A Novel Near-Transparent ASK-Reconfigurable Inkjet-Printed Chipless RFID Tag

The design of a novel chipless radio frequency identification (RFID) tag, which is inkjet-printed on a polyimide substrate, is presented. It is shown that a silver nanoparticles-based ink can be combined with a resistive organic ink to create a tag having a “near-transparent” configuration. By adding some transparent elements, we obtain various electromagnetic responses for tags visually similar. The tag is composed of three dual-rhombic loop resonators for a total size of 7 × 4 cm². It operates within the ultrawideband frequency range of 3-6 GHz. The resistive properties of the organic ink enable the implementation of a novel coding technique based on amplitude shift keying. Simulation and measurement results validate the concept and the novel coding technique.