ELECTROTEXTILE RFID ANTENNA

• US 20150041540A1
• Filed: 08/06/2013
• Published: 02/12/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 08/06/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hand Held Products Incorporated (Honeywell International Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Hand Held Products Incorporated (Honeywell International Inc.)
• Inventors: QU, Huyu, NUSSEIBEH, Fouad
• Granted Patent: US 9,246,208 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 235/439
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/10316 using at least one antenna particularly designed for interrogating the wireless record carriers antennas in general H01Q1/22
• CPC Class Codes: H01Q 1/2225 used in active tags, i.e. provided with its own power source or in passive tags, i.e. deriving power from RF signal
• CPC Class Codes: H01Q 1/273 Adaptation for carrying or wearing by persons or animals
• CPC Class Codes: H01Q 1/38 formed by a conductive layer on an insulating support patch antennas H01Q9/0407; microstrip dipole antennas H01Q9/065; microstrip slot antennas H01Q13/106; transmission line microstrip antennas H01Q13/206; manufacturing reflecting surfaces using insulating material for supporting the reflecting surface H01Q15/142
• CPC Class Codes: Y10T 29/49018 with other electrical component

Abstract

A system for reading transponders may include a printed circuit board and an electrotextile antenna. The printed circuit board may include an RFID reading circuit, and the electrotextile antenna may be electrically connected to the printed circuit board via a connection. The electrotextile antenna may be composed of a material made by blending or coating textiles with a metal, and the electrotextile antenna may be configured to transmit and receive signals between the RFID reading circuit and RFID tags.

Claims

1. An apparatus comprising:

a substrate;

a printed circuit board; and

an electrotextile antenna attached to the substrate and electrically connected to the printed circuit board via a connection, wherein the electrotextile antenna is composed of a material made by blending or coating textiles with a metal, wherein the electrotextile antenna is configured to communicate with radio frequency identification (RFID) transponders, wherein the electrotextile antenna comprises one or more spatially separated conductive cell patches, a feed pad, and one or more conductive feed lines connected to the feed pad, and wherein the one or more conductive feed lines are spatially separated from the one or more conductive cell patches.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the electrotextile antenna comprises a woven polyester textile coated using pure copper.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the electrotextile antenna comprises a ripstop, woven polyester textile plated with copper and nickel.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the electrotextile antenna comprises a ripstop, conductive metalized nylon fabric that plated with nickel, copper and silver.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the substrate is flexible to allow for the electrotextile antenna to be deformed.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the substrate has a relative permittivity of less than 2.

7. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the substrate is separate from the printed circuit board.

8. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein a connection from the electrotextile antenna and the printed circuit board comprises a wire comprising a first end and a second end, wherein the first end is electrically connected to an end of the electrotextile antenna and the second end is electrically connected to a portion of the printed circuit board so that the electrotextile antenna can receive electrical signals from electronic components on the printed circuit board.

9. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the electrotextile antenna has a thickness of at least 0.08 millimeters.

10. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the electrotextile antenna has a conductivity of less than or equal to about 5.0×

10⁵ Siemens/meter.

11. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the electrotextile antenna is configured to transmit and receive signals at 900 MHz.

12. A system for reading transponders, the apparatus comprising:

a printed circuit board comprising an RFID reading circuit; and

an electrotextile antenna comprising a material made by blending or coating textiles with a metal and configured to communicate with the RFID reading circuit and RFID tags, wherein the electrotextile antenna is electrically connected to the printed circuit board.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the electrotextile antenna comprises a woven polyester textile coated using pure copper.

14. The system of claim 12, wherein the electrotextile antenna comprises a woven polyester textile plated with copper and nickel.

15. The system of claim 12, wherein the electrotextile antenna comprises a conductive metalized nylon fabric plated with nickel, copper and silver.

16. The system of claim 12, wherein the electrotextile antenna is electrically connected to the printed circuit board via a connection comprising a wire or direct soldering without being physically connected to a substrate.

17. The system of claim 12, wherein the electrotextile antenna further comprises one or more spatially separated conductive cell patches, a feed pad, and one or more conductive feed lines connected to the feed pad, and wherein the one or more conductive feed lines are spatially separated from the one or more conductive cell patches.

18. A method of manufacture of an electrotextile RFID antenna comprising:

providing a textile material;

blending or coating portions of the textile material with a metal, resulting in electrotextile material;

forming a structure with the electrotextile material;

shaping the structure to communicate with RFID transponders, thereby forming an electrotextile antenna;

electrically connecting a portion of the electrotextile antenna to a printed circuit board comprising an RFID circuit so that the electrotextile antenna transmits interrogation signals generated by the RFID circuit to the RFID transponders and receives response signals from the RFID transponders.

19. The method of claim 18, further comprising attaching the electrotextile antenna to a substrate separate from the printed circuit board.

20. The method of claim 18, further comprising maintaining the electrotextile antenna as a freestanding antenna so that the electrotextile antenna is not attached a substrate.