Effects of Antenna Material on the Performance of UHF RFID Tags

The RFID industry is growing rapidly, especially in the UHF frequency band that is being used extensively in supply chain management. Traditionally, inlays have been constructed from etched copper or aluminum. Etching is a subtractive process that uses chemicals and can creates waste. Recently, inlays are manufactured using silver-based inks. Printing is an additive process, so it has a number of advantages. However, silver inks suffer from two important drawbacks: relatively poor conductivity and environmental concerns. Those concerns have spurred developments in other additive technologies, such as vapor-deposited aluminum, electroplated, and electro-less deposited copper. This paper quantizes by measurement the performance of antennas with three materials, four line widths, and various thicknesses, which may serve as guidelines about how to design antennas with the various materials.