Design and Characterization of Novel Paper-based Inkjet-Printed RFID and Microwave Structures for Telecommunication and Sensing Applications

In this paper, inkjet-printed microwave circuits fabricated on paper-based substrates were investigated, as a system-level solution for ultra-low-cost mass production. The RF characteristics of the paper-based substrate were studied by using the cavity resonator method and the Transmission Line method in order to characterize the dielectric constant (ε
_r
) and loss tangent (tanδ) of the substrate. A UHF RFID tag module was then developed with the inkjet-printing technology which could function as a technology for much simpler and faster fabrication on/in paper. Simulation and well-agreed measurement results verify a good performance of the tag module. In addition, for the first time, the possibility of paper-based substrate for multilayer microwave structures was explored, and a 2.4 GHz multilayer patch resonator bandpass filter with insertion loss < 0.6dB was demonstrated. These results show that the paper material can serve for the purpose of economical multilayer structures for telecommunication and sensing applications.