Development and ejection behavior of different material-based electrostatic ink-jet heads

Abstract

There has been growing interests in direct patterning of metallic contents on the surface of the substrate without including complex steps of the microfabrication lithography process. The direct fabrication process using electrostatic ink-jet printing can be expected to be a powerful tool for both nanotechnology research and applications such as microelectronics. The droplet ejection voltage, meniscus, cone-jet behavior, and counter electrode distance depends on the ink properties such as surface tension, viscosity, and percentage of metallic pigments. In this paper, 2-μm level needle-type electrostatic head designs for contact-less fabrication of printed electronics, composed of differently treated surface materials, have been studied and analyzed. The electrostatically actuated ink-jet heads were tested and compared for low power and high resolution on ink containing metallic nano-particle particles as pigments. The two laboratory-fabricated discrete and electrostatically actuated ink-jet heads, one made by poly di-methyl siloxane modeling process and other through micro-electrical discharge machine techniques, were compared, and their orifice outlet surface (hydrophobic and hydrophilic) condition influence has been discussed. The paper also investigates different dripping behaviors of metallic ink under the influence of counter electrode distance, voltages, and materials. The observation of droplet ejection with high-speed camera revealed that in the case of hydrophobic head, better meniscus shape and ejection was achieved even at low voltage compared to the hydrophilic head. It was also found that the less flow rate is required in hydrophobic head. Printing characteristic of the hydrophilic nozzle head was also compared with the hydrophobic head on PET substrate.