Continuous fine pattern formation by screen-offset printing using a silicone blanket

Abstract

Screen-offset printing combines screen-printing on a silicone blanket with transference of the print from the blanket to a substrate. The blanket absorbs organic solvents in the ink, and therefore, the ink does not disperse through the material. This prevents blurring and allows fine patterns with widths of a few tens of micrometres to be produced. However, continuous printing deteriorates the pattern’s shape, which may be a result of decay in the absorption abilities of the blanket. Thus, we have developed a new technique for refreshing the blanket by substituting high-boiling-point solvents present on the blanket surface with low-boiling-point solvents. We analyse the efficacy of this technique, and demonstrate continuous fine pattern formation for 100 screen-offset printing processes.

Improved Transfer Process for the Fully Additive Manufacturing of a Conductive Layer-Stacked Polymeric Cantilever

“…These shapes followed the pattern of the openings in the metal mask accurately. Although we used a millimeter range for the design in this study, it has been reported that fine lines of 30 μm [17] can be screen-printed on PDMS.…”

A flexible proximity sensor formed by duplex screen/screen-offset printing and its application to non-contact detection of human breathing

“…This is a capacitance-type sensor with two electrodes of different sizes at the top and the bottom of the PET substrate, as detailed in the following section. The two-sided electrodes of the proximity sensor were fabricated by a combination of screen printing and screen-offset printing 31 32 . Here, we explain screen-offset printing.…”

“…Furthermore, the ink-solvent absorption of the silicone blanket prevents the patterns from spreading or increasing their width. Thus, although the patterns of our current proximity sensor are comparatively large, we can obtain finer patterns of widths of a few tens of micrometres through screen-offset printing 32 , which are very difficult to form using conventional screen printing.…”

“…Although a similar flexible proximity sensor fabricated using inkjet printing has been reported 30 , our fabrication method is superior especially in short processing time, compared to inkjet printing. Namely, we arranged the electrodes of the sensor at the top and bottom surfaces of a polyethylene terephthalate (PET) film fabricated by a novel yet simple duplex printing technique, which is a combination of screen printing and screen-offset printing 31 32 . Although this sensor can be simply used to detect an approaching person, it can also be applied to detect breathing.…”

Adhesive-bandage-type Blood-leakage Sensor Fabricated by Screen-offset Printing

“…To overcome these problems, we applied a screen-offset printing method (7)(8)(9)(10)(11)(12)(13) that we previously developed to fabricate patterns on an adhesive material. Figure 1 shows a schematic image of the screen-offset printing method.…”