Effects of pulse voltage on the droplet formation of glycol ethers solvent ink in a piezoelectric inkjet printing process for fabricating hydrophobic lines on paper substrate

Abstract

Inkjet printing is a fabrication technique which can create designed patterns by ejecting many tiny ink droplets out of nozzles onto substrate. This technique has recently been applied into fabrication process of micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS). However, the exact understanding of the effect of pulse voltage on ink droplet is still the focus of many researchers today. Therefore, the goal of this work is to investigate the effect of voltage of phase 1 (V 1) and phase 2 (V 2) of drive waveform on an inkjet printing process to understand how the droplet and satellite droplet have been formed. Solvent ink was prepared from diethylene glycol monobutyl ether (DEGBE) and nonaethylene glycol monododecyl ether (C12E9). Ink droplets were observed by high speed camera which had been installed into our CeraPrinter X-Serie inkjet printer. Results showed that V 1 = −10 V and V 2 = 50 V are suitable for our inkjet printer to achieve stable jetting without the appearance of satellite drops. These optimum values of pulse voltage were confirmed through the printing of our solvent ink on paper substrate for fabricating hydrophobic lines.