High-resolution patterning of silver thin films with a water-mediated metal transfer printing

We report a direct printing method, water-mediated metal transfer printing (mTP), for generating Ag patterns with a wide range of feature sizes. Water-mediated mTP is based on the direct transfer of a metal thin film from a stamp to a substrate via a water-mediated surface bonding. An Ag thin film is used as a solid "ink" in the mTP, which can be used for the formation of micro- and nanoscale Ag structures. To demonstrate its usefulness, we used the water-mediated mTP to fabricate low voltage ZnO thin-film transistors.     

Printing with Satellite Droplets

Despite their specific methodologies, all current noncontact printing techniques such as inkjet printing (IJP), involve the break‐up of a liquid meniscus during the separation of the ink droplet from the bulk ink reservoir. Often, the break‐up of a liquid meniscus results in the formation of one or more satellite droplet whose volumes are several orders of magnitude smaller than the primary droplet. Many attempts are directed to suppress or control the formation of satellite droplets because they blur the printing result. For the first time, a simple mechanism by which a single satellite droplet is exclusively formed and directed to the substrate by a gas stream while the primary droplet remains attached to a metal rod used for controlling the formation and break‐up of the meniscus is reported. High printing resolution is demonstrated by satellite droplets printing (SDP) without the need for small orifices which are prone to clogging. Furthermore, the droplet generation from a large orifice enables SDP to handle viscous inks which has remained challenging for traditional IJP.     

液态金属基油墨的印刷适性调控与可拉伸电子应用

目的 调整液态金属基油墨的印刷适性，用于可拉伸电极的印刷法构建。方法 通过超声破碎法减小液态金属微粒直径，降低其表面张力;探究聚氨酯种类和含量对液态金属微粒的分散性、油墨流变性、电极的印刷适性和可拉伸性的影响。结果 引入PU1185制备的液态金属油墨，丝印电极分辨率达58 µm;印制电极展现了良好的导电性和可拉伸性，预拉伸稳定后的电极在100%的应变下拉伸1 000次，电阻变化不超2倍。结论 液态金属基油墨能够用于高分辨电路的加工，在可拉伸电子领域具有可预见的应用前景。     

多色打印中基于光谱的油墨选择——最佳油墨选择

描述了从给定油墨库中选择出一组八色油墨,建立最小化同色异谱的八色光谱打印模型的油墨选择算法.对于一个含有n种油墨的油墨库,这里有Cn8种油墨组合,当n很大时,油墨组合的数量就成了几何数字.有些明显不可能的油墨组合,通过解析法可以去除.首先,使用向量相关性分析法来去除没有可行性的组合.然后,用连续调相似评估每一备选油墨组的色度和光谱精确度.选择备选油墨组中对应有光谱精确度最高的一组油墨,定为八色打印过程的最佳油墨组以获取最小同色异谱的色彩复制.     

Reversible Conductive Inkjet Printing of Healable and Recyclable Electrodes on Cardboard and Paper

Conductive inkjet printing with metal nanoparticles is irreversible because the particles are sintered into a continuous metal film. The resulting structures are difficult to remove or repair and prone to cracking. Here, a hybrid ink is used to obviate the sintering step and print interconnected particle networks that become highly conductive immediately after drying. It is shown that reversible conductive printing is possible on low‐cost cardboard samples after applying standard paper industry coats that are adapted in terms of surface energy and porosity. The conductivity of the printed films approaches that of sintered standard inks on the same substrate, but the mobility of the hybrid particle film makes them less sensitive to cracks during bending and folding of the substrate. Damages that occur can be partially repaired by wetting the film such that particle mobility is increased and particles move to bridge insulating gaps in the film. It is demonstrated that the conductive material can be recovered from the cardboard at the end of its life time and be redispersed to recycle the particles and reuse them in conductive inks.     

