Leveraging Near Field Communication in Printed Sensor Systems

Advances in wireless technologies have opened up new opportunities in flexible electronics. Enabling bi-directional short range wireless communication, near field communication (NFC) is among the emerging technologies positioned to shape the architecture of flexible printed sensor systems.

Printed NFC sensor devices, such as patches used in body-worn temperature monitors or tamper detection devices require no on-board power, plugs or wired connections. The integrated chip in the patch activates only when in proximity of an NFC-enabled reader or cellular device. Producing an NFC sensor system requires a functional NFC part and a functional sensor part. Both of these key functional elements can now be more efficiently fabricated using printed silver flex manufacturing and assembly processes.