Electronic tag

Abstract

The electronic tag is characterized in that the electronic tag is provided with a base material, an antenna and a communication module, the base material is made of a flexible material, the antenna is made of a flexible wire, the flexible wire and the communication module are fixed on the base material, and the antenna is electrically connected with a signal input / output interface of the communication module. The whole electronic tag is of a flexible structure, and has the advantages that cost is reduced by half, signals are doubled and durability is better on year-on-year basis.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present invention relates to a durable electronic tag using a conductive fiber as an antenna, and in particular to how such an electronic tag can achieve a substantial year-on-year reduction in cost, improved communication performance and improved product durability through innovative mechanical structures, production methods and protective materials. Background Art

[0002] Electronic tags are an industry with a market value of hundreds of billions of yuan, and can be divided into disposable electronic tags and durable electronic tags. The disposable electronic tags are generally attached to the surface of disposable and hard objects such as packaging boxes and beverage bottles, and have extremely low requirements for anti-destruction, so they are often almost exposed stickers; while the durable electronic tags are widely used in animal husbandry, forestry, tire management, equipment management and other fields, and have high requirements for anti-destruction, so they basically have a relatively hard shell or structure specifically used to protect the electronic part of the electronic tag.

[0003] The electronic part of the electronic tag includes at least an antenna and a communication module, both of which are relatively easy to be damaged for the following reasons: Most of the antennas used in existing electronic tags are two-dimensional antennas such as silver paste printed antennas, metal foil etched antennas, and metal film die-cut antennas. A small number of antennas are three-dimensional antennas such as metal spring antennas.

[0004] The reason why two-dimensional antennas do not have the characteristics of anti-pulling and anti-twisting is that two-dimensional antennas themselves are not stretchable, and are often fixed on a substrate that has basically no stretching and rebounding capabilities by strong glue. When the substrate is strongly stretched and twisted to produce obvious deformation, the two-dimensional antenna will also be damaged by the pulling of the glue. For example, the electronic tags using two-dimensional antennas are ear-pin-type electronic tags used in animal husbandry. When livestock wear them, they are easy to bite each other and squeeze their bodies, causing serious deformation of the two-dimensional antenna and the substrate.

[0005] There are two reasons why the three-dimensional antenna does not have the characteristics of anti-pulling and anti-twisting. The first is that the metal spring antenna itself is relatively hard. When it is pulled and twisted, it is easy to generate a lot of stress at the welding point with the communication module of the electronic tag (usually a circuit board with a chip welded on it), causing the welding point to be damaged; the second is that the material of the metal spring antenna is relatively coarse and is more prone to metal fatigue. When it is pulled and twisted many times, it will break. For example, the electronic tag using the metal spring antenna is generally integrated with the car tire to track the information of the car tire. Long-term bumps during the driving of the car and the deformation of the tire due to underpressure can easily cause damage to the metal spring antenna.

[0006] The reason why the communication module is easily damaged is that the electronic components on the communication module are often the most protruding parts. When the electronic tag is squeezed, the electronic components will first bear the squeezing force and will inevitably be damaged first.

[0007] Therefore, durable electronic tags must use a harder shell or structure to protect the electronic part. This results in the cost of durable electronic tags being nearly 10 times that of disposable electronic tags with the same electrical performance.

[0008] For example, the cost proportions of ear-stud type electronic tags used in animal husbandry are as follows: the two-dimensional antenna and communication module account for 10%, the fixed structure accounts for 15%, and the protective shell for protecting the antenna and communication module and the assembly fee account for 75%.

[0009] For example, the cost ratio of the Band-Aid type electronic tag used in wheel tires is as follows: the metal spring antenna and communication module account for 10%, the adhesive tape accounts for 5%, and the rubber protective shell that protects the antenna and communication module and the assembly fee account for 85%.

[0010] That is to say, users of durable electronic tags pay about 80% of the cost for the protective shell or protective structure.

