RADIO FREQUENCY IDENTIFICATION FLAT SHEET MATERIAL

Abstract

The invention relates to the field of radio-frequency identification, in particular, to materials containing radio-frequency tags in their layers and intended for printing and stamping by commonly available printing methods. The technical result of the invention is to obtain the flexible flat sheet material in which the chips and other electronic components do not affect the level of the sheet material surface flatness. The flat sheet material with radio frequency identification contains the sequentially arranged first layer of flexible material, the first intermediate layer, the substrate layer with an antenna and a chip, the second intermediate layer, the second layer of flexible material, and the first intermediate layer made of the polymer composite.

Claims

1. A flat sheet material for radio frequency identification (RFID), comprising: a first layer of flexible material, a first intermediate layer on top of the first layer of flexible material, a substrate layer on top of the first intermediate layer, the substrate layer comprising an antenna, a chip being mounted on the antenna, a second intermediate layer on top of the substrate layer, the second intermediate layer encapsulating the chip, and a second layer of flexible material on top of the second intermediate layer, wherein the first intermediate layer is made of a polymer composite.

2. The flat sheet material of claim 1, wherein the second intermediate layer is made of a polymer composite.

3. The flat sheet material of claim 1, wherein the second intermediate layer is glue layer.

4. The flat sheet material of claim 1, wherein the flexible material is selected from paper, a non-woven fabric, a polymeric film and cloth.

5. (canceled)

6. (canceled)

7. (canceled)

8. The flat sheet material of claim 1, wherein the flat sheet material is rectangular and has a bevel having a 45° angle formed on one corner of the sheet.

9. The flat sheet material of claim 1, wherein the flat sheet material has a size selected from 210 mm by 297 mm, 320 mm by 460 mm, 325 mm by 480 mm and 520 mm by 720 mm.

10. (canceled)

11. (canceled)

12. (canceled)

13. The flat sheet material of claim 1, wherein the flat sheet material includes a layer of polymeric film over the first and second layers of flexible material.

14. The flat sheet material of claim 1, wherein the flat sheet material is made in the form of roll with a width of 210 mm to 750 mm.

15. The flat sheet material of claim 1, wherein the flat sheet material includes additional electronic components.

16. The flat sheet of claim 1, wherein polymeric film is made as nontransparent or colored.

17. The sheet material of claim 15, wherein the one or more additional electronic components are selected from light emitting diodes (LEDs), sensors, transducers, thin-film batteries, capacitors, resistors, microcontrollers, and any combination thereof.

18. The sheet material of claim 8, wherein the bevel formed on the one corner of the sheet is configured to allow locating the sheet material in at least one stage of manufacturing of an RFID product.

19. The sheet material of claim 1, wherein a RFID product manufactured from the sheet material is selected from a card, a tag, a label, a sticker, a packaging and a bracelet.

20. The sheet material of claim 1, wherein each of the first and second layers of flexible material is selected from offset paper, craft paper, recycled paper, cardboard, synthetic paper, Polyethylene terephthalate, Polyvinyl chloride, Polypropylene, Polyethylene, natural fabric, synthetic fabric, and a combination thereof.

21. The sheet material of claim 1, wherein a RFID product manufactured from the sheet material includes the chip and more than one antenna.

22. The sheet material of claim 1, wherein a plurality of RFID products are manufactured from the sheet material, each RFID product including the chip and at least one antenna.

23. The sheet material of claim 1, further comprising a plurality of positional elements located inside the sheet, the positional elements being usable for locating a plurality of RFID products during an operation selected from printing, cutting and punching of the sheet material.

24. The sheet material of claim 23, wherein a thickness of the sheet material varies between 0.15 mm and 5.0 mm according to locations of the plurality of positional elements.

25. The sheet material of claim 1, wherein: a machine-readable bar code, QR code or graphic element is printed on the sheet material; and one or more RFID product manufactured from the sheet material is identified by the machine-readable bar code, QR code or graphic element.

26. A method for manufacturing an RFID product, comprising: mounting the sheet material as defined in claim 8 into a printer, the bevel formed on the one corner of the sheet being used for proper positioning of the sheet material in the printer.

Description

[0026] The invention is explained using FIG. 1-3, which shows:

[0027] FIG. 1 is a general view of sheet material with twenty-four radio frequency tags;

[0028] FIG. 2—sheet material sectional view.

[0029] Positions 1-9 are showing in FIG. 1-2: [0030] 1—sheet material; [0031] 2—the first layer of the flexible material; [0032] 3—the first intermediate layer of the polymer composite; [0033] 4—chip; [0034] 5—the layer substrate with the antenna and chip; [0035] 6—the second intermediate layer; [0036] 7—the second layer of the flexible material; [0037] 8—antenna; [0038] 9—beveled corner.

[0039] Flat sheet material 1 with the radio-frequency identification contains the sequentially arranged first layer 2 of flexible material, the first intermediate layer of polymer composite 3, the substrate layer 5 with antenna 8 and chip 4, the second intermediate layer 6, the second layer of flexible material 7.

[0040] The device has a sandwich structure (FIG. 1).

[0041] The first 2 and the second 7 layers of flexible material are printing layers.

