Fraunhofer Institute for Electronic Nano SystemsPrinted antennas representing printed conductive patterns will play an important role in the areas of applications of radio frequency identification technology. These areas cover the field of logistics in industrial and retailer environments as well as remote sensing and wireless communication applications.
One major competence of the Fraunhofer ENAS is design, simulation, printing/manufacturing and characterization of the adapted and customized RF antennas for the UHF region and beyond. The antennas can be manufactured by employing traditional printing (screen, gravure) as well as digital manufacturing equipment based on inkjet technology. These Digital Fabrication systems facilitate highly flexible and economic optimized antenna manufacturing processes for large-scale production down to batch size of 1 antenna.
One application of printed antennas is the UHF-RFID transponder. The transponder optimized for car windscreens can be read and written in a range up to 10 meters.
Besides Screen printed Super-High-Frequency antennas are developed for the packages. The planar antenna is produced in a screen printing process and is folded in a 80-110° angle. They have a resonance frequency of 5.8 GHz.