Screen-pad printing for electrode patterning on curvy surfaces

Abstract

Pad printing is a simple but effective method for fabricating electrodes onto complex curved surfaces. In this method, ink is picked up from the gravure plate by the soft pad, after which the ink pattern is transcriptionally formed from the pad to the final substrate. However, this printing method has some problems; primarily, it is difficult to form thick and large patterns. To address these limitations, we developed a new printing technique called "screen-pad printing." In this technique, ink is first screen-printed onto a blanket made of silicone resin, after which the ink pattern is picked up by the soft pad, and the pattern on the pad is transferred to the substrate. In this paper, we describe the features of the developed screen-pad printing technique when forming patterns on objects that have complex surfaces. Further, the impact of our new method is analyzed by comparing the experimental results of screen-pad printing with results obtained from conventional pad printing.