[0011] In addition, the communication distance of a durable electronic tag is significantly shorter than that of a disposable electronic tag of the same size. The reason is that the mechanical strength of the edge area of ​​the protective shell or protective structure is significantly weaker than that of the central area. Therefore, only the central area can be used to protect the electronic part. Therefore, the antenna area is generally only 2 / 3 of the area of ​​the protective shell or protective structure (earring type electronic tag), or even 1 / 10 (Band-Aid type electronic tag). The antenna area determines the communication distance of the electronic tag: when the antenna is in an environment with the same dielectric constant, the larger the antenna area, the longer the communication distance.

[0012] Furthermore, if the dielectric constant of the antenna environment can be increased and the dielectric loss tangent can be ignored, the communication distance of the antenna will be longer under the same antenna area. For example, although the ear-pin type electronic tag uses a preformed plastic shell to surround the two-dimensional antenna, the two-dimensional antenna is actually still in the air inside the shell. If the shell can be filled with a material with a relative dielectric constant significantly greater than 2 and a negligible dielectric loss tangent, the communication distance of the two-dimensional antenna of the same size will be significantly increased. However, this processing method is very complicated and costly, and has no practical application value.

[0013] Therefore, it is necessary to invent a new type of electronic tag that can reduce the cost associated with the protective shell, meet durability requirements, and achieve a longer communication distance. Summary of the invention

[0014] The present invention discloses an electronic tag, which is characterized by having a substrate, an antenna, and a communication module, wherein the substrate is a flexible material, such as one or any combination of cloth, rubber sheet, silicone sheet, and PU sheet, the antenna is made of a flexible wire, and the flexible wire is designed to be in a shape that meets the electromagnetic wave transceiver characteristics required by the application, the flexible wire and the communication module are fixed on the substrate, and the antenna is electrically connected to the signal input and output interface of the communication module; the production method of the electronic tag is as follows: First, the antenna is fixed on the substrate by sewing or gluing, and then the communication module is electrically connected to the antenna by conductive gluing or welding and indirectly fixed on the substrate.

[0015] In order to solve the problem that the existing antenna itself is not resistant to pulling and twisting, the antenna disclosed in the present invention is one or a combination of metallized fiber, carbon fiber composite material or graphene-coated polymer fiber.

[0016] Preferably, metallized fiber is used as the antenna material, characterized in that the outer diameter of the single fiber is less than 30um and the resistivity of a single fiber is less than 100Ω / cm, and the structural feature is that it has at least two materials, namely material A and material B, wherein at least the longitudinal thermal expansion coefficient of material A in the range of -40°C to +150°C is less than 25x106 / °C, and material A can be one of aramid, carbon fiber, basalt fiber, modified glass fiber, etc.; wherein at least material B is a conductor with an inherent electron concentration of >1028m-3 and a resistivity of <1×10-6 Ω·m and releases electrons to the outside under the action of the high voltage, and material B can be one of metals such as copper, silver, aluminum, iron, nickel, etc.

[0017] According to a large number of experiments by the inventors, the best choice of the metallized fiber is to use the method of "using a special process to form a cross-linked chelate" mentioned in Section 3.1 of the Q / 0222TYF-001-2020 standard document by Qingdao Tianyin Textile Technology Co., Ltd., Shandong, China, to grow a good conductor on the surface of materials with a longitudinal thermal expansion coefficient of less than 25x106 / ℃ in the range of -40℃ to +150℃, such as aramid, carbon fiber, modified glass fiber, and basalt fiber. For example, a 10um diameter metal fiber formed by chelating 2.5um aluminum on the surface of a 5um diameter aramid wire has a tens of times higher tensile strength than a copper wire of the same diameter, and the number of times it breaks due to bending is dozens of times that of a copper wire of the same diameter. Moreover, the finer and thinner the metal, the less likely it is to experience metal fatigue when the bending radius is much larger than the radius of the metallized fiber.

