Fabrication of electrodes and near-field communication tags based on screen printing of silver seed patterns and copper electroless plating

Abstract

Highly conductive patterns were studied based on a combination of screen printing and electroless plating using Ag and Cu, respectively. Furthermore, near-field communication (NFC) tags were fabricated to demonstrate the performance of the conductive patterns. Ag and Cu patterns with thicknesses of 2-6 µm and 6 µm, respectively, were obtained. The conductivity of the pattern after the electroplating process was improved to approximately 20-30 times higher than that of the Ag-printed seed pattern, and its performance was 30% of that of a traditional chemical-etched pattern based on the photolithography process. Moreover, the Cu electroless plated pattern reached a level of 50% of the bulk Ag material. In addition, the resonance frequency of the fabricated NFC tag was measured using various numbers of coil turns, and was observed to range from 16 to 25 MHz. All the experimental processes were performed on a mass production platform and approached the commercialization level.