for printing RFID antennas using several printing methods, including gravure, flexography, rotary screen, and screen printing, says Geva Barash, CEO. “We are also looking at digital printing for the future,” he says. Parelec is working with Hyan Microelectronics Company, Ltd. (Shenzhen, China), to design a smart label that features a breakable paper base tag printed with a silver antenna.

Tagsys is using printed technology in its Gen2 Adaptive Kernel tag, says Ken Reich, director, marketing and public relations. “We are printing a secondary antenna using conductive inks virtually on any paper stock or packaging material to achieve furthered application flexibility in the ultra-high-frequency ‘The Package is the Tag’ solution,” he explains.” The adaptive antenna allows the tag to become an integral part of the packaging, and it is fully adaptable to a variety of shapes, sizes, and materials, states the firm in a press release.

Harrop says there are several benefits to printed RFID antennas: “They cost less and are more robust, thinner, and more damage tolerant than silicon chips. They can be codeposited with other components such as displays, capacitors, batteries, etc., that will not fit on a silicon chip and therefore would need costly, failure-prone connections if silicon chips are employed.”

The Global Specialty Papers business of Stora Enso has partnered with Parelec to provide RFID antenna paper substrates. This exclusive partnership allows customers to acquire RFID antenna technology manufactured with Stora Enso’s specialty papers and Parelec’s Parmod conductive inks through Parelec’s certified RFID printers.

Joe Briganti, business innovations manager for technical papers at Stora Enso Specialty Papers, says, “the future of low-cost RFID must include printed antennas and eventually printed electronics. We believe that paper will be the substrate of choice, given its versatility, low cost, and sustainable environmental properties. We believe that specially coated papers will be required to achieve optimum performance with the conductive inks and for environmental stability of the finished label.”

Printing antennas as opposed to etching them may also have some environmental benefits, Barash explains. “When antennas are etched using copper, for instance, that hazardous copper etching waste is generated and must be discarded,” he says. Some regulators are frowning on that waste. In Europe, for instance, the Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS) Directive limits the use of six hazardous materials in electronics manufacturing, making RFID tag purchasers wary of etching processes. And California has passed the Electronic Waste Recycling Act of 2003 that bans the sale of electronic devices listed in RoHS after January 1, 2007.

Printing antennas, however, circumvents such waste and may only involve the waste associated with typical printing processes.

When asked whether RFID tags with printed antennas are easier to apply on packaging lines or more durable than traditional ones, Harrop says that “one packaging test is hitting it with a hammer. Try that with a chip!”

Barash says that his firm is printing RFID antennas directly onto corrugated boxes, which he says “paves the road ahead toward the future of printing on other paperboard packaging, including cartons and paper bottle cap inserts.” However he says that printing directly to plastic primary containers such as bottles would be extremely difficult. “You would have to have one process handle everything to make it cost effective, and that is pretty hard given the other steps needed, such as curing,” he says. Foreseeable is the label converter printing its own RFID tags, but even that may “not be easy,” he says.

To take printing one step further, some companies are working toward fully printable RFIDs using organic materials or silver inks. Some will be suitable for high-speed printing of replacements for the silicon chip in labels and packaging within 10 years, Harrop explains. Indeed, 60 organizations are developing printed transistor circuits.

Researchers at IBM are working on the fundamental processes that may be used to enable the printing of organic semiconductors, reports Paul Moskowitz. “These could be used in RFID tags for any application, including pharmaceuticals.”

Some RFID technology providers are waiting for printed electronics to develop further. “Printed electronics is not a mature technology in Magellan’s opinion for the RFID systems that Magellan provides,” says Ken Laing, vice president of marketing and business development for Magellan Technology Pty. Ltd. “The cost-benefit potential of printed electronics is very much overshadowed if the system needs to provide speed and range.”

Still, Harrop believes that printed electronics “will ultimately replace bar codes, even on OTC pharma, and be printed directly onto packaging and products like 85% of bar codes today.”