[0018] In order to solve the problem that the electronic components are easily damaged first when the electronic tag is squeezed, the area of ​​the substrate where the communication module is fixed is provided with a pit or a perforation, and the communication module has a sheet-type circuit board and a raised electronic component pre-soldered on the surface of the sheet-type circuit board. When the communication module is fixed on the substrate, the electronic component with the highest raised height of the communication module is located in the pit or the perforation. Therefore, as long as the thickness of the substrate is greater than the raised height of the electronic component, the substrate will be the first to bear the pressure when squeezed, so that the electronic components can be protected.

[0019] In order to solve the problem that the antenna of livestock ear-stud type electronic tags is easily worn and fuzzed due to scratches during use, resulting in changes in electrical properties, the electronic tag also has a protective layer. The protective layer has a protective material that meets application requirements. The protective layer is used to cover and protect part or all of the substrate, the antenna and the communication module.

[0020] There are two options for the protective material. The first protective material adopts in-situ molding material. The in-situ molding material has the characteristics of "fluid during processing and solidified after processing". It can penetrate and cover the substrate, the antenna and the communication module in the fluid state, and the cured protective material can be stretched by >10% in length and has almost 100% resilience. The relative dielectric constant of the cured protective material is >2.5 and the dielectric loss tangent is <0.07; therefore, in reality, the first protective material is one or any combination of hot melt adhesive, nitrile rubber, styrene butadiene rubber, silicone, photocurable adhesive, epoxy resin, and polyurethane.

[0021] When the first protective material is used, the production method will use a coating method or a laminating method to infiltrate and cover the protective material in a fluid state onto the antenna, the communication module, and part or all of the substrate. After curing, the protective material is interconnected with the flexible wire, the communication module, and part or all of the substrate through a mechanical structure.

[0022] Because the antenna is penetrated and covered by the first protective material, and in actual applications the antenna will adopt a wavy or serpentine pattern to meet the electromagnetic characteristics and size restrictions, when the electronic tag is twisted or pulled, the antenna can also be easily deformed without being damaged. When the electronic tag is scratched, due to the effect of the first protective material, the metallized fibers will not be scratched or scattered, causing the antenna to fail.

[0023] The second type of protective material uses a preformed flexible material, such as one or any combination of cloth, rubber sheet, silicone sheet, PU sheet. When the protective material described in this claim is used, the production method will use sewing or bonding to cover the protective material on part or all of the area of ​​the antenna, the communication module and the substrate.

[0024] Because the protective material, substrate, antenna, and communication module are ultimately combined into one, the antenna can utilize almost the entire design range of the electronic tag. Therefore, the area of ​​the antenna of the electronic tag disclosed in the present invention must be larger than that of the antenna of the existing electronic tag, so the signal response characteristics must be improved or even improved many times.

[0025] Since the first protective material has better durability, better dielectric constant, and the production method adopted is almost the same as that of making artificial leather, the first protective material is most preferred. When the first protective material is used, firstly, the material usage cost and assembly cost can be significantly reduced. For example, for the ear-stud type electronic tags for animal husbandry, the protective shell and processing cost of the existing products are about 2 yuan, while the cost of replacing the first protective material (such as nitrile rubber) disclosed by the present invention and the coating method processing is only 0.5 yuan for the same size. Even if the cost of the metallized fiber is slightly higher than that of the existing two-dimensional antenna, the total cost is reduced from about 3 yuan to 1.4 yuan; secondly, by using a protective material with a higher relative dielectric constant to infiltrate and wrap the antenna, the signal characteristics and communication distance of the antenna can be greatly improved when the antenna area is the same or even about 90% of the area of ​​the electronic tag can be utilized. According to the test signal, the signal is enhanced by about 2 times and the communication distance is increased by about 1.4 times; finally, because the protective material is combined with the antenna, the communication module and part or all of the area of ​​the substrate into an integrated structure, the product life and use reliability of the battery tag are significantly enhanced, and the durable electronic tag that was originally not bendable can also be made bendable, and better durability is obtained by softening the rigidity.

