Microplasma direct writing of a copper thin film in the atmospheric condition with a novel copper powder electrode

Abstract

This study presents the microplasma direct writing of copper film in the open air using a novel copper powder electrode. The powder electrode acted as a high‐voltage electrode and the precursor source. The deposition process is realized through ion sputtering of the powder in the microplasma. The bombarded copper nanoparticles were deposited and accumulated on a silicon substrate. The deposited film is composed of copper nanoparticles with sizes in the range from tens to hundreds of nanometers, and its electrical conductivity could reach 3.96 × 105 S/m. The morphologies, chemical compositions and electrical property of the thin film can be adjusted by changing the input current, and maskless film deposition with different micropatterns can be achieved by direct microplasma scanning.

Fully 3D‐Printed, Ultrathin Capacitors via Multi‐Material Microsputtering

“…Therefore, a method to create dielectric films from DC sputtered aluminum shaped into a wire was developed. Previous microsputtering studies have used compressed dry air or argon as the sputtering gas; [43][44][45][46][47][48] while these are sufficient to sputter materials such as gold and copper, they cannot sputter aluminum, as aluminum needs more energetic ions to strip the aluminum atoms from the target wire. Increasing the ion energy by increasing the power fed to the plasma is not a viable solution, as the high current can melt the thin target wire.…”

Biomedical Applications of Metal 3D Printing

“…Sputtering is normally conducted in vacuum; however, plasmas can be stable at atmospheric pressure if the interelectrode distance is reduced to millimeters or less-these plasmas are called microplasmas. Microplasma sputtering (μPS) (Figure 1f ) is a relatively new technology for metal 3D printing of micro-and nanosystems that can deposit metal at room temperature on a wide range of materials, including temperature-sensitive substrates (99)(100)(101)(102)(103)(104)(105). There is an experimental DED technique that uses an arc plasma as an integrating agent, known as plasma-arc directed energy deposition (DED-PA), but it produces large structures with low precision, resolution, and surface quality (19); instead, μPS uses a low-current glow discharge for finer process control.…”

“…Because μPS does not use binder, it creates imprints with near-bulk electrical conductivity without annealing (∼85% bulk value for gold), surpassing competing technologies such as electrohydrodynamic deposition (jetting of metal micro/nanoparticle solutions using high electric fields; see 106-108), laser-assisted electrophoretic deposition (creation of deposits via electrophoresis of metal micro-and nanoparticles confined by high-intensity photons; see 109), laser-induced forward transfer (direct transfer by laser ablation of materials sourced as a thin film on a transparent substrate; see 110, 111), meniscus-confined electroplating (see 112,113), laser-induced photoreduction (photochemical reduction of metal salt solutions using a rastering laser; see [114][115][116], and focused-ion-beam-induced deposition (deposition of metallic molecules from the ion-induced dissociation of gases; see 117, 118) (Table 2). In principle, many materials can be sputtered, but the reported μPS work focuses on gold and copper (see [99][100][101][102][103][104]. Because of the slow speed of the process, μPS is primarily used for metallic coatings, rather than metal objects, which can be used to integrate metal traces to the surfaces of free-form objects, for example, to implement skin electronics.…”

Experimental Analysis of Wax Micro-Droplet 3D Printing Based on a High-Voltage Electric Field-Driven Jet Deposition Technology

“…At present, the micro/nano 3D printing technologies developed mainly include: direct laser writing based on two-photon polymerization [6], micro-stereophotolithography, electrohydrodynamic jet (E-jet) printing [7], laser-induced forward transfer (LIFT) [8], focused electron beam (FEB) induced deposition [9], electrochemical deposition [10], focused-ion-beam direct writing (FIBDW) [11], and microplasma deposition [12][13][14]. The printing scales include micron scales, sub-micron scales, and nano scales.…”