Statistical analysis of E-jet print parameter effects on Ag-nanoparticle ink droplet size

Abstract

In this paper, we have studied the print parameter effects on electrohydrodynamic inkjet (E-jet) resolution using statistical analysis. In order to make the E-jet manufacturing process feasible, the effect of printing parameters on the ejected droplet size must be modelled and optimized. To this end, there exist two approaches: parameter effects can be modelled using theoretical calculations or they can be generated directly from empirical data using statistical analysis. The first option has been explored by multiple research groups, whereas the latter has received less interest. In this article, the effect of printing parameters on the width of AC-pulsed E-jet deposited Ag-nanoparticle ink droplets are investigated using design of experiments (DoE) approach and statistical analysis. As a result, a statistical model for deposited droplet width is generated using four print parameters (print height, bias voltage, peak voltage and frequency) as predictors. The model can predict 94.24% of the measured width variation with a standard deviation of 1.05 µm.