[0042] The first 2 and the second 7 layers of flexible material can be made of offset, craft, or recycled paper; cardboard; synthetic paper, can be made of PET (Polyethylene Terephthalate), PVC (Polyvinyl Chloride), PP (Polypropylene), PE (Polyethylene), natural or synthetic fabric, artificial leather based on PVC (Polyvinyl chloride) or PU (Polyurethane), or a layer of another suitable material. The flexible material can be either white or painted in any color, it should have markings, patterns or inscriptions, textured surface or additional coating, including the primer that retains surface paint better, and it should contain metalized layers, magnet layers, metal chips, and other materials.

[0043] The flat sheet material with radio frequency identification can have the first 2 and second 7 layers of various flexible material, the front and back sides made of one or different grades and colors of paper, or contain the paper on one side and synthetic material on the other side, fabric, or have a siliconized layer on one side and other combinations, including those containing the metallized layers, magnetic layers, and other materials.

[0044] The polymer composite from the group of polyurethanes (polyester-polyols) is used as a polymer composite.

[0045] The first 3 and second 6 intermediate layers can be made of the same material or have different properties. For example, the second intermediate layer 6 may possess residual adhesive properties, in which case it is possible to get the label in combination with the second layer of flexible material 7 coated with silicone.

[0046] The substrate 5 may be made, for example, of PET, special paper, or another suitable flexible material.

[0047] Antenna 8 can be made by etching or sputtering of aluminum, alloys based on copper, silver, gold, graphite, or any other conductive material suitable for chip 4's operation.

[0048] Antenna 16, in particular, has a rectangular shape (FIG. 2). More than one antenna with a chip, depending on the purpose, can be integrated into the sheet. Twenty-four RFID tags, which respectively contain twenty-four antennas on the substrate, are shown in FIG. 2.

[0049] The sheet material can be made in the form of standard sizes rectangular sheet: A4 size 210 mm by 297 mm, SRA3 size 320 mm by 460 mm, SRA3+ size 325 mm by 480 mm, SRA2+ size 520 mm by 720 mm, in the form of a roll with a width from 210 mm up to 850 mm, and other sizes.

[0050] The sheet material can be made in the form of a rectangular sheet, in which one of the corners is geometrically different from three others, for example, it has a 45° bevel, the radius, and an internal recess.

[0051] The beveled corner is a positional angle for the sheet material, it ensures the correct location of the sheet at various stages of manufacturing the finished product by printing plants: stamping and die-cutting. The positional angle, in contrast to the graphically plotted angle, is more convenient, since it makes it possible to check the correct location of the sheet in the middle of the stack.

[0052] LEDs, sensors, transducers, thin-film batteries, and other electronic components can also be placed inside the sheet.

[0053] The positional elements can be located inside the sheet, whereby the induction sensors find the location of the RFID tags to position the sheet during printing, cutting, or other necessary operations in punching and other printing machines.

[0054] The resulting sheet thickness varies from 0.15 mm to 5.0 mm.

[0055] The machine-readable unique sheet number can be applied on each sheet, for example, the barcode, QR code, and other graphic elements. The tags located on the RFID sheet are linked by this number. The unique numbers of the RFID tags, located inside the sheet material are known in advance for printing plant, when the print file generating by the printing plant, that allows to print this information in one go, thereby avoiding the additional manipulations for reading data from RFID tags and its subsequent additional application of graphics on the RFID product.

[0056] After printing, the sheet material with radio frequency identification can be further processed, for example, partial foil stamping, varnishing, application of laminating films based on BOPP (biaxially oriented polypropylene film), PVC, PET.

[0057] The sheet material is made as follows.

[0058] The first intermediate layer 3 of the polymer composite is applied in liquid form with a viscosity of 500 to 20,000 mPA*s (millipascals per second), and a thickness of 0.01 mm to 3 mm between the first layer 2 of flexible material and substrate layer 5 with antenna 8 and chip 4. Then, the second intermediate layer 6 of the polymer composite is applied in liquid form with a thickness of 0.01 mm to 3 mm and a viscosity of 500 to 20,000 mPA*s (millipascals per second), or glue between the second layer 7 of flexible material and the layer of substrate 5 with antenna 8 and chip 4, if necessary.

[0059] The material passes through the system of presses, which allows you to fix the thickness of the material at the outlet and detect the recesses in the liquid polymer composite from the protruding components. The deposited polymer composite goes through the polymerization stage and becomes a polymer film in this state.

[0060] The thickness of the polymer composite deposition is selected empirically, depending on the materials used, the properties of spreading over the surface, the height of the electronic components, and other factors.

[0061] The viscosity depends on the technical properties of the polymer composite used and the application temperature. It is selected empirically and usually ranges from 500 to 20,000 mPA*s (millipascals per second). The polymer composite material can be three-component, two-component, and one-component type.

[0062] The high-strength polymer film is formed after polymerizing the polymer composite, which is no longer subjected to geometric changes, even during heating, thereby the pressure of the chip and electronic components on the substrate does not appear on the first 2 and second 7 layers of the flexible material, since the formed polymer film starts to compensate its height. The material is flat and flexible, which provides a flat surface suitable for printing on both sides.

[0063] The stated sheet material can be used to produce classic products with RFID tags and other electronic components in the form of labels, tags, postcards, stickers, boxes, RFID cards, NFC business cards, and other similar products.

[0064] The feature of the invented material is its flat surface and elasticity for typographical printing.

[0065] The second feature is that the formed polymer film in the composition of the sheet material does not pass oxygen, which makes it possible to use the resulting material in manufacturing the packages with radio frequency identification for food products.