RFID - Radio Frequency Identification
Heraeus Materials Technology counts among the market leaders in the manufacture of flexible substrates for RFID applications. For fifteen years Heraeus has developed, established and refined this technology for the mass production of 35 mm strips for various applications. One example is the identity card with stored biometric data or fingerprints. Each application is a new challenge. In spite of mass production – up to 3200 pieces a minute run through special high performance stamping tools – the flexible stamped and laminated substrates are not "off the peg" products. For the process, Heraeus uses the so-called reel-to-reel technologies. The properties of substrates are optimized to meet the individual customer's application requirements for areas of application in which a carrier for electronic components are needed.
Depending on the application, special challenges have to be met. Amongst these are a wide variety of structures with different surfaces, three dimensional mounted devices, widely differing metallurgical and electrical properties of the substrates and above all the constant miniaturization of electronic components. A special challenge is encountered in the use of materials with different thermal expansion coefficients (e.g. metal layer and polymer layer), which must be
laminated under pressure with exact matching.
