Reliability of Passive UHF RFID Copper Tags on Plywood Substrate in High Humidity Conditions

The growth of the wireless world, especially the increasing popularity of the Internet of Things, has created a need for cost-effective and environmentally friendly electronics. Great potential lies especially in versatile applications of passive UHF RFID components. However, the reliability of these components is a major issue to be addressed. This paper presents a preliminary reliability study of glue-coated and non-coated brush-painted copper tags on a plywood substrate in high humidity conditions. The passive UHF RFID components presented in this paper are fabricated using brush-painting and photonic sintering of cost-effective copper oxide ink directly on a plywood substrate. The performance of the glue-coated and non-coated tags is evaluated through wireless tag measurements before and after high humidity testing. The measurement results show that the copper tags on plywood substrate initially achieve peak read ranges of 7–8 meters and the applied coating does not affect to the read range. Moisture does not prevent the coated tags from working in a tolerable way, although the tag performance slightly temporarily decreases due to the moisture absorption. However, when the moisture exposure is long, the performance degradation comes irreversible. The absorbed moisture decreases the read range of the non-coated tags and the performance does not return back to normal after drying. Hence, the coating improves the reliability of the tags in a moist environment compared to the non-coated tags. Based on our results, the plywood material and the used manufacturing methods are very potential for low-cost, high-volume green electronics manufacturing.

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3D-Printed Graphene Antennas and Interconnections for Textile RFID Tags: Fabrication and Reliability towards Humidity

International Journal of Antennas and Propagation ◽

10.1155/2017/1386017 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 2017 ◽

pp. 1-5 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

Han He ◽

Mitra Akbari ◽

Lauri Sydänheimo ◽

Leena Ukkonen ◽

Johanna Virkki

Keyword(s):

Rfid Tags ◽

High Humidity ◽

Direct Write ◽

Uhf Rfid ◽

Printed Antenna ◽

Passive Uhf Rfid ◽

Measurement Results ◽

One Step ◽

3D Printed ◽

Wireless Measurement

We present the possibilities of 3D direct-write dispensing in the fabrication of passive UHF RFID graphene tags on a textile substrate. In our method, the graphene tag antenna is deposited directly on top of the IC strap, in order to simplify the manufacturing process by removing one step, that is, the IC attachment with conductive glue. Our wireless measurement results confirm that graphene RFID tags with printed antenna-IC interconnections achieve peak read ranges of 5.2 meters, which makes them comparable to graphene tags with epoxy-glued ICs. After keeping the tags in high humidity, the read ranges of the tags with epoxy-glued and printed antenna-IC interconnections decrease 0.8 meters and 0.5 meters, respectively. However, after drying, the performance of both types of tags returns back to normal.

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Study of the Readability of Passive UHF RFID Tags Placed Inside a Cargo Van by a Reader Located Outside

Journal of Communications Software and Systems ◽

10.24138/jcomss.v10i2.127 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 10 (2) ◽

pp. 76

Author(s):

Philippe Mariage ◽

M.M. Handeme Nguema ◽

Laurent Clavier

Keyword(s):

Low Cost ◽

Software Tool ◽

Antenna System ◽

Uhf Rfid ◽

Passive Uhf Rfid ◽

Passive Tags ◽

Whole Space ◽

Storage Area ◽

Semi Empirical ◽

Theoretical Results

The aim of this paper is to study the feasibility of getting information from a cargo van returning back on its storage area by using a low cost communication system. According to the low speed of the vehicle and to the involved short distances, a UHF RFID solution is considered. An experimental study shows that passive tags may be read successfully but not in the entire space of the van. A semi-empirical numerical method based on the Geometrical Optics is derived in order to build a fast computer aided-positioning tool that may help to optimize the location of the tags. The same software tool is used for carrying out a parametric study that informs on the best antenna system to use. It is find out that a solution using passive tags and two antennas limits the theoretical results to 90% successful reading percentage whereas using semi-passive tags ensures a 100% one in the whole space of the vehicle.

