Printed Electronics: RFID Sensor Platform and Flexible Functional Films for Automatic Processing

Schreiner PrinTronics, Schreiner Group’s competence center for printed electronics, at the “Innovation Showcase” of LOPEC in Munich (Hall B0) on March 29 and 30, will be presenting a world first: a printed RFID sensor platform featuring a complex label with electrical functions. Using printed conductive traces, the label combines a temperature and a first-opening sensor with a NFC chip. Thanks to an imprinted NFC antenna, the chip can be read with a smartphone equipped for this purpose. Developed for roll-to-roll processes, the solution is perfectly suited for automated processing.

When the printed RFID sensor platform is used to seal a product pack it performs two essential functions. By means of a sensor, it continuously measures and records temperatures across the entire supply chain throughout the label’s lifetime. A very thin, flexible battery embedded in the label enables such long-term data logging. An additionally integrated first-opening sensor indicates whether or not the label has been cut through to open the box and the contents may have been exposed to tampering. 

Other flexible and multilayer film products for electrical conduction, switching, measurement and control purposes to be showcased at the LOPEC booth include printed conductive traces, antennas, heating elements, reflectors, multifunctional user interfaces and other sensors. These Schreiner PrinTronics solutions are multifunctional as well and deliver high added value. Based on in-depth know-how in printing of silver and carbon, in insulation and through hole interconnects, Schreiner PrinTronics has been developing high-precision roll-to-roll printing of electronics to consistently higher levels in recent years.