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Rapid low-pressure plasma sintering of inkjet-printed silver nanoparticles for RFID antennas

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Abstract

A rapid low-pressure plasma sintering process of inkjet-printed silver nanoparticles is reported, yielding a conductivity of 11.4% of bulk silver within 1 min of plasma exposure and a final conductivity up to 40% of bulk silver for longer sintering times. The maximum processing temperature did not exceed 70 °C, which enabled the use of cost-effective polyethylene terephthalate (PET) foils. Fully functional radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags were prepared with inkjet-printed antennas, which showed similar results as screen-printed devices. The inkjet-printed antennas require significantly less materials, hence thinner layers, than the screen-printed references.

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Acknowledgments

For financial support, the authors thank the Dutch Polymer Institute (DPI, technology area HTE) as well as the European Community’s Seventh Framework Program (FP7/2007–2013) under grant agreement no. 248816. Renzo Paulus, Laboratory of Organic and Macromolecular Chemistry, Friedrich-Schiller-University, Jena, is kindly acknowledged for his assistance with the TGA measurements.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory of Organic and Macromolecular Chemistry (IOMC), Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena, 07743, Jena, Germany

    Franziska M. Wolf, Jolke Perelaer, Steffi Stumpf & Ulrich S. Schubert

  2. Jena Center for Soft Matter (JCSM), Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena, 07743, Jena, Germany

    Franziska M. Wolf, Jolke Perelaer, Steffi Stumpf & Ulrich S. Schubert

  3. Dutch Polymer Institute (DPI), 5600 MB, Eindhoven, The Netherlands

    Jolke Perelaer & Ulrich S. Schubert

  4. Agfa-Gevaert N.V., B-2640, Mortsel, Belgium

    Dirk Bollen

  5. SMARTRAC TECHNOLOGY Dresden GmbH, D-01099, Dresden, Germany

    Frank Kriebel

Authors
  1. Franziska M. Wolf
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  2. Jolke Perelaer
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  3. Steffi Stumpf
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  4. Dirk Bollen
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  5. Frank Kriebel
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  6. Ulrich S. Schubert
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Correspondence to Jolke Perelaer or Ulrich S. Schubert.

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Wolf, F.M., Perelaer, J., Stumpf, S. et al. Rapid low-pressure plasma sintering of inkjet-printed silver nanoparticles for RFID antennas. Journal of Materials Research 28, 1254–1261 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1557/jmr.2013.73

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1557/jmr.2013.73

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