Effects of Inkjet Printing Parameters on Conductive Line Patterns for Flexible Electronics Applications

摘要

Aquous silver nitrate ink (5 moles/liter) mixed with poly(N-vinyl-2-pyrrolidone) (PVP) was employed in a piezoelectric inkjet printing apparatus to construct conductive patterns on ultraviolet/ozone-treated polyimide substrates. At a pulse amplitude of ±38 V, single droplets with a diameter of 36 μm were ejected from the orifice. For array patterns, dots with diameters of about 70 μm were deposited at substrate temperatures of 30 °C and 50 °C. The morphologies of line patterns during the manufacturing process, including those with separated, scalloped, uniform, and bulging features, were adjusted by varying the printing parameters, namely dot spacing and stage velocity. Optimal uniform lines with a width of 44-46 μm were easily obtained at a high evaporation rate of 2.4 × 10~(-10) g/ms and a substrate temperature of 50 °C. In addition, the conductive silver line patterns have a resistance of 3.4 × 10~(-5) Ω·cm after being reduced in ethylene glycol vapor at 300 °C for 20 min.