Fabrication of conductive copper patterns using reactive inkjet printing followed by two-step electroless plating

Chen, Jinju; Guo, Lin; Wang, Yan; Sowade, Enrico; Baumann, Reinhard R.; Feng, Zhe-sheng

doi:10.1016/j.apsusc.2016.09.152

Cited by 48 publications

(29 citation statements)

References 34 publications

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“…Recently, two preparation processes of FPC have been widely researched and applied. One is based on conductive ink. , The other is based on electroless plating. − Conductive ink can be printed on the flexible substrate and subsequently sintered to obtain the conductive pattern of FPC. Conductive ink generally consists of metal (Ag or Cu) nanoparticles , or metal organics. , In an electroless plating process, metal ions in the plating bath are reduced to metal and deposited on the substrate to form a conductive pattern.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Electroless Plating Cycle Process for High-Conductivity Flexible Printed Circuits

Zhang

Shi

et al. 2021

ACS Sustainable Chem. Eng.

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In this work, a non-formaldehyde electroless plating cycle process was successfully applied to prepare the flexible copper printed circuits on poly (ethylene terephtalate) (PET) films.Copper nanoparticles (Cu NPs) were employed as catalytic seeds, and dimethylaminoborane (DMAB) was used as the reductant. Cu NPs were directly printed on the PET surface modified by 3mercaptopropyltriethoxysilane (MPTES) to serve as the seeds to trigger the electroless deposition. MPTES modification can dramatically improve the adhesion of the PET and Cu layer. Cu NPs can ideally substitute noble metals Ag, Pt, and Pd to catalyze electroless deposition. DMAB, as an innocuous reductant can replace formaldehyde in an alkalescent plating bath. The amount of Cu NPs with different sizes on the per area of the PET surface was investigated to determine its appropriate dosage. Various times, temperatures, concentrations of reactants in the electroless plating process were researched to obtain optimal deposition. The minimal sheet resistance of the copper pattern was 6 mΩ/sq with a resistivity of 2.01 μΩ•cm, which is 1.18 times that of bulk copper. These results demonstrated that the prepared Cu pattern had excellent conductivity. The kinetics of the electroless plating process was researched to quantify the thickness of the Cu layer and the consumption of reactants. The electroless plating bath can well be cycled after compensating reactants, while the sheet resistance of the Cu pattern fluctuated very little. The cycling electroless plating bath will greatly reduce the discharge of waste and is of vital significance for the large-scale and cheap manufacturing of flexible printed electronics.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Electroless Plating Cycle Process for High-Conductivity Flexible Printed Circuits

Zhang

Shi

et al. 2021

ACS Sustainable Chem. Eng.

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“…Transferring conductive pastes onto textile substrates is one of these research topics, with a sizeable number of studies exploring how best to achieve this. Although there have been several attempts using ink‐jet printing, most of the research has focused on screen printing, due to its low cost. Systems that are capable of measuring heart rate or breathing movement, or of gathering energy from the body or the environment (eg, sun, rain), can be achieved by these methods .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Resistance variation of conductive ink applied by the screen printing technique on different substrates

Gomes

Tama

Carvalho

et al. 2020

Coloration Technology

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This research study focuses on the application of conductive ink by the screen printing technique to evaluate the potential of creating printed electrodes and to investigate the effect of washing upon electrical resistance and flexibility. Two conductive inks were applied by a conventional screen printing method on four different textile substrates, 100% cotton, 50%/50% cotton/polyester, 100% polyester and 100% polyamide. The inks were also applied on a multifibre fabric. Atmospheric plasma treatment was applied to improve the adhesion to the samples, and the resistance values were compared with those of non‐treated samples. The values were measured before and after cleaning and washing tests, which were performed to simulate domestic treatment for garments to predict the behaviour of the inks after normal usage of the fabrics. Comfort properties like stiffness of the fabrics were also evaluated after five and 10 washing cycles. It was observed that PE 825 ink forms a thicker film on the fabric surface, contributing to the loss of flexibility of the textile. However, PE 825 ink also produced the best results in terms of durability and lower values of resistance. Polyamide fabrics lost their conductive property after five washing cycles due to weak bonding between the ink and the fibres, whereas cotton fibres provided the best results.

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“…[1][2][3][4][5][6] The critical factors for performing a highquality ELD process include stable attachment of metallic catalysts ("metal ink") on the particular area of the substrate surface, and metal ions immobilization to form thin metal film through the autocatalysis reduction reaction in the presence of plating solution containing reducing agents. Tremendous efforts have been devoted to develop high-efficient patterning strategies to realize area-selective metallic catalyst immobilization on the substrate's surface directly, including microcontact printing, [7][8] pen-on-paper writing, [9][10][11] inkjet printing, [12][13] direct laser writing, [14][15][16] microfluidic, [17][18] and so forth.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…[19][20][21] In principle, it usually constitutes three major steps: patterning the functional polymeric layer on the substrate surface covalently or noncovalently, immobilizing metallic catalyst species onto the polymeric layer, and electroless deposition of metal species at the catalyst-loaded regions. Different from the previous top-down "metal ink" approach, [12][13] the bottom-up PAELD directly deposits metal thin films/ patterns onto various substrate's surface modified with an interfacial polymer layer in a reductive aqueous environment. The polymeric layer used in the PAELD approach plays a crucial role in not only improving the interfacial adhesion, conductivity, and surface smoothness of the obtained metal patterns but also extending its compatibility with various patterning technologies, e.g., dip-pen nanolithography, inkjet printing, or screen printing.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fabricating patterned polyelectrolyte brushes by dynamic microprojection lithography for selective electroless metal deposition

Zhao

Pan³

et al. 2020

J of Applied Polymer Sci

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The emerging need for flexible and wearable electronics has been pushing the edge of the traditional electroless deposition (ELD) technique. With the rapid development of polymer‐assisted ELD (PAELD), its time‐consuming and possess‐complicated procedures have hindered the application of the technique. Here, for purpose of addressing the challenge, the work demonstrates a highly efficient and versatile method, based on the procedure consisting of the customized polyelectrolyte brushes patterns fabrication with the assistance of mask‐free dynamic microprojection lithography and sequential selective ELD (DML‐ELD), for the fabrication of arbitrary electrode on the silicon dioxide/silicon (SiO2/Si) substrate. The resistivity of the patterned copper electrode maintained around 0.062 Ω∙mm at room temperature, indicating the high reproducibility and stability of the method. Furthermore, an interdigital copper electrode fabricated with the DML‐ELD method was coated with a poly(vinyl alcohol) sensing layer, forming a sandwich structure for the ambient humidity detection. The sensitivity of the lab‐made humidity sensor achieves 0.82 pF/%RH (<80%RH) and 19.3 pF/%RH (>80%RH). The work has demonstrated the broad prospect of the proposed DML‐ELD method in the rapid and customized manufacturing of microcircuit fabrication for electronic devices.

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Fabrication of conductive copper patterns using reactive inkjet printing followed by two-step electroless plating

Cited by 48 publications

References 34 publications

Electroless Plating Cycle Process for High-Conductivity Flexible Printed Circuits

Electroless Plating Cycle Process for High-Conductivity Flexible Printed Circuits

Resistance variation of conductive ink applied by the screen printing technique on different substrates

Fabricating patterned polyelectrolyte brushes by dynamic microprojection lithography for selective electroless metal deposition

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