Microstructural and Process Characterization of Conductive Traces Printed from Ag Particulate Inks

Materials

David A. Roberson¹  Ryan B. Wicker²  Lawrence E. Murr¹  Ken Church² 

[1] Department of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering, The University of Texas at El Paso, El Paso, TX 79968, USA; E-Mail:;W. M. Keck Center for 3D Innovation, The University of Texas at El Paso, El Paso, TX 79968, USA; E-Mails:

关键词: conductive ink;    Ag nanoparticles;    inkjet;    scanning electron microscopy;    microstructures;   

DOI  :  10.3390/ma4060963

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

Conductive inks are key enablers for the use of printing techniques in the fabrication of electronic systems. Focus on the understanding of aspects controlling the electrical performance of conductive ink is paramount. A comparison was made between microparticle Ag inks and an Ag nanoparticle ink. The microstructures resulting from thermal cure processes were characterized morphologically and also in terms of their effect on the resistivity of printed traces. For microparticle inks, the variability of resistivity measurements between samples as defined by coefficient of variation (CV) was greater than 0.1 when the resistivity was 10 to 50 times that of bulk Ag. When the resistivity was lower (~1.4 times that of bulk Ag) the CV of sample sets was less than 0.1. In the case of the nanoparticle ink, resistivity was found to decrease by a factor ranging from 1.2 to 1.5 after doubling the amount of layers printed prior to curing though it was expected to remain the same. Increasing the amount of layers printed also enhanced the sintering process.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2011 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.