A comparison of the interdigital electrodes prepared by aerosol jet printing and lift-off technique

Abstract

This paper presents a research focused on a comparison of the quality and electrical parameters of the interdigital electrodes prepared by aerosol jet printing (AJP) technique and conventional lift-off technique. The Interdigital electrodes (IDE) belong among the most commonly used periodic electrode structures for a wide variety of sensors and transducers. The IDE testing sample were designed with line/space widths of 25 µm/25 µm and active area of 4.32 × 4.55 mm. The advantages of the aerosol jet printing technique over conventional techniques consist in the fact that: a) it can produce high-resolution patterns (down to a feature size of 8 µm × 8 µm), b) it is maskless additive technique, c) it is compatible with flexible or even 3D substrates and d) it is compatible with a very large range of inks. In the frame of the research Clariant nanoparticle silver ink, Fraunhofer IKTS nanoparticle gold ink were aerosol jet printed on flexible PET and Kapton® polyimide substrates. Electrical and geometrical parameters were measured for each substrate deposited by AJP technique. The measured data of all testing samples deposited by AJP were compared to the measured ones of the samples realized by the lift-off technique on the alumina substrate.