[0026] In summary, because the antenna is made of flexible wire, and if the substrate is made of cloth, the protective material is made of hot melt adhesive, and the communication module is bonded to the antenna with conductive adhesive to achieve electrical connection, then the electronic tag disclosed by the present invention can be mass-produced on a continuous production line using the process of making artificial leather, and finally cut by knife cutting. This method further reduces the cost of the assembly link and improves production efficiency, which has obvious advantages over the production of existing electronic tags.

[0027] Therefore, the electronic tag disclosed by the present invention has the beneficial effects of significantly reducing the cost (the year-on-year cost can be reduced by more than 50%), enhancing the signal (about 2 times), and having stronger resistance to twisting and pulling (can be bent and pulled repeatedly) compared with the existing electronic tags, so it will bring revolutionary impetus to the market. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0028] Figure 1 It is a structural schematic diagram of the first embodiment of the present invention.

[0029] Figure 2 This is the first embodiment of the existing electronic tag.

[0030] Figure 3 This is the second embodiment of the existing electronic tag.

[0031] Figure 4 Schematic diagram of a second embodiment of the present invention.

[0032] Figure 5 Schematic diagram of a third embodiment of the present invention. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0033] In order to more clearly illustrate the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present invention, the following is a brief introduction to the drawings required for the description of the embodiments. Obviously, the drawings described below are only some embodiments of the present invention and do not limit the scope of application of the present invention. For ordinary technicians in the field, the present invention can be applied to other similar scenarios based on these drawings without creative work; as shown in this specification and claims, unless the context clearly indicates an exception, the words "one", "a", "a kind" and / or "the" do not specifically refer to the singular, but may also include the plural. In general, the terms "including" or "comprising" only indicate that the steps and elements that have been clearly identified are included, and these steps and elements do not constitute an exclusive list, and the method or device may also include other steps or elements. The term "based on" means "based at least in part". The term "one embodiment" means "at least one embodiment"; the term "another embodiment" means "at least one other embodiment".

[0034] exist Figure 1 In the invention, the substrate 1 is made of porous cloth, the antenna 2 composed of metallized fibers is fixed on the surface of the substrate 1 by sewing, the antenna 2 is electrically connected to the communication module 3 by conductive glue or soldering 31, and finally the protective layer 4 made of hot melt adhesive is penetrated, covered and wrapped. Figure 1 On the right side of the dotted line, when the electronic tag disclosed by the present invention is pulled or twisted by an external force, the antenna 2 and the substrate 1 will be macroscopically deformed, but will not be damaged. When the external force disappears, the antenna 2 and the substrate 1 will basically return to their original state. Because the antenna 2 is a wire-mounted antenna, even a slight deformation will not have a significant impact on the signal receiving and transmitting performance.

[0035] exist Figure 2In the figure, an existing electronic tag using a two-dimensional antenna 5 is shown. The left side of the dotted line shows the state when it is not pulled or twisted, and the right side of the dotted line shows the state when it is pulled or twisted. It can be seen that when pulled or twisted by an external force, some areas 51 of the two-dimensional antenna 5 will be torn.

[0036] exist Figure 3 In the figure, an existing electronic tag using a three-dimensional antenna 6 is shown. The three-dimensional antenna 6 is wrapped by rubber 7 and attached to a flexible substrate 1. The left side of the dotted line shows the state when it is not pulled or twisted, and the right side of the dotted line shows the state when it is pulled or twisted by an external force. It can be seen that when it is pulled or twisted, some areas of the three-dimensional antenna 6 will be severely deformed or even broken 61, and the electrical connection with the communication module 3 will be broken 61.

[0037] And in Figure 3 In the 3D antenna 6, only about 5% of the entire electronic tag is occupied, and the signal characteristics are relatively poor. Figure 4 A new type of electronic tag of the same size is manufactured using the technology disclosed in the present invention, the antenna 2 occupies more than 90% of the entire electronic tag, and the signal characteristics are significantly optimized.

