Printed electronic on flexible and glass substrates

Abstract

Organic electronics is a platform technology that enables multiple applications based on organic electronics but varied in specifications. Organic electronics is based on the combination of new materials and cost-effective, large area production processes that provide new fields of application.Organic electronic by its size, weight, flexibility and environmental friendliness electronics enables low cost production of numerous electrical components and provides for such promising fields of application as: intelligent packaging, low cost RFID, flexible solar cells, disposable diagnostic devices or games, and printed batteries [1].The paper presents results of inkjetted electronics elements on flexible and glass substrates. The investigations was target on characterizing shape, surface and geometry of printed structures. Variety of substrates were investigated, within some, low cost, non specialized substrate, design for other purposes than organic electronic.Organic electronics can be fabricated using well known printing techniques, out of which, roll-to-roll techniques are the most desirable. They require, however, expensive tools accompanied with, high cost test runs. Hence, they are inconvenient for research and development laboratory tests. For this reason, small companies and research institutes are more interested in InkJet technology, perfect for small scale production and prototyping. Inkjet printers do not require tools or process changes for fabricating new set of elements. They lower the cost of prototype fabrication by printing from graphic bitmap files straight to the substrates. This makes InkJet printing the leader of organic electronics fabrication technologies. For this reason, the investigation of the inkjet printing process is crucial for the fabrication of printing electronic issue. PRINTED ELECTRONIC MANUFACTURING.In Tele-and Radio Research Inst tute investigations and tests have been made on self built InkJet printer. Printer is based on MicroDrop piezo-electric printing head, with nozzle diameter of 50 μm, and drops volume from 35 to 55 pico litters. The pH of ink is to be in range 1 to 12, and the viscosity in range 1-15 cP [2]. This allows to test high variety of commercial inks and new inks produced by companies and other research institutes. The printer scheme is shown in figure 1.

Additive Manufacturing of Materials: Viable Techniques, Metals, Advances, Advantages, and Applications

“…A wide range of substrate materials such as glass, silicon, ceramic, paper, plastic, and fabric have been used for the development of high-resolution printed electronics. [77][78][79][80][81] With the available ink formulations and substrate materials, the printing resolution of drop-on-demand inkjet technology has already surpassed that of conventional screen printing technology, and the line width values are fast approaching 10 µm. Inkjet printing of conductive metal nanoparticle inks as electrical contacts and interconnects in printed electronic circuits and devices is probably the most extensively researched topic.…”

Direct digital additive manufacturing technologies: Path towards hybrid integration

“…The range of materials being processed by additive manufacturing techniques is growing rapidly, and the material list includes organic/inorganic semiconductors, biomaterials, conductive nanoparticles and polymers, dielectrics, ferromagnetic materials, and superconductors. Printed electronics by direct writing techniques show promise for use in a wide range of active and passive device applications, such as thin film transistors, OLED lighting, solar cells, RFIDs, antennas, inductors, capacitors, interconnects, sensors, and displays [13][14][15]. The increasing demand in flexibility in electronics production has become the driving force for the development of current manufacturing methods and encourages seeking of new manufacturing processes.…”

Mechanical durability of RFID chip joints assembled on flexible substrates

“…This can be addressed by the use of a printed electronics approach which allows the price to be decreased to below 1 cent per unit. It uses printing techniques such as screen printing (Shin et al, 2009;Janeczek et al, 2010), inkjet (Futera et al, 2010), flexography (Blayo and Pineaux, 2005) and gravure (Pudas et al, 2005). The first two techniques are often applied in research because a small amount of material is required.…”