Abstract
In recent years, a more scientific approach to the age‐old craft of silk screen printing has resulted in the evolution of complex precision‐built printing machines for use in the electronics micro‐circuit industry. Even so, our knowledge of the physical processes involved in screen printing is still far from complete. An attempt is made here to provide a better understanding of the screen printing mechanism and more specifically of print thickness control. Two different printing modes are described and the effect of and interaction between some of the more important machine parameters in this respect are discussed. A simple pillar theory is offered which allows a prediction to be made of the quantity of ink fundamentally deposited by a given screen.
Highlights
The screen priming process, known for many hundreds of years, enables high quality patterns to be repetitively produced at high rates and low cost, In view of these attributes it is not surprising to find such a process has been adopted by the electronics industry for the deposition of thick film passive components, conductors, capacitors and resistors on to insulating substrates as the basis of a complex hybrid microcircuit manufacturing operation
More than anything else it is this new requirement which, in a single decade, has caused such activity that the screen printing process has emerged from the status of a craft, little understood, to a process operation the control of which has some scientific basis
Much has been written1,2,a regarding the essential features of screen printing control and not all authors have agreed on the relative importance of the very many oarameters involved. This perhalas is due to a failure to recognise the interaction some parameters have on others. It is our purpose here, concentrating on print thickness control, to examine in turn the various facets of screen printing- the ink, the screen, the major printing parameters and the interaction of some of these to provide a better understanding of the printing mechanism
Summary
The screen priming process, known for many hundreds of years, enables high quality patterns to be repetitively produced at high rates and low cost, In view of these attributes it is not surprising to find such a process has been adopted by the electronics industry for the deposition of thick film passive components, conductors, capacitors and resistors on to insulating substrates as the basis of a complex hybrid microcircuit manufacturing operation. Whereas high definition printing with this process has always been of prime importance, especially with new inks, of equal moment is the need to control print thickness precisely, with resistive elements if target resistance values are to be approached. The controlled printing of resistors has proved to be a difficult area; the problem is to deposit precise amounts of resistive ink repeatedly, which on subsequent high temperature processing materialize into precise valued resistor elements. Much has been written1,2,a regarding the essential features of screen printing control and not all authors have agreed on the relative importance of the very many oarameters involved. This perhalas is due to a failure to recognise the interaction some parameters have on others. It is our purpose here, concentrating on print thickness control, to examine in turn the various facets of screen printing- the ink, the screen, the major printing parameters and the interaction of some of these to provide a better understanding of the printing mechanism
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