U N I V E R S I T Y O F S O U T H F L O R I D AU N I V E R S I T Y O F S O U T H F L O R I D A

“Development and Design of Printed Electronics with Focus on RFID Systems for Transmission of Data and Impedance Variance Sensors”

Federico Diamante, Robert Donatto, Vinicio Carias, Michael Grady , Dr. Thomas WellerElectrical Engineering: Wireless and Microwave Information Systems Group (WAMI)

Abstract

Acknowledgments

Reference

Methodology & Equipment

Future Work

Motivation

Electronic circuits are costly and time consuming to manufacture. However, the future of printable electronics looks promising with the ability to develop state of the art electronics at a reasonable price efficiently. The purpose of this research is to investigate alternative ways to produce reliable and inexpensive integrated circuits. Various developmental testing consists of using silver nano-particles (also called quantum dots) submerged on a water base solution ink to be printed via ink jet printers. The silver print will act as transmission lines between components as well as the conductive material for intricate antenna designs. Our current research consists of testing materials for accurate design on different CAD software, with a short term goal to simulate and construct different types of circuits. While our long term goals include the design and construction of a three-dimension printer that will incorporate the production of the substrate as well as the printing of an embedded circuit. The printed electronics technology is a new and untested territory and there is some research being done on the development of sensors and antennas and our goal is to expand the knowledge and to test its boundaries. Current design concepts will be focused on a RFID tag which can transmit data via printed antenna. The future of printed electronics will be an on demand instant delivery of any products that employ electrical components. In the future a printed electronics technology will allow the manufacture of electronic devices such as television or personal computer, all from a small work station from the home or office.

Results [1] Bieber, Jay. "Hitachi S-800 Scanning Electron Microscope NREC User’s Manual." 2008. MS. University of South Florida, Tampa. Nano Technology Research Center. NREC, 27 June 2012. Web. 30 July 2012. <ftp://ftp.nrec.usf.edu/Hitachi%20S%20800%20Manual%20rev%2006272012.pdf>.[2] DIY 3D Printer: Straight Out of Science Fiction Into Your Basement. Digital image.Technabob. Range, 14 Dec. 2010. Web. 30 July 2012. <http://technabob.com/blog/2010/12/14/diy-3d-printer/>.[3] Lee, Hsien-Hsueh, Kan-Sen Chou, and Kuo-Cheng Huang. "Inkjet Printing of Nanosized Silver Colloids." Nanotechnology 16 (2005): 2436-440. Web. 30 July 2012. <http://www.hpcnet.org/upload/directory/materials/18931_20090430001319.pdf>.[4]Pranonsatit, S.; Worasawate, D.; Sritanavut, P.; , "Affordable Ink-Jet Printed Antennas for RFID Applications," Components, Packaging and Manufacturing Technology, IEEE Transactions on , vol.2, no.5, pp.878-883, May 2012[5]Won-Seok Lee; Kyoung-Sub Oh; Jong-Won Yu; , "Design of spiral-shaped UHF near-field reader antenna for RFID applications," Intelligent Radio for Future Personal Terminals (IMWS-IRFPT), 2011 IEEE MTT-S International Microwave Workshop Series on , vol., no., pp.1-2, 24-25 Aug. 2011[6]Yang, Li, Amin Rida, Rushi Vyas, Vasileios Lakafosis, and Guilia Orecchini. "Printed Electronics." Athena. Georgia Institute of Technology, 2006. Web. 30 July 2012. <http://www.athena-gatech.org/research/PRINTED%20ELECTRONICS/index.html>.

National Science Foundation Sustainable Energy Alternatives and the Advanced Materials (SEAM) REU, Nanomaterials and Nanomanufacturing Research Center (NREC), Dr. Thomas Weller, Vinicio Carias, Michael Grady, Dr. Kuhn, Dr. Takshi, Dr. Sylvia Thomas..

6.452.541.271.0160.30480.152.40

0.05

0.1

0.15

Conductivity

Width (mm)

Con

duct

ivity

1/Ω

Printed Silver (Ag) transmission lines present high resistivity at smaller widths.

ADS design of loop dipole antenna using printed Silver parameters.

Printed Antenna

ADS Antenna

Developing and programming 3-D printer.• Build a three axis printer based on

Sanguino(Arduino platform) and step motor controllers

Designing perpendicular diverse antennas.• Archimedean Spiral Antenna &

Dipole Antenna on ADS.• Orient one antenna on X-axis, and

other on Y-axis. Generate a 3-D printed antenna.

• 2nd antenna picks up the other antenna’s null areas

• High degree of orientation insensitivity

Implement antennas with RFID tag to transmit data to RFID reader• High Bandwidth• Circular polarization• High efficiency

Silver nano-particles dissolved in water solution

Empty ink cartridges are filled with Silver ink

Empty ink cartridges

Cartridges are inserted on Epson R2000 printer

3D Printer parts

[5]Archimedean Spiral Antenna

[4]Dipole Antenna

Since printing electronics requires the use of a special type of ink, certain preparations must be done to insure proper functionality that the ink-jet printer is printing silver ink.

Scanning electron microscope (SEM)

Ink Sample placed in vacuum chamber

Detects secondary electrons Collect nanometer images

Ink samples must be reviewed through a SEM machine to detect potential defects.

Our purpose to venture on this research is to gain information about printing silver nanoparticles onto low cost substrates to better understand the material’s science needed to design and construct a 3D

electronics printer.

[3] Silver ink

Current technology uses rigid substrates to support circuits, whereas our interest is in the development of different types of applications that conventional circuitry design lacks. We are focusing our research on developing flexible circuits that can be molded onto various substrates.

Our focus is on three main aspects, accessibility, affordability and malleability.

Printer• Off the shelf ink-jet printer

Paper • As low cost substrate

Malleability • Ability to conform to surfaces

[2]3D Printer

Metal for Antenna

Dielectric/Insulator

Metal for Ground

Silver

Paper

Copper

Basic Antenna design

[6] Malleable Antenna