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A target application for plastic RFID tags is Electronic Product Coding (EPC). The EPC-specifications set some demanding requirements for RFID tags. In this work, we review the work that has been done to fulfill some of these specifications. We describe a complete 64-bit RFID tag that is inductively-coupled at a base carrier frequency of 13.56 MHz, and transmits data at rates below 1 kb/s. Next, we demonstrate 8-bit RFID transponder chips having data rates of 50 kb/s, an important milestone for organic RFID tags in view of EPC specifications.

Organic RFID tags are increasingly gaining credibility as a possible low-cost barcode replacement for product identification. This will only happen if organic RFID tags can operate in the frequency range defined by well-accepted EPC standards. This chapter evaluates the performance of existing organic RFID demonstrators and confirms that, based on lab scale demonstration of organic RFID tags, performance comparable to the EPC standards can be obtained. Moreover, the integration of sensors with the tags will enable added functionality and applications beyond pure identification.

In this chapter, fully integrated organic RFID tags are demonstrated. These tags are inductively-coupled at a base frequency of 13.56 MHz and can be read out at distances up to 10 cm, which is the expected readout distance for proximity readers. We also demonstrate next generation transponder chips, fabricated in a dual-gate technology. The additional gate, backgate, is used to control the threshold voltage and allows integration into more robust unipolar, dual-VT transponder chips. Finally, we realized an 8-bit transponder chip having data rates that are EPC-compatible. This has been achieved in our thin-film transistor technology by introducing a high-k Al2O 3 gate dielectric, by scaling the channel lengths down to 2 mm and by reducing the overlap capacitance of the parasitic source-gate and drain-gate capacitors. © 2011 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.

We discuss the design and implementation of 64-bit and 128-bit plastic transponder chips for radio-frequency identification tags. The 64-bit chips, comprising 414 organic thin-film transistors, are integrated into fully functional plastic radio-frequency identification tags with 13.56 MHz communication. The required supply voltage on the tag is generated from the AC input signal detected by the antenna, using a plastic double half-wave rectifier circuit. The tag is fully functional at a magnetic field strength of 1.26 A/m, which is below the minimum required radio-frequency magnetic field stated in the standards. We discuss the reading distance that can be achieved with our plastic rectifiers, and show that this reading distance is not limited by the performance of the plastic rectifier or transponder chip. The 128-bit transponder chip includes further features such as Manchester data encoding and a basic ALOHA anti-collision protocol. It employs 1286 organic thin-film transistors and generates the 128 bit sequence at 24 V supply voltage at a data rate of 1.5 kb/s. Data rates up to 2 kb/s could be achieved on chips with an 8-bit transponder chip. © 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. ispartof: pages:1220-1226 ispartof: Solid-State Electronics vol:53 issue:12 pages:1220-1226 ispartof: location:GERMANY, Aachen status: published

Research towards 13.56MHz organic RFID tags is one of the drivers for the field of organic electronics. A capacitively-coupled 64b organic RFID tag operating at 125kHz was demonstrated in [1]. Inductively-coupled 64b organic RFID tag operating at 13.56MHz were reported in [2,3].

A 64b inductively coupled organic RFID tag on foil is demonstrated at 13.56MHz. The digital logic foil comprises 414 pentacene transistors and is powered by a pentacene double half-wave rectifier, connected to an inductive antenna. The data rate is 787b/s with load modulation behind the rectifier (DC). Also shown is a functional AC-modulated organic RFID tag. ©2008 IEEE. ispartof: pages:290-291 ispartof: Proceedings of the IEEE International Solid-State Circuits Conference - ISSCC vol:51 pages:290-291 ispartof: IEEE International Solid-State Circuits Conference - ISSCC location:San Francisco, CA USA date:3 Feb - 3 Feb 2008 status: published

At present, flexible displays are an important focus of research1,2,3. Further development of large, flexible displays requires a cost-effective manufacturing process for the active-matrix backplane, which contains one transistor per pixel. One way to further reduce costs is to integrate (part of) the display drive circuitry, such as row shift registers, directly on the display substrate. Here, we demonstrate flexible active-matrix monochrome electrophoretic displays based on solution-processed organic transistors on 25-μm-thick polyimide substrates. The displays can be bent to a radius of 1 cm without significant loss in performance. Using the same process flow we prepared row shift registers. With 1,888 transistors, these are the largest organic integrated circuits reported to date. More importantly, the operating frequency of 5 kHz is sufficiently high to allow integration with the display operating at video speed. This work therefore represents a major step towards 'system-on-plastic'.