Inks for printed electronics developed in the laboratory have several advantages over commercial ones – researchers have full information about the composition and are able to change its properties without the danger of undesirable interactions between the components. The requirement for this type of ink is long term stability in order to utilize its individuals features. Within this paper the difference between freshly created and 3-months old inks was examined to determine the effect of different sonication processes and solvents on the ageing of silver nano-particle ink. Ink was sonicated using a sonotrode and an ultrasonic bath. To examine inks printability in the aerosol jet printing process, their ability to create dense aerosol mist for 1 hour using an ultrasonic atomiser was investigated. Aerosol droplets diameters were measured to compare fresh and 3 months old printable inks.
Aerosol jet printing is a new technology which is able to form a micrometer size patterns directly on the substrate. It is possible due to the special ink treatment - first, the ink is formulated to form a mist or fog with a very small droplets (average size about 1 μm). Then the atomized ink is transported to the printing head. In the printing head, a special shear gas flow focuses the mist into several micrometer size stream. This technology is an additive method which allows printing even on the 3D substrates. The achievement of 10 μm line wide makes it comparable with conventional flat, many stages photolithography. In this article, authors present the self-made printing head for the aerosol jet method and the results of the printing process. The printing process was performed with ultrasonic atomizer and the nanosilver ink. As a result, authors have obtained conductive, 40 μm wide silver lines.
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