Abstract
Conductive inkjet printing is an emerging rapid manufacturing technology in the field of smart clothing and wearable electronics. The current challenge in conductive inkjet printing includes upgrading of electrical performance of printed inks to the equivalent level to traditional conductors such as bulk silver and copper, especially for high-performance electronic applications such as flexible antennas and circuits. Post-treatments are commonly employed to enhance the electrical conduction of inkjet-printed tracks. This research discusses the effects of electrolyte sintering, photonic sintering and electroless copper plating on the DC electrical resistance and resistivity of inkjet-printed silver nanoparticles. From experimental results and measurements, it was found that all the post-treatment methods effectively improved the electrical properties of printed silver ink, but in different ways. The lowest resistance of 4.5 ? (in 0.1 mm ? 10 mm) and thickest (4.5 ?m) conductor were achieved by electroless copper plating, whereas the lowest resistivity (7.5?10-8 ??m) and thinnest (1.0 ?m) conductor were obtained by photonic sintering.
Highlights
With growing interest in smart clothing and wearable electronics, conductive inkjet printing receives a great deal of attention as one of the most effective techniques to add electrical functionality to non-conductive substances
This research investigated the effects of electrolyte sintering, photonic sintering and electroless copper (Cu) plating on DC resistance and resistivity of inkjet-printed silver (Ag) nanoparticle track for flexible electronics applications to establish a guidepost to choose an appropriate post-treatment
The printed films were dried at room temperature for 24 hours and treated either by electrolyte sintering (Section 2.3), photonic sintering (Section 2.4) or electroless plating (Section 2.5)
Summary
With growing interest in smart clothing and wearable electronics, conductive inkjet printing receives a great deal of attention as one of the most effective techniques to add electrical functionality to non-conductive substances. In order to ease these issues, quick room-temperature sintering methods have been investigated One such method is photonic sintering [9], which exposes printed inks to a highly energized photonic pulse to raise the ink temperature instantly and induce coalescence of neighboring metal particles. For certain low frequency applications, the thick conductor with low resistance could bring appreciable benefits With this in mind, this research investigated the effects of electrolyte sintering, photonic sintering and electroless copper (Cu) plating on DC resistance and resistivity of inkjet-printed silver (Ag) nanoparticle track for flexible electronics applications to establish a guidepost to choose an appropriate post-treatment. Post-treatment solutions were formulated from ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA), hexacyanoferrate(II) trihydrate (K4Fe(CN)6), copper (II) sulfate pentahydrate (CuSO4·5H2O), 37 wt% formaldehyde solution (HCHO), sodium hydroxide (NaOH) anhydrous, and sodium chloride (NaCl) anhydrous purchased from Sigma Aldrich Corporation
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