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Joining Dissimilar Materials Using Friction Stir Scribe Technique

Journal of Manufacturing Science and Engineering ◽

10.1115/1.4034629 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 139 (3) ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

Piyush Upadhyay ◽

Yuri Hovanski ◽

Saumyadeep Jana ◽

Leonard S. Fifield

Keyword(s):

Low Cost ◽

Dissimilar Materials ◽

Cost Effective ◽

High Volume ◽

Industrial Applications ◽

Critical Pathway ◽

Friction Stir ◽

Design Engineers ◽

Cost Effective Method ◽

Polymer Metal

Development of a robust and cost-effective method of joining dissimilar materials could provide a critical pathway to enable widespread use of multimaterial designs and components in mainstream industrial applications. The use of multimaterial components such as steel-aluminum and aluminum-polymer would allow design engineers to optimize material utilization based on service requirements and could often lead to weight and cost reductions. However, producing an effective joint between materials with vastly different thermal, microstructural, and deformation responses is highly problematic using conventional joining and/or fastening methods. This is especially challenging in cost sensitive, high volume markets that largely rely on low cost joining solutions. Friction stir scribe (FSS) technology was developed to meet the demands of joining materials with drastically different properties and melting regimes. The process enables joining of light metals like magnesium and aluminum to high temperature materials like steel and titanium. Viable joints between polymer composites and metal can also be made using this method. This paper will present the state of the art, progress made, and challenges associated with this innovative derivative of friction stir welding (FSW) in reference to joining dissimilar metals and polymer/metal combinations.

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Dynamic Frame Update Policy for UHF RFID Sensor Tag Collisions

Sensors ◽

10.3390/s20092696 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 20 (9) ◽

pp. 2696 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Laura Arjona ◽

Hugo Landaluce ◽

Asier Perallos ◽

Enrique Onieva

Keyword(s):

Radio Frequency Identification ◽

Low Cost ◽

Object Identification ◽

Sensor Data ◽

Uhf Rfid ◽

Slotted Aloha ◽

Frame Size ◽

Passive Uhf Rfid ◽

Wide Range ◽

Class 1

The current growing demand for low-cost edge devices to bridge the physical–digital divide has triggered the growing scope of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology research. Besides object identification, researchers have also examined the possibility of using RFID tags for low-power wireless sensing, localisation and activity inference. This paper focuses on passive UHF RFID sensing. An RFID system consists of a reader and various numbers of tags, which can incorporate different kinds of sensors. These sensor tags require fast anti-collision protocols to minimise the number of collisions with the other tags sharing the reader’s interrogation zone. Therefore, RFID application developers must be mindful of anti-collision protocols. Dynamic Frame Slotted Aloha (DFSA) anti-collision protocols have been used extensively in the literature because EPCglobal Class 1 Generation 2 (EPC C1G2), which is the current communication protocol standard in RFID, employs this strategy. Protocols under this category are distinguished by their policy for updating the transmission frame size. This paper analyses the frame size update policy of DFSA strategies to survey and classify the main state-of-the-art of DFSA protocols according to their policy. Consequently, this paper proposes a novel policy to lower the time to read one sensor data packet compared to existing strategies. Next, the novel anti-collision protocol Fuzzy Frame Slotted Aloha (FFSA) is presented, which applies this novel DFSA policy. The results of our simulation confirm that FFSA significantly decreases the sensor tag read time for a wide range of tag populations when compared to earlier DFSA protocols thanks to the proposed frame size update policy.

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Before-and-After Empirical Bayes Evaluation of Citywide Installation of Driver Feedback Signs

Transportation Research Record Journal of the Transportation Research Board ◽

10.1177/0361198120912243 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 2674 (4) ◽

pp. 419-427

Author(s):

Mingjian Wu ◽

Karim El-Basyouny ◽

Tae J. Kwon

Keyword(s):

Traffic Safety ◽

Spatial Data ◽

Empirical Bayes ◽

Large Scale ◽

Low Cost ◽

Cost Effective ◽

Before And After ◽

Feedback Sign ◽

Driver Feedback ◽

Road Segments

Speeding is a leading factor that contributes to approximately one-third of all fatal collisions. Over the past decades, various passive/active countermeasures have been adopted to improve drivers’ compliance to posted speed limits to improve traffic safety. The driver feedback sign (DFS) is considered a low-cost innovative intervention that is being widely used, in growing numbers, in urban cities to provide positive guidance for motorists. Despite their documented effectiveness in reducing speeds, limited literature exists on their impact on reducing collisions. This study addresses this gap by designing a before-and-after study using the empirical Bayes method for a large sample of urban road segments. Safety performance functions and yearly calibration factors are developed to quantify the sole effectiveness of DFS using large-scale spatial data and a set of reference road segments within the city of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Likewise, the study followed a detailed economic analysis based on three collision-costing criteria to investigate if DFS was indeed a cost-effective intervention. The results showed significant collision reductions that ranged from 32.5% to 44.9%, with the highest reductions observed for severe speed-related collisions. The results further attested that the benefit–cost ratios, combining severe and property-damage-only collisions, ranged from 8.2 to 20.2 indicating that DFS can be an extremely economical countermeasure. The findings from this study can provide transportation agencies in need of implementing cost-efficient countermeasures with a tool they need to design a long-term strategic deployment plan to ensure the safety of traveling public.

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