[0038] exist Figure 5 In order to protect the electronic components 33 of the communication module 3, the substrate 1 has a through hole, and the communication module 3 is inverted on the substrate 1 so that the electronic components 33 are arranged in this through hole. The electronic components 33 are electrically connected to the antenna 2 through a thin-sheet circuit board 32 and then through a conductive glue or soldering method 31.

Claims

1. An electronic tag, characterized in that: It has a substrate, an antenna, and a communication module. The substrate is a flexible material, such as one or any combination of cloth, rubber sheet, silicone sheet, and PU sheet. The antenna is made of a flexible wire, and the flexible wire is designed to have a shape that satisfies the electromagnetic wave transceiver characteristics required by the application. The flexible wire and the communication module are fixed on the substrate. The antenna is electrically connected to the signal input and output interface of the communication module; The production method of the electronic tag is as follows: First, the antenna is fixed on the substrate by sewing or gluing, and then the communication module is electrically connected to the antenna by conductive gluing or welding and indirectly fixed on the substrate.

2. An electronic tag according to claim 1, characterized in that: The antenna is one or a combination of metallized fiber carbon fiber composite material or graphene-coated polymer fiber.

3. An electronic tag according to claim 2, characterized in that: The outer diameter of the metallized fiber is less than 30um and the resistivity of the single fiber is less than 100Ω / cm, and the structural feature is that the metallized fiber has at least two materials, namely material A and material B. Wherein at least the longitudinal thermal expansion coefficient of material A in the range of -40°C to +150°C is less than 25x106 / °C, and material A may be one of aramid, carbon fiber, basalt fiber, modified glass fiber, etc.; At least material B is a conductor with an intrinsic electron concentration of >1028m-3 and a resistivity of <1×10-6 Ω·m and releases electrons to the outside under the action of the high voltage. Material B can be one of metals such as copper, silver, aluminum, iron, nickel, etc.

4. The electronic tag according to claim 1, characterized in that: The area of ​​the substrate where the communication module is fixed is provided with a pit or a perforation, The communication module comprises a sheet-type circuit board and raised electronic components pre-soldered on the surface of the sheet-type circuit board. When the communication module is fixed on the substrate, the electronic component of the communication module with the highest protrusion height is located in the pit or the through hole.

5. The electronic tag according to claim 1, characterized in that: The electronic tag also has a protective layer. The protective layer has a protective material that meets the application requirements. The protective layer is used to cover and protect a part or all of the substrate, the antenna and the communication module.

6. An electronic tag according to claim 5, characterized in that: The protective material adopts an in-situ molding material, and the in-situ molding material has the characteristics of "fluid during processing and solidified after processing", and can penetrate and cover the substrate, the antenna and the communication module in a fluid state, and the protective material after solidification can be stretched by more than 10% in length and has almost 100% resilience, and the relative dielectric constant of the protective material after solidification is more than 2.5 and the dielectric loss tangent is less than 0.07; When the protective material described in this claim is used, the production method will also use a coating method or a laminating method to infiltrate and cover the protective material in a fluid state onto part or all of the antenna, the communication module, and the substrate. After curing, the protective material is interconnected with the flexible wire, the communication module, and the substrate through a mechanical structure.

7. An electronic tag according to claim 6, characterized in that: The protective material is one or any combination of hot melt adhesive, nitrile rubber, styrene butadiene rubber, silica gel, light curing adhesive, epoxy resin, and polyurethane.

8. The electronic tag according to claim 5, characterized in that: The protective material is made of preformed flexible material, such as one or any combination of cloth, rubber sheet, silicone sheet, PU sheet. When the protective material described in this claim is used, the production method will use sewing or bonding to cover the protective material on part or all of the area of ​​the antenna, the communication module and the substrate.

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