Fabrication of extremely conductive high-aspect silver traces buried in hot-embossed polycarbonate films via the direct gravure doctoring method

Depositing inks on a planar substrate by printing is a facile way to fabricate conductive traces and other complicated functional devices. However, irrespective of the printing methods used, the thickness of the inks has an upper limit due to their fluidic property and subsequent wetting on the substrates. Herein, we present a method for creating high-aspect ratio conductive traces by combining hot-embossing and gravure doctoring techniques. Binary-sized colloidal pastes containing Ag nanoparticles and micrometer-sized spherical Ag powder additives were filled using a doctor blade in the grooves of polycarbonate (PC) films inscribed via hot-embossing to create buried traces. Under optimal mixing conditions in which the minimum resistivity was achieved, voids between the microparticles provided a pathway for the volatile solvents to smoothly escape from the filled ink and minimized thickness reduction during the thermal sintering process. A fabricated trace buried in the PC film with an aspect ratio of around 3:1 and a linewidth of 55 μm showed extremely low resistance of less than 10 Ω/m. A flexible transparent heater was developed using the reported binary colloidal paste.     

Nano-sized ceramic inks for drop-on-demand ink-jet printing in quadrichromy

Nano-sized ceramic inks suitable for ink-jet printing have been developed for the four-colours CMYK (cyan, magenta, yellow, black) process. Nano-inks of different pigment composition (Co(1-x)O, Au(0), Ti(1-x-y)Sb(x)Cr(y)O2, CoFe2O4) have been prepared with various solid loadings and their chemicophysical properties (particle size, viscosity, surface tension, zeta-potential) were tailored for the ink-jet application. The pigment particle size is in the 20-80 nm range. All these nano-suspensions are stable for long time (i.e., several months) due to either electrostatic (high zeta-potential values) or steric stabilization mechanisms. Both nanometric size and high stability avoid problems of nozzle clogging from particles agglomeration and settling. Nano-inks have a Newtonian behaviour with relatively low viscosities at room temperature. More concentrated inks fulfil the viscosity requirement of ink-jet applications (i.e., < 35 mPa x s) for printing temperatures in between 30 and 70 degrees C. Surface tension constraints for ink-jet printing are fulfilled by nano-inks, being in the 35-45 mN x m(-1) range. The nano-sized inks investigated behave satisfactorily in preliminary printing tests on several unfired industrial ceramic tiles, developing saturated colours in a wide range of firing temperatures (1000-1200 degrees C).     

纸质食品包装材料上印刷油墨组分迁移的AAS和GC-MS研究

以面粉为真实食品,使其与某知名快餐食品包装袋上的油墨污染物以单面接触的方式进行迁移实验。AAS结果表明,食品包装袋上油墨污染物中的重金属污染物已经迁移到面粉的表面和内部,但迁移到食品表面和内部的重金属污染物则是微少的。GC-MS结果表明,此品牌食品包装袋上油墨污染物中的增塑剂邻苯二甲酸二丁酯,迁移到了面粉中。建立了印刷纸质食品包装材料上油墨污染物迁移的快速、准确分析表征方法。     

导电油墨及其印刷技术的研究进展

目的 综述导电油墨及其印刷方式的研究进展,为开发价格低廉、性能稳定、导电性优良的导电油墨提供参考。方法 通过查阅文献归纳各类导电油墨的制备方式、印刷方式和应用领域,对导电油墨进行系统分类,比较各类导电油墨的性能和优缺点,并对其印刷技术进行分析,展望了导电油墨的发展前景。结果 目前关于导电油墨的研究集中在纳米银、纳米铜、石墨烯等导电填料的低温烧结油墨,主要采用丝网印刷、喷墨印刷等印刷方式,多用于制备传感器、柔性可穿戴设备等。未来的研究仍需关注如何低成本、低能耗、简单大量地制造导电油墨。结论 导电油墨的制备将与环境友好型的印刷方式相结合,向高导电性、高印刷适性发展,成为印刷电子领域的关键技术。     

