Abstract
We studied the effect of current supply duration at final-step currents during the stepwise electrical sintering of silver (Ag) nanoparticles (NPs). Ag NPs ink was inkjet-printed onto Eagle-XG glass substrates. Constant final-step currents of 0.4 and 0.5 A with various time intervals were applied to the printed samples. The final-step current of 0.5 A damaged the line at a comparatively shorter time duration. On the other hand, the lower final-step current of 0.4 A prevented the line damage at longer time durations while producing comparatively lower Ag NPs specific resistance. The minimum specific resistances of the printed samples sintered at 0.4 and 0.5 A were 3.59 μΩ∙cm and 3.79 μΩ∙cm, respectively. Furthermore, numerical temperature estimation and scanning electron microscope (SEM) analysis were conducted to elaborate on the results. The numerical temperature estimation results implied that the lower estimated peak temperature at the final-step current of 0.4 A helped prevent Ag NP line damage. The SEM micrographs suggested that a high surface porosity—caused by higher sintering peak temperatures—in the case of the 0.5 A final-step current resulted in a comparatively higher Ag NP line-specific resistance. This contribution is a step forward in the development of Ag NP sintering for printed electronics applications.
Highlights
Printed electronics has attracted enormous attention as a promising alternative to conventional lithography
The specific resistance was measured at room temperature after sintering
The specific resistance decreased with the increased current supply duration at the final step
Summary
Printed electronics has attracted enormous attention as a promising alternative to conventional lithography. Conductive metal nanoparticle inks such as silver [12,16] or copper nanoparticles [17,18,19,20] are generally adopted for the contacts and tracks in electronic circuit design to minimize resistive losses They are inkjet-printed onto different substrates for producing printed features for electronic devices [14,15]. Once printed onto the substrate, the metal nanoparticle ink is heat-treated to render the printed features conductive This impediment demands a further step called sintering, which is a thermal treatment for bonding particles together into a coherent, predominantly solid structure via mass transport events that occur largely at the atomic level [21]. In the current study, we have demonstrated that the particular stepwise electrical sintering technique allows the control over the process temperature and subsequently the NP final resistivity
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