Transparent conformal polymer antennas for RFID and other wireless communications applications

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9444134-B2
Application number	US-201414554828-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 26, 2014
Priority date	Apr 27, 2009
Publication date	Sep 13, 2016
Grant date	Sep 13, 2016

Abstract

An optically transparent conformal polymer antenna and a method for producing the antenna from optically transparent conductive polymers. The method includes selecting an antenna design; providing an optically transparent conductive polymer material capable of being printed using an ink-jet printer device; and printing layers of the polymer in the desired antenna design pattern onto a substrate. The surface tension of the polymer solution is adjusted to allow the material to pass through a printer head for printing on a flexible substrate. The material is modified to have a higher conductivity than regular conductive polymer materials so that a suitable antenna may be formed.

First claim

What is claimed:

1. An optically transparent conductive polymer antenna comprising:
a flexible substrate; and
an antenna printed on said flexible substrate, said antenna comprising an optically transparent conductive polymer material not having any electrically conductive particles added to the conductive polymer material, said material having a conductivity that is at least 5×10 5 S/m and a surface tension between 0.028-0.060 N/m so as to enable said material to pass through a print head for printing on said flexible substrate.

2. The antenna of claim 1 , wherein the antenna is printed on said flexible substrate whereby spacing between printed drops is between 5 μm and 254 μm.

3. The antenna of claim 1 , wherein the flexible substrate comprises at least one of a flexible plastic, a polymer, a glass, a fabric, and a paper.

4. The antenna of claim 1 , further comprising a machine-readable identification tag connected to the antenna to produce an RFID unit.

5. The antenna of claim 1 , wherein the antenna is adapted to radiate in response to an interrogation frequency from an interrogator unit.

6. The antenna of claim 1 , further including a power source for the antenna for transmitting and receiving.

7. The antenna of claim 1 , further including a signal processor for the antenna for receiving.

8. The antenna of claim 1 , wherein the material includes dimethyl sulfoxide and a surfactant.

9. The antenna of claim 1 , wherein the antenna comprises a center-fed dipole antenna designed for a resonant frequency of 900 MHz.

Assignees

• Univ Drexel

Inventors

• Fontecchio Adam K
• Dandekar Kapil R
• Kurzweg Timothy

Classifications

• H01Q9/16

  with feed intermediate between the extremities of the antenna, e.g. centre-fed dipole (H01Q9/44 takes precedence) · CPC title

• H01Q1/38 Primary

  formed by a conductive layer on an insulating support {(patch antennas H01Q9/0407; microstrip dipole antennas H01Q9/065; microstrip slot antennas H01Q13/106; transmission line microstrip antennas H01Q13/206; manufacturing reflecting surfaces using insulating material for supporting the reflecting surface  H01Q15/142)} · CPC title

• G06K19/07773

  Antenna details (antennas for wireless devices, e.g. RFID tags, in general H01Q1/22) · CPC title

• H01Q9/065

  Microstrip dipole antennas (patch antenna H01Q9/0407) · CPC title

• H01Q1/2225

  used in active tags, i.e. provided with its own power source or in passive tags, i.e. deriving power from RF signal · CPC title