Ultrafast Droplets Trajectories Modulation of Electrohydrodynamic Jet Printing for Pattern Refinement Using Electrostatic Deflection

Abstract

Electrohydrodynamic jet (E‐Jet) printing is a highly promising non‐contact additive manufacturing technology. However, the fast jets generated by E‐Jet may cause droplet accumulation on small curvature features due to the slow motion control achieved by the mechanical stage, leading to a degradation of printed patterns in localized areas. Here, a method is proposed for ultrafast modulation of jet trajectories to achieve finely patterned E‐Jet printing by introducing jet‐deflecting electrodes around the jet, which can continuously transform the jet trajectory with lateral acceleration up to 104 ms−2. This extraordinary acceleration is two orders of magnitude higher than that can be achieved by using mechanical stage motion. Through a combination of numerical calculations and experiments, the effects of electric field parameters on the feature size and kinematic properties of jet droplets are investigated. In addition, deposition errors of <5 µm are fabricated by selecting appropriate working parameters and using UV‐curable adhesives as printing ink. Subsequently, complex micropatterns with feature curvatures <4 µm are successfully printed, demonstrating the consistency and reliability of this electrostatic deflection technique in achieving a uniform droplet deposition pitch. This innovative approach holds significant promise in the field of high‐quality microscale additive manufacturing.