‘Sustainable’ RFID antennas

Manufacturing RFID antennas through etching is now being challenged by a technology from Walki-4E that claims to produce flexible circuit boards efficiently and sustainably.

A dry production process involving no liquid chemicals and using paper as the substrate, allows computer to antenna production and accurate laser cutting of circuit board patterns.

The traditional way of producing RFID antennas by etching has undergone only modest development.

A special laminate of aluminium and paper substrate is made where the aluminium foil is cut in patterns using a laser.

The method can be used for any production of flexible circuit boards, ranging from RFID antennas to boards for radiators and flexible displays.

Compared with etching, the technology elimnates a whole step from the tag production process or from the converter’s process.

Since paper is used as a substrate, the RFID manufacturers can leave out the insertion of the PET inlay into paper, a necessary step when the antenna production method speeds up design and development, especially when producing a short series, involving a few antennas.

Because the antenna is free from plastics, made of paper and aluminium only, it is easily recycled in a fibre recycling process, where metal detectors sort out the aluminium.

The precision of the laser cutting allows smaller chips, greater repeatability in production and higher accuracy of the antenna.

Laser cutting can speed up the production process by 10 times; and taking into accound the development that laser technology undergoes every year, the possibilities of producing flexible circuit boards with lasers are almost limitless, says the company.