RFID ITEM LEVEL LABEL CONSTRUCTION WITHOUT NEED FOR CHIP OR STRAP ATTACHMENT

Background of the Invention

RPID (Radio Frequency Identification) labels traditionally consist of an antenna, (printed, etched, screened, foil stamped) and an IC (Integrated Circuit), either attached directly to the antenna leads, or integrated in a so-called "strap packaged format", whereby the leads of the straps can be aligned with the antenna leads for easier placement. Straps are particularly useful for connecting RFID chips to printed antennas in the on-press label construction where antennas are printed on the same substrate stock as is used for labels or consumer good packaging material.

The problem with attaching straps to printed antennas is that these straps have to be handled on a high-speed press, using very expensive and static-sensitive equipment, generating chip and substrate waste, slowing the production process (e.g in label printing applications). A further issue is the fact that the strap-attach process is largely controlled by Avery Dennison Corporation (e.g. US Patent No.6,951,596) which makes it difficult for label converters to find machinery which uses non- Avery patented technology, adding cost, complexity and market-entry barriers to the manufacturing of RFID enabled labels. This leaves as the only choice to utilize pre-made inlays, already containing the chip attached to an antenna, usually on a PET material, and gluing such inlay into the label construction.

The above is acceptable for case tagging, pallet labeling and other applications not involving the tagging of individual items, such as consumer goods packaging. Such packaging often involves very specialized labels. For example, with cosmetics and personal hygiene products labels are often made of translucent plastic material into which standard RFID inlays cannot easily be placed. Placing inlays would interfere with the graphics of the item labels, or create an undesired look to the package itself.

Label converters who already have packaging and filling lines are going to be hard-pressed to integrate chip or strap-attachment into their finely tuned high speed production systems. Therefore it would be desirable to be able to produce item level RFID constructs which do not require a chip or strap to be attached during high-speed label making.

Summary of the Invention

The present invention circumscribes a system which is extremely flexible and requires no changes to label making/printing equipment, no changes to item filling (such as cosmetic container filling), does not impact the look or feel of the item level label, and does not result in any chip waste

due to static or improperly attached chips or straps. In fact, the present invention involves the "marriage" of three distinct items:

1) the item level container, such as a lotion bottle, shampoo bottle, cosmetic container or such;

2) the item level label, including so-called "invisible" labels made of transparent and nearly invisible label stock giving a highly desired "finished" look and feel to consumer item packages; and

3) the chip strap which is available in pre constructed format on tape-and-reel from a variety of suppliers, such as TI, Alien, ST Micro, Phillips etc. Although the chips can be of any frequency, the preferred frequency range is in the UHF or higher range.

Broadly speaking, the present invention provides an RPID item level construct involving an antenna printed or otherwise placed upon or integrated into a label or wrapper; an RFID strap placed directly upon the surface of an item level container, such as a bottle, case, box, or container of any irregular, regular, round, square or other shape made of any non-metallic material, or if made of metallic material placed using a spacer (such as foam or cardboard); and an indirect matching of the two components by placing the pre-printed label upon the container in exactly the usual fashion without regard to any special attachment process, material, connecting or other handling requirement in order to make a fully functioning RFID-enabled item.

Brief Description of the Drawings

Figure 1 is an exploded view of an RFID item level construct in accordance with the present invention.

Figure 2 illustrates an assembly station with which the present invention is utilized.

Description of the Invention

The method of the present invention can be described as follows:

A label 10 is printed. Labels invariably contain a barcode field which is printed against an opaque field (usually white) on transparent labels, or in case of paper label printed directly on the paper substrate. The antenna shape 12 is printed directly onto either the back of the stock (in case of paper on the backside of the graphics), or it can be printed as a first layer, then overprinted with opaque color before being overprinted with the barcode. This is just one way of placing the antenna, but obviously there are other ways of printing and "hiding" such an antenna.

The point of the present invention is to make the placement of the printed antenna 12 convenient to the individual package format without disturbing the aesthetics of the look and feel of the package.

Such labels can be printed in large volumes, without the need to worry about chip strap placement, or even the brand of chip to be placed.

At some point before the label is applied onto the item level, the chip strap 14 is placed onto the ITEM container 16 (in previous constructions, the strap is glued or attached onto the label itself and the entire RPID label is placed onto the structure). It is very easy to attach straps onto containers, as they basically handle like small stickers, or holograms. It is up to the packager to find the best way to place the strap onto the item level container. For example the strap could be placed within a slight indentation 18 in the wall of the container 16.

The strap must be placed in such a way that once the label is applied, the strap leads coincide with the antenna pads. However, it is not necessary to have a direct conductive electrical connection, especially in the case of UHF (approx. 915 Mhz) tags. That means even if the antenna is printed on the front side of the substrate, and the backside is in contact with the strap and item level package, it would become a working item level RFID construct. Obviously, the same holds true if there is a layer of adhesive 20 (non conductive standard label adhesive) between the back of the label 10 and the strap 16.

Such constructs have been built as per the following example:

Plastic shampoo bottle purchased at drug store

Alien UHF strap was acquired.

Existing "invisible" plastic label was removed from the shampoo bottle.

A patch antenna coinciding with the size of the barcode field was printed on the label (using XINK™ InstaCure™ UHF Silver Aqueous Flexographic Ink) printed on a 551bs semigloss Fasson adhesive paper stock

The paper label was cut out around the shape of the patch antenna.

The antenna patch was placed on the backside of the transparent item level product label after having been removed from the bottle, in two ways a) printed antenna side oriented toward the bottle and b) printed antenna side oriented toward the outside.

The working UHF strap was placed upon the bottle.

The label was positioned so that the strap leads would be matched to the antenna leads

The item was read using a 915 Mhz UHF antenna and reader at various distances.

In both version (a) and version 9b), the antenna and strap construction integrated onto the shampoo bottle were readable.

Fig. 1 is an exploded view illustrating the components that would be utilized in achieving an item level construct in accordance with the present invention, namely a bottle 16 to which the construct is applied, chip strap 14 receivable in a suitable indentation 18 in the bottle, an RFID antenna 12 positioned in one of two available locations, suitable adhesive 20 and the label stock 10 for the article.

Fig. 2 illustrates an assembly station 22 for applying label stock 24 to an article such as a bottle 16 which has already been provided with a chip strap 14 in a suitable indentation 18 thereof. The labels, each with antenna 10 attached thereto, are fed seriatim to the application unit which receives the article, with the chip strap 14 facing upwardly. At the unit each label 10 in turn is removed from the web 24 of labels and applied to the article 16 so that the antenna is located appropriately relative to the chip strap 14, thereby rendering the article fully labeled and ready for shipment, with an RFID tag thereon.