RFID silicon antenna

• US 7,681,301 B2
• Filed: 03/07/2007
• Issued: 03/23/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 03/07/2007
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: James Neil Rodgers
• Original Assignee: James Neil Rodgers
• Inventors: Rodgers, James Neil
• Primary Examiner(s): Berman, Jack I
• Assistant Examiner(s): PURINTON, BROOKE J
• Application Number:
  US11/683,056
• Publication Number:
  US 20080217560A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,112 Days
• Field of Search: 250/492.1, 340/572.7, 438/942, 296/00, 296/01, 29/82, 298/27, 219/121.18, 235/491, 235/492, 343/895
• US Class Current: 29/600
• CPC Class Codes: B23K 2101/40 Semiconductor devices
• CPC Class Codes: B23K 26/0624 using ultrashort pulses, i.e. pulses of 1ns or less
• CPC Class Codes: B23K 26/3584 Increasing rugosity, e.g. roughening
• CPC Class Codes: Y10T 29/49016 Antenna or wave energy "plumbing" making
• CPC Class Codes: Y10T 29/49018 with other electrical component

Abstract

The system of producing an RFID antenna using the silicon in an integrated circuit as the resonant antenna material for the purpose of reducing the cost of an RFID system and for the purpose of increasing the range and selectivity of the RFID system. According to this invention the base silicon sheets which make up the primary building material of the silicon chip (integrated circuit) is subjected to a laser ablation process. This creates three dimensional nano structures on the surface of the silicon thereby raising its absorption rate of electro magnetic signals. On the reverse side of the same silicon sheet a directional antenna is etched using standard photographic reduction techniques and standard semi conductor industry manufacturing methods. The two sides of the silicon are connected through doping aluminum or copper impurities into these same base silicon sheets causing conductivity within the sheet of silicon.

Claims

1. A method of producing a Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) antenna as an integral part of an RFID integrated circuit using silicon as antenna material thereby enabling the antenna and an RFID integrated circuit to be manufactured as one piece, said method comprising:

providing commercially produced bulk sheets of silicon wafer base material (silicon wafers);

femtosecond laser ablating, with a sharply focused pulse, the silicon wafers to create three dimensional nano structures out of the silicon base material;

designing an antenna as a complex resonant antenna at a macro level and reducing it, through a process of de-magnification or photographically, to a nano sized image which perfectly replicates design features of a macro level template directional antenna on a master stencil mask and, still further, forming this master stencil mask on the reverse side of silicon wafers treated with femtosecond laser ablation;

manufacturing said femtosecond laser ablated silicon wafers so that they are manufactured into radio frequency identification antennas.

2. The method of claim 1 whereby further the femtosecond laser ablation is limited to the silicon base material which is a part of a silicon layering process involved in manufacturing an integrated circuit which silicon base material is so treated to be incorporated into one of the elements of an radio frequency identification resonant antennas harvesting system.

3. The method of claim 1 whereby further the generic laser pulse device used to treat commercially produced bulk sheets of the silicon base material is of a Ti:

Sapphire Femto-Second laser type used for machining silicon surfaces.

4. Increasing the electromagnetic absorption rate of the silicon base material used in the construction of an RFID antenna through the femotosecond laser ablation method of claim 1 whereby surface roughness and micro and nano sized structures are formed on the silicon base material.

5. The method of claim 1 whereby, additionally, reflectance measurements are made of the silicon base material subsequent to the laser ablation process using ellipsometry and integrating sphere, as well as EDX, XPS, and AES techniques to analyze the surface properties of the silicon base material to determine the parameters of the reflectance values of the laser machined silicon base material to verify the presence of sufficient three dimensional nano structures to adequately increase the radioactive sensitivity of the antenna.

6. The method of claim 1 whereby further the femtosecond laser pulses of high intensity light are less than a picosecond but long enough duration in femtoseconds to reach an ablation threshold yet short enough to confine collateral damage on the base silicon material to less than 10 nano meters to ensure the structural integrity of the silicon base material.

7. Further to the method of claim 1 overcoming a diffraction limit for the purpose of fabricating three dimensional nano structures on the base silicon materials by using the femtosecond laser pulses that emanates from nonlinear photon laser interaction processes.

8. The method of claim 1 whereby further the femtosecond laser pulse is unleashed at a frequency which equals a frequency of surface charge oscillations on the base silicon material thereby increasing absorption of the laser pulse.

9. Applying the femtosecond laser ablation method of claim 1 at a sufficiently high fluence and with a multitude of applied pulses for the purpose of raising the absorption rate incrementally from 50% to 100% on the base silicon materials.

10. The method of claim 1 whereby further the three dimensional nano structures are developed from a process of a nano scale melt to relocate the base silicon material from the center of the melted site to peripheral areas resulting in nano cavities, nano rims, and nano protrusions and raising the electromagnetic signal absorption rate on the base silicon materials.

11. The method of claim 1 whereby further an optimally functional RFID antenna is designed at a macro level to be a resonant match to the RFID system for which it is planned for use and still further cutting this macro level template antenna to general direction and a specific resonant frequency of the host RFID system.

12. The method of claim 1 whereby further the details of the macro level template antenna design are photo exposed to a thin layer of photosensitive polymer which is part of the surface of a polished silicon wafer.

13. The method of claim 1 whereby further the details of design are demagnified or reduced photographically to an image which perfectly replicates the design features of the macro level template directional antenna on a master stencil mask.

14. The method system of claim 1 whereby further the master stencil mask is applied to the reverse side of base silicon building material outlined in claim 1.

15. The method of claim 14 whereby further the master stencil mask and three dimensional nano structures which are manufactured into either side of one sheet of bulk commercial silicon wafer base material are cut using normal semiconductor industry methods into individual wafers.

16. The method of producing a Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) antenna as an integral part of an RFID integrated circuit using silicon as antenna material thereby enabling the antenna and integrated circuit to be manufactured as one piece, said method comprising:

providing commercially produced bulk sheets of silicon wafer base material (silicon wafers);

femtosecond laser ablating, with a sharply focused pulse, the silicon wafers to create three dimensional nano structures out of the silicon base material;

designing the antenna as a complex resonant antenna at a macro level and reducing it through a process of de-magnification or photographically to a nano sized image which perfectly replicates design features of a macro level template directional antenna on a master stencil mask and, still further,

forming this structure on the reverse side of silicon wafers treated with femtosecond laser ablation;

manufacturing said femtosecond laser ablation silicon wafers into radio frequency identification antennas and whereby the individual wafers are applied, using standard semiconductor industry layering method, onto a semiconductor to be used in an RFID system.