Synthesis of ZnO nanoparticles and their ink-jetting behavior

Zinc oxide (ZnO) nanoparticles were synthesized by ultrasonically-assisted solution process without using any surfactants. The as-synthesized spherical ZnO nanoparticles with diameter of 20 +/- 5 nm possessed crystalline nature with wurtzite hexagonal phase and showed a blue-shifted near band-edge ultra-violet absorption at -340 nm due to quantum confinement effect of ZnO nanoparticles. The as-synthesized ZnO nanoparticles were further formulated as an ink for ink-jet printing application. Jetting and writing of various line patterns on Si and ITO substrates were demonstrated using the as-formulated ZnO ink. UV-treated substrates showed an improvement in the fixation of ink on substrate due to decreased contact angle with controlled surface wettability.     

Dewetting of conducting polymer inkjet droplets on patterned surfaces

The manufacture of high-performance electronic devices with micrometre or even submicrometre dimensions by solution processing and direct printing, requires the ability to control accurately the flow and spread of functional liquid inks on surfaces. This can be achieved with the help of surface-energy patterns causing inks to be repelled and dewetted from pre-defined regions of the substrate. To exploit this principle for the fabrication of submicrometre device structures, a detailed understanding of the factors causing ink droplets to dewet on patterned surfaces is required. Here, we use hydrophobic surface-energy barriers of different geometries to study the influence of solution viscosity, ink volume, and contact angle on the process of dewetting of inkjet-printed droplets of a water-based conducting polymer. We demonstrate polymer field-effect transistor devices with channel length of 500 nm fabricated by surface-energy-assisted inkjet printing.     

Low-Temperature Plasma Sintering of Inkjet-Printed Metal Salt Decomposition Inks on Flexible Substrates

Due to their complex formulation, conductive nanoparticle inks for inkjet printing are limited in terms of the types of metals and substrates that can be utilized. A new and simplified class of inks called metal salt decomposition (MSD) inks has the potential to introduce a multitude of metals, which can be printed directly onto a wide range of substrates. Here, the use of atmospheric oxygen plasma to develop polycrystalline Au and Pt films at processing temperatures near room temperature (≈33 °C) with excellent conductivities up to 10⁵ S m⁻¹ is demonstrated. The conformal nature of the ink allows metal films to be printed onto a broad range of temperature-sensitive substrates including polymers, papers, and fabric. The Au ink is then used to build a simple light-emitting diode circuit showing its flexibility, durability, and long-term stability as deposited thin metal films. Additionally, such inks cost less than one-third the price of similar nanoparticle inks highlighting their overall affordability and good stability.     

Axisymmetric thermo-mechanical analysis of laser-driven non-contact transfer printing

An axisymmetric thermo-mechanical model is developed for laser-driven non-contact transfer printing, which involves laser-induced impulsive heating to initiate separation at the interface between a soft, elastomeric stamp and hard micro/nanomaterials (i.e., inks) on its surface, due to a large mismatch in coefficients of thermal expansion. The result is the active ejection of the inks from the stamp, to a spatially separated receiving substrate, thereby representing the printing step. The model gives analytically the temperature field, and also a scaling law for the energy release rate for delamination at the interface between the stamp and an ink in the form of a rigid plate. The normalized critical laser pulse time for interfacial delamination depends only on the normalized absorbed laser power and width of the ink structure, and has been verified by experiments.     

Characterization of inks and ink application for ink-jet printing: model and simulation

Ink-jet printing quality is determined primarily by, among other factors, the printing engine and its inks. The printing engine controls the process of ink application and the scheme of ink mixing for th e generation of secondary and tertiary colors. The inks selectively absorb different wavelengths from the illumination and result in the visible color output. Therefore characterizations of the output print in terms of ink distribution and volume, the scheme of ink mixing, light absorption, and light scattering are of essential importance in controlling and understanding the quality of the color reproduction. I present a method to characterize the ink volume and the properties of the ink by means of spectral reflectance measurements and simulations. The simulations are based on the Kubelka-Munk theory, whose applicability to ink-jet printing is also discussed.     

