Potential up-scaling of inkjet-printed devices for logical circuits in flexible electronics

Abstract

Inkjet Technology is often mis-believed to be a deposition/patterning technology which is not meant for high fabrication throughput in the field of printed and flexible electronics. In this work, we report on the 1) printing, 2) fabrication yield and 3) characterization of exemplary simple devices e.g. capacitors, organic transistors etc. which are the basic building blocks for logical circuits. For this purpose, printing is performed first with a Proof of concept Inkjet printing system Dimatix Material Printer 2831 (DMP 2831) using 10 pL small print-heads and then with Dimatix Material Printer 3000 (DMP 3000) using 35 pL industrial print-heads (from Fujifilm Dimatix). Printing at DMP 3000 using industrial print-heads (in Sheet-to-sheet) paves the path towards industrialization which can be defined by printing in Roll-to-Roll format using industrial print-heads. This pavement can be termed as "Bridging Platform". This transfer to "Bridging Platform" from 10 pL small print-heads to 35 pL industrial print-heads help the inkjet-printed devices to evolve on the basis of functionality and also in form of up-scaled quantities. The high printed quantities and yield of inkjet-printed devices justify the deposition reliability and potential to print circuits. This reliability is very much desired when it comes to printing of circuits e.g. inverters, ring oscillator and any other planned complex logical circuits which require devices e.g. organic transistors which needs to get connected in different staged levels. Also, the up-scaled inkjet-printed devices are characterized and they reflect a domain under which they can work to their optimal status. This status is much wanted for predicting the real device functionality and integration of them into a planned circuit

Inkjet printed metal insulator semiconductor (MIS) diodes for organic and flexible electronic application

“…Inkjet printing is a well accepted deposition technology for functional materials in the area of printed electronics [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12]. It allows the precise deposition of patterned functional layers on both rigid and flexible substrates.…”

Challenges, Prospects, and Emerging Applications of Inkjet‐Printed Electronics: A Chemist's Point of View

“…Another important issue is represented by the possibility of depositing on the same area different types of inks within a very short period, since the activation of many chemical reactions of interest requires the subsequent and rapid mixing of reagents. Even though most industrial printers (and also some printer models available for laboratory‐scale production such as the Dimatix DMP3000 series and Ceradrop F‐series) are today equipped with a printhead capable of holding several cartridges containing different inks, only one cartridge can be utilized at a time and the deposition of the n th ink pattern must wait until the preceeding ( n −1) layers have been completely printed and (possibly) cured [186, 187] . Currently, the simultaneous printing of different inks at the same spot can be achieved only through homemade, multi‐nozzle systems.…”

Programmable Organic Chipless RFID Tags Inkjet Printed on Paper Substrates

“…In the last decade, several research groups have actively contributed to the development of the active and passive devices on flexible polymeric substrates, e.g., polyethylene terephthalate, polyethylene naphthalate (PEN), and polyimide films, among others. Some of the examples are inkjet-printed antennas, TFT arrays, capacitors and logical circuits among others [31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38]. However, as regards printed chipless RFID tags manufactured on paper substrate, only a few examples have been reported [39,40].…”