Deactivatable electronic article surveillance tag and method for making same

An electronic article surveillance tag, comprising:

• a dielectric substrate having upper and lower surfaces;
• and
• a first electrode and an inductor fabricated from a printed conductive ink onto the upper surface of the dielectric substrate and a second electrode fabricated from a printed conductive ink onto lower surface of the dielectric substrate, the first and second electrodes being positioned with respect to each other to form a capacitor, the inductor and capacitor being connected together to form a resonant circuit that is tuned to be detectable by a sensor,
• the dielectric substrate including an acid-etched membrane that provides insulation between the first and second electrodes, the membrane failing when a deactivation voltage is applied across the electronic article surveillance tag, causing the resonant circuit to become detuned.

A method for manufacturing an electronic article surveillance tag, comprising:

• applying an acid solution to a dielectric substrate having an upper surface and a lower surface;
• allowing the acid solution to form a membrane in the dielectric substrate;
• washing the acid solution off of the dielectric substrate;
• fabricating circuit components from a printed conductive ink onto the upper surface and lower surface of the dielectric substrate, the circuit components forming a resonant circuit that is tuned to be detectable by a sensor, the membrane providing insulation between a first circuit component on the upper surface of the dielectric substrate and a second circuit component on the lower surface of the dielectric substrate, the membrane failing when a deactivation voltage is applied across the electronic article surveillance tag, causing the resonant circuit to become detuned.

A method for manufacturing an electronic article surveillance tag, comprising:

• applying an acid solution to a dielectric substrate having an upper surface and a lower surface;
• allowing the acid solution to form a membrane in the dielectric substrate;
• washing the acid solution off of the dielectric substrate;
• fabricating an inductor and a first electrode from a printed conductive ink onto an upper surface of the dielectric substrate;
• fabricating a second electrode from a printed conductive ink onto a lower surface of the dielectric substrate, the first and second electrodes being positioned with respect to each other to form a capacitor, the inductor and capacitor being connected into a resonant circuit that is tuned to be detectable by a sensor, the membrane providing insulation between the first and second electrodes, the membrane failing when a deactivation voltage is applied across the electronic article surveillance tag, causing the resonant circuit to become detuned.

An electronic article surveillance tag, comprising:

• a dielectric substrate;
• a first circuit component layer fabricated from a printed conductive ink onto a first side of the dielectric substrate;
• a dielectric layer fabricated from a printed insulative material on top of the first layer of circuit components on the first side of the dielectric substrate;
• a second circuit component layer fabricated from a printed conductive ink onto the dielectric layer on the first side of the dielectric substrate, the first and second circuit component layers forming a resonant circuit that is tuned to be detectable by a sensor;
• the dielectric layer including a print-formed membrane that provides insulation between a first circuit component in the first circuit component layer and a second circuit component in the second circuit component layer, the membrane failing when a deactivation voltage is applied across the electronic article surveillance tag, causing the resonant circuit to become detuned.

An electronic article surveillance tag, comprising:

• a dielectric substrate;
• a first circuit component layer, including a first electrode, fabricated from a printed conductive ink onto a first side of the dielectric substrate;
• a dielectric layer fabricated from a printed insulative material on top of the first circuit component layer on the first side of the dielectric substrate;
• a second circuit component layer fabricated from a printed conductive ink on top of the dielectric layer on the first side of the dielectric substrate, the second circuit component layer including an inductor and a second electrode, the first electrode and the second electrode being positioned with respect to each other to form a capacitor, the inductor and the capacitor being connected into a resonant circuit that is tuned to be detectable by a sensor;
• the dielectric layer including a print-formed membrane that provides insulation between the first and second electrodes, the membrane failing when a deactivation voltage is applied across the electronic article surveillance tag, causing the resonant circuit to become detuned.

A tag, comprising:

• a dielectric substrate having upper and lower surfaces, and
• a circuit including a first circuit component fabricated from a conductive ink onto the upper surface of the dielectric substrate and a second circuit component fabricated from a conductive ink onto the lower surface of the dielectric substrate opposite the first circuit component, the circuit being tuned to cause a characteristic perturbation in an electromagnetic field,
• the dielectric substrate including an acid-etched membrane portion between the first and second circuit components, the membrane providing insulation between the first and second circuit components,
• the membrane failing when a deactivation voltage is applied across the tag.

A method for manufacturing a tag, comprising:

• applying an acid solution to a dielectric substrate having an upper surface and a lower surface;
• allowing the acid solution to form a membrane in the dielectric substrate;
• washing the acid solution off of the dielectric substrate;
• and
• fabricating circuit components from a printed conductive ink onto the upper surface and lower surface of the dielectric substrate, the circuit components forming a circuit that is tuned to cause a characteristic perturbation in an electromagnetic field, the membrane providing insulation between a first circuit component on the upper surface of the dielectric substrate and a second circuit component on the lower surface of the dielectric substrate, the membrane failing when a deactivation voltage is applied across the tag.

A tag, comprising:

• a dielectric substrate;
• a first circuit component layer fabricated from a printed conductive ink onto a first side of the dielectric substrate;
• a dielectric layer fabricated from a printed insulative material on top of the first layer of circuit components on the first side of the dielectric substrate;
• and
• a second circuit component layer fabricated from a printed insulative material onto the dielectric layer on the first side of the dielectric substrate, the first and second circuit component layers forming a resonant circuit that is tuned to create a characteristic perturbation in an electromagnetic field;
• the dielectric layer including a print-formed membrane that provides insulation between a first circuit component in the first circuit component layer and a second circuit component in the second circuit component layer, the membrane failing when a deactivation voltage is applied across the electronic article surveillance tag.

A method for fabricating a resonant tag, comprising:

• (a) fabricating a first layer of circuit components onto a first side of a dielectric substrate by using a high-speed printing technique to apply a conductive ink to the first side of the dielectric substrate;
• (b) using a high-speed printing technique to fabricate an insulative layer over the first layer of resonant circuit components on the first side of the dielectric substrate;
• (c) in step (b), using the high-speed printing technique to control the thickness of the insulative layer to create a deactivation membrane in the insulative layer;
• (d) using a high-speed printing technique to fabricate a second layer of circuit components from a conductive ink over the first layer of circuit components and the insulative layer on the first side of the dielectric substrate, the first and second layers of circuit components forming a tuned resonant circuit, the deactivation membrane providing insulation between a component in the first layer of circuit components and a component in the second layer of circuit components, the deactivation membrane failing when a deactivation voltage is applied across the tag, causing the resonant circuit to detune.