Drop-on-demand printing of carbon black ink by electrohydrodynamic jet printing

Electrohydrodynamic (EHD) jet printing is a technique using electric fields to eject inks through nozzle apertures. EHD jet printing is very attractive due to its non-contacting nature and compatibility with diverse materials and substrates. In this research, we have fabricated micron-sized dot arrays and line patterns with carbon black ink on Si wafer substrates using EHD jet printing. The effect of operating conditions such as applied voltage, working distance and stage speed on the size and shape of the jetted patterns and jetting cycles is investigated by using optical microscope, high speed camera and atomic force microscopy (AFM). We have also demonstrated the drop-on-demand feature of the EHD jet printing system by patterning carbon black ink lines with various widths and dot arrays with desired diameters and spacing by controlling the operating conditions.     

Pollution-preventing anionic lithographic inks

Lithographic printing presses use aliphatic and aromatic solvents for cleaning various surfaces, which are coated with the ink. The conventional printing inks also contain volatile solvents. During printing and cleaning operations, volatile organic compounds (VOCs) present in the inks and cleaning solvents are lost to the atmosphere by evaporation and these losses are quantifiable and alarmingly high. A new type of ink based on castor oil, which completely eliminates emissions of VOCs, has been developed. Synthesis of resins and the kinetics of washing of the ink, similar to the recently announced pollution-preventing ink [development of a VOC-free lithographic printing system. TAGA Proc., 324], with water at a slightly elevated pH are studied. A correlation between the mass-transfer coefficient characterizing the washing of ink and the experimental process variables is confirmed. New data are also reported on flake-formation dynamics.     

The interaction of Al,Ag, Au,and Ti to Pr2O3 thin film dielectrics

We studied the thermal stability of various electrode materials on 2 nm Pr₂O₃ dielectric films. Thin Al, Au, Ag, and Ti layers are deposited, by thermal evaporation or by sublimation (case of Ti). The Pr₂O₃ layers were deposited on Si substrates by electron beam evaporation from a Pr₆O₁₁ powder and by wet chemical deposition. XPS and SR-PES were used to study the effect of annealing on the metal to Pr₂O₃ interaction. XPS results show a strong diffusivity of Al, Ag, and Au in Pr₂O₃ upon annealing to 300 °C with formation of alloying with Si substrate. In contrast, Ti remained stable even upon annealing to 900 °C. SR-PES results show a stable Titanium oxides formation at room temperature. All results demonstrate that Ti is a good diffusion barrier between metal contacts and Pr₂O₃ or can be used as a metal contact.     

Lithographic printing of force-sensitive resistors

Prototype force sensitive resistors were made using powder-filled inks by offset lithography, a high speed printing process. A carbon-based lithographic ink that dries to form a film with a carbon content close to the percolation threshold for electrical conduction was formulated. Silver-filled, electrically conducting ink was prepared for the electrodes and connecting leads. The substrate was white gloss-art A4 paper. The carbon film resistance was 23 k while the combined resistance of electrodes and leads was less than 2 . The force sensor was tested by repeated loading and unloading.     

Roll-to-roll printed resistive WORM memory on a flexible substrate

The fabrication process and the operation characteristics of a fully roll-to-roll printed resistive write-once-read-many memory on a flexible substrate are presented. The low-voltage (<10 V) write operation of the memories from a high resistivity '0' state to a low resistivity '1' state is based on the rapid electrical sintering of bits containing silver nanoparticles. The bit ink is formulated by mixing two commercially available silver nanoparticle inks in order to tune the initial square resistance of the bits and to create a self-organized network of percolating paths. The electrical performance of the memories, including read and write characteristics, is described and the long-term stability of the less stable '0' state is studied in different environmental conditions. The memories can find use in low-cost mass printing applications.