Aerosol Jet Printing of Silver Lines with A High Aspect Ratio on A Heated Silicon Substrate

Abstract

In this work, we studied the formation of conductive silver lines with high aspect ratios (AR = thickness/width) > 0.1 using the modernized method of aerosol jet printing on a heated silicon substrate. The geometric (AR) and electrical (resistivity) parameters of the formed lines were investigated depending on the number of printing layers (1–10 layers) and the temperature of the substrate (25–300 °C). The AR of the lines increased as the number of printing layers and the temperature of the substrate increased. An increase in the AR of the lines with increasing substrate temperature was associated with a decrease in the ink spreading as a result of an increase in the rate of evaporation of nano-ink. Moreover, with an increase in the substrate temperature of more than 200 °C, a significant increase in the porosity of the formed lines was observed, and as a result, the electrical resistivity of the lines increased significantly. Taking into account the revealed regularities, it was demonstrated that the formation of silver lines with a high AR > 0.1 and a low electrical resistivity of 2–3 μΩ∙cm is advisable to be carried out at a substrate temperature of about 100 °C. The adhesion strength of silver films formed on a heated silicon substrate is 2.8 ± 0.9 N/mm2, which further confirms the suitability of the investigated method of aerosol jet printing for electronic applications.

Synthesis of Nanoparticles by Spark Discharge as a Facile and Versatile Technique of Preparing Highly Conductive Pt Nano-Ink for Printed Electronics

“…This decrease in w and an increase in the aspect ratio is probably associated with an increase in the contact angle θ as a result of a change in the composition of the nano-ink due to the evaporation of the solvent during the deposition of the nano-ink on a heated substrate. Recently [ 71 , 72 ] it was found that the contact angle can vary over a wide range from 30° to >90° depending on T s and thus largely determine the geometry of the lines being formed. Thus, from the analysis of the optical images of the lines, it was found that the optimal values of T s during the printing process should be about 50–100 °C.…”

Optimizing Aerosol Jet Printing Process of Platinum Ink for High-Resolution Conductive Microstructures on Ceramic and Polymer Substrates

“…From the profilometry data, it can be seen that the line heights also increase, which, in particular, leads to an increase in the aspect ratio of the lines. This increase is due to the contact angle between microdroplets, which increases with substrate temperature [37,38]. Thus, it has been found that the optimum value of T s during printing should be in the order of 100 • C. At this substrate temperature, we carried out the experiments to establish the effect of the substrate speed V s and the number of printing layers N p on the width w and homogeneity of the obtained lines.…”

“…From the profilometry data, it can be seen that the line heights also increase, which, in particular, leads to an increase in the aspect ratio of the lines. This increase is due to the contact angle between microdroplets, which increases with substrate temperature [ 37 , 38 ]. Thus, it has been found that the optimum value of T s during printing should be in the order of 100 °C.…”

Effects of Temperature on the Morphology and Optical Properties of Spark Discharge Germanium Nanoparticles

“…Thus, production of germanium nanoparticles with different morphologies, sizes and optical properties by the spark discharge method can be controlled by the temperature of an additional sintering process. This is quite important technology for creating nanoparticles with required properties for applications as anode materials of lithium-ion batteries, sodium-ion batteries [ 35 ] and aerosol jet-printing devices [ 36 , 37 , 38 ].…”