High-quality inkjet-printed multilevel interconnects and inductive components on plastic for ultra-low-cost RFID applica
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High-quality inkjet-printed multilevel interconnects and inductive components on plastic for ultra-low-cost RFID applications. Steven Molesa, David R. Redinger, Daniel C. Huang, and Vivek Subramanian. Department of Electrical Engineering, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720-1770, U.S.A. ABSTRACT In recent years, there has been tremendous interest in all-printed electronics as a means of achieving ultra-low-cost electronic circuits with uses in displays and disposable electronics applications such as RFID tags. While there have been a few demonstrations of printed organic transistors to date, there has been little work on the associated passive component and interconnection technologies required to enable the development of all-printed RFID circuits. In particular, low-resistance conductors are crucial to achieve the high-Q inductors necessary for RFID. Here, we demonstrate inkjetted nanoparticle-Au conductors on plastic with sheet resistances as low as 0.03 ohms/square. We describe the optimization of the jetting parameters, and their impact on final film morphology and electrical properties. We also demonstrate a bridging technology based on an inkjetted polyimide interlevel dielectric. Using this process, we demonstrate multilevel interconnect and passive component structures including conductor patterns, crossover bridges, and tapped planar spiral inductors. Together, these represent an important step towards the realization of all-printed RFID. INTRODUCTION Recently, there has been growing interest in the development of printed organic electronics technologies, which are expected to see use in low-cost, flexible displays and disposable electronics applications. Low-cost RFID tags are considered to be a compelling application, since they may be used to replace UPC barcodes on consumer products, ushering in an era of enhanced consumer convenience and warehousing efficiency, through a realization of real-time price and product controls, automated inventory processes, and automated checkout. All-printed circuit technologies are attractive for several reasons. They eliminate the need for expensive lithography, and also eliminate the need for high-vacuum processing, including PVD, CVD, plasma etching, etc., all of which have major impacts on system cost. Additionally, they use an additive fabrication process, which reduces the waste abatement costs. Thus, they are expected to result in a substantially reduced integrated cost making them suitable for use in disposable consumer products. In recent years, there have been some demonstrations of printed transistors in plasticcompatible technologies [1]. However, to date, there have been no significant demonstrations of the requisite all-printed passive component technologies. In particular, for RFID, this is a crucial shortcoming, since the requirements imposed on the passive components are tremendous; high-Q inductors and well-behaved capacitors are required for power-coupling and communication [2]. Last year, we demonstrated a plastic-compatible
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