No abstract

We report on the substitution of silver nanoparticles' inks by silver microparticle dispersions as a material for the production of printable silver tracks by laser melting. This approach is promising, because it helps to reduce the production costs of such silver tracks. Though silver dispersions used as materials for laser melting mostly contain polyvinylpyrrolidone as a stabilizer, which results in the appearance of an undesired balling effect of silver during laser melting, the authors test stabilizers differing in molecular weight and functionality. The resulting differences in colloidal and physicochemical properties are investigated and related to the final silver layer quality

The manufacturing of optical components by injection molding and injection-compression molding is a serious challenge for tool and machine technology as well as for process control. To evaluate the quality of optical parts, the accuracy of the molded geometry as well as the resulting optical performance have been analyzed. At present a geometrical molding accuracy in the lower micron range has been achieved for the production of thick-walled lenses. Overall injection-compression molded lenses showed a better optical performance than injection-molded lenses. Due to these preliminary investigations, different injection-compression-molding technologies are to be examined. Thus, a mold has been developed, which enables the comparison of different injection-compression technologies. The compression step is realized, on the one hand, by the mold motion of the injection molding machine and, on the other hand, by integrated hydraulic pistons. With this mold design, the compression technique using integrated hydraulic pistons achieves better results regarding the optical and the geometrical properties of the lenses. To analyze the molded optics, a Shack–Hartmann sensor was used in order to characterize the deformation of the wave front. For the geometrical accuracy of the molded lenses, a chromatic sensor was used.

No abstract

No abstract