A review on multi nozzle electrohydrodynamic inkjet printing system for MEMS applications

Abstract

New microproducts require to utilize the variety of materials. Their complex three-dimensional microstructures have big aspect ratios. This ability to fabricate geometrically complicated 3D microstructures provides some additional profits to the additive manufacturing systems over traditional methods. Among the enormous variety of micro-products, depending on the mixtures of usefulness of the product and fundamentals of operation, the foremost types are micro-opto-electro-mechanical systems, micro electromechanical systems, micro-optical electronics systems and microelectronic products. Electrohydrodynamic inkjet printing is an innovative high-resolution technology of inkjet printing which has the benefits of being a non-contact, maskless, additive and direct-write methods. The resolution of printing of EHD surpasses by approx. two orders of magnitude compared to the general inkjet printing methods. It has been used mostly in cases of nano or micro manufacturing of very small objects for modelling of a big range of constituents on different substrates having the alternatives of either Drop-On-Demand mode or continuous mode. It is considered to be a capable substitute to thermal and piezoelectric based inkjet printing methods since it has a unique quality of producing small jet or droplets in comparison to the nozzle orifice. Several advantages in fine patterning are presented by EHD inkjet printing processes, but the little manufacturing speed of EHD inkjet printing is an unadorned disadvantage that has been hindering its probable extensive uses in the industry of electronics. To overcome this restriction, the direct printing of colloidal solutions with the help of multiple nozzle EHD inkjet printing method is used. This review offers a short account of multiple-nozzle electrohydrodynamic inkjet printing of colloidal solutions for its application in MEMS.