Production of RFID inlays: The process must be perfect

Dipl.-Ing. Florian Hierl, Business Development Manager RFID, DELO Industrial Adhesives In 2007 RFID the keyword and hope of many users, particularly in supply chain management and logistics processes, took a short break in development for technological and also systematic reasons. Basically, technological challenges (e. g. in the field of UHF) had to be clarified. And due to a general and worldwide broadening of RFID applications, the value proposition RFID means for production, logistics and anti-counterfeiting could be made clear to a wide spectrum of users. The horizontal expansion to a wide range of users and the knowledge gained on the realization of RFID technology are the signs for a sustainable enhancement in the near future. In the value chain, DELO Industrial Adhesives considerably contributes to meeting the requirements regarding productivity in the RFID inlay production as well as product quality of the inlays in the application (see Illustration 1). The adhesives DELO has developed for contacting the chip to the antenna substrate play a major role for the efficiency of HF and UHF inlays.

Illustration 1: Value Chain of the RFID inlay production

In order to explain the adhesives tasks more clearly, a reel-to-reel production process of RFID inlays is exemplarily illustrated below.

Illustration 2 Exemplary illustration of a typical production process for RFID inlays: In the first step, the adhesive is applied. Then, the chip is placed. Afterwards, contacting is ensured in the subsequent thermode station. The antenna produced in a preprocess is fed to the production machine from a roll. The antennas are mostly made of PET basic laminates, either with copper or aluminium metallization. Moreover, antennas printed with silver inks are available. Paper- or polyimide-based antennas are common substrate variants. Production in cycles tuned to seconds The first step of the inlay production is the adhesive application to the contact surface of the antenna, to which the chip is to be attached later. The adhesive is either applied through needle dispensing, or by means of screen printing, as shown in illustration 2, in the case of parallel antennas on the substrate, that is to say larger web widths. Afterwards, the chip is placed from the wafer to the antenna into the adhesive with the flip-chip method. This procedure is applied as the active side of the chip with the bumps (contacting areas) is open and directs upwards after chip production, and functionality is only achieved if this side faces the antenna so that the chip must be flipped. The placement of the chip is followed by a buffer station in order to subsequently cure the adhesive in a thermode station (see illustration 3). In doing so, the temperature is added to the system with an upper and a lower heated plunger (thermode). Besides heat addition, the thermodes fulfill the function of pressing the chip to the antenna under defined force, ensuring electrical contacting. Afterwards,

one inspection step (functionality test) is interposed in order to detect possibly missing components and make them recognizable for the following processes (e. g. conversion to a label).

Illustration 3 In the thermode station, the chip is pressed onto the antenna in order to achieve contacting and cure the adhesive in position through heat addition.

In principle, the adhesive either a non-conductive die attach adhesive or an anisotropic conductive (in one spatial direction) product undertakes the task of reliably fixing the microchip to the antenna at a defined position. Besides purely mechanical tasks, the adhesive ensures electrical contacting, additionally. In case of chips with stud or Pd bumps (illustration 4), electrical contacting is only indirectly reached by the adhesive. These bump variants are distinguished by a very sharp-edged geometry and inhomogeneous surfaces so that the bumps directly penetrate the metallization layer when placing the chip onto the antenna substrate, closing the electrical contact. The adhesive in the form of a nonconductive product (NCP = Non Conductive Paste) only ensures the chips position accuracy in all three spatial directions in this case. Even minimal lifting of the chip from the substrate opens the contact and would lead to a functional deficiency of the inlay.

Illustration 4 Microscopic exposure of a stud bump. Its spike directly penetrates the metallization of the antenna (illustration 5) and establishes the contact.

Illustration 5 Schematic illustration of contacting with stud bumps (yellow). The adhesive (blue) ensures exact positioning of the chip.

Besides mechanical fixing and positioning, the second adhesive type, the so-called ACP (Anistropic Conductive Paste) directly ensures electrical contacting through a polymer resin matrix filled with special particles. ACP are mainly used if the chip is equipped with geometrically very homogeneous and flat Au or NiAu bumps (illustration 6) which cannot penetrate the metallization layer of the antenna. Naturally, these adhesives must meet the same performance requirements like the NCP and must not allow any relative movements in any spatial direction of the chip to the antenna.

Illustration 6 Schematic illustration of a flat gold bump (yellow). It is contacted by means of an anisotropic adhesive (blue) filled with conductive particles (silver). Cost optimization through new adhesives In the meantime, DELO provides three generations of adhesives which meet highest reliability requirements and reach extremely fast curing speeds at low temperatures at the same time. Thus, the adhesives can be cured with standard production equipment at a thermode temperature of 140 C in 5 seconds, whereas previous standard thermode temperatures could reach up to 210 C and cycle times of approx. 10 s were the rule. DELOs highly accelerated adhesives can increase the productivity of standard systems to approx. 25,000 pieces per hour. Moreover, their low curing temperatures make it possible to use substrates which are less heat-stabilized and, therefore, less expensive. Both advantages save costs in the inlay production process. Therefore, DELO makes an active contribution to cost optimization in this price-sensitive business line. Of course, the adhesive groups are complemented by miscellaneous variants of particles and particle mixtures so that an optimized solution can be provided for nearly any combination of antenna, chip, process requirements and reliability needs.