Abstract
Bioresorbable electronics (or transient electronics) devices can be potentially used to replace build-to-last devices in consumer electronics, implantable devices, and data security, leading to reduced electronic waste and surgical processes through controllable dissolution. Recent development of printing bioresorbable electronics leads to bioresorbable conductive pastes or inks that can be used to make interconnects, circuit traces, and sensors, offering alternative solutions for the predominant complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) processes in fabrication of bioresorbable electronics. However, the conductivities offered by current bioresorbable pastes and processing techniques are still much lower than those of the bulk metals, demanding further improvement in both paste composition and process optimization. This paper aims at exploring several influential factors such as paste compositions and processing techniques in determining conductivities of bioresorbable patterns. Experimental results reveal that an optimized paste constituent with a ratio of Zn:PVP:glycerol:methanol = 7:0.007:2:1 by weight can generate stable conductive pastes suitable for a screen printing process. In addition, a high conductivity of 60,213.6 S/m can be obtained by combining hot rolling and photonic sintering. The results demonstrate that large-scale transient electronics can be obtained by combining screen printing, hot rolling and photonic sintering approaches with optimized paste compositions, offering important experimental proofs and approaches for further improving the conductivity of bioresorbable pastes or inks that can accommodate the demands for mass fabrication and practical use in electronic industry.
Highlights
The majority of more than 50 million tons of electronic-waste generated each year globally end up in the landfill, or are just incinerated, causing enormous environmental issues, such as soil compaction, acid rain, and water pollution [1,2]
We investigate the influence of weight ratio of zinc nanoparticles (Zn NPs) as well as a new process flow that involves combination of screen printing, hot rolling and photonic sintering techniques
The results suggest that large-scale transient electronics can be obtained by combining screen printing, hot rolling and photonic sintering approaches with optimized ink compositions, offering important experimental proof and approaches for further improving the conductivity of bioresorbable pastes and inks that can adapt to the demands for mass fabrication and practical use in electronic industry
Summary
The majority of more than 50 million tons of electronic-waste generated each year globally end up in the landfill, or are just incinerated, causing enormous environmental issues, such as soil compaction, acid rain, and water pollution [1,2]. Efforts in recycling electronic-waste have been focused on reducing the cost and time consumption of recycling processes, which features a few iconic techniques such as automatic sorting, mechanical disassembly, and magnetic separation [3,4,5]. These techniques have stringent requirements for large facility, expensive equipment, and hazardous chemicals. Recent development of transient electronic devices that can degrade under environmentally friendly approaches triggered by water, humidity, light, and air flow leads to a safe and effective solution to the rampant pollution caused by electronic-waste while facilitating recycling [6,7,8,9,10,11].
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