TY - JOUR
T1 - Self-aligned capillarity-assisted printing of high aspect ratio flexible metal conductors
T2 - Optimizing ink flow, plating, and mechanical adhesion
AU - Frisbie, C. Daniel
AU - Francis, Lorraine F.
AU - Jochem, Krystopher S.
AU - Kolliopoulos, Panayiotis
AU - Bidoky, Fazel Zare
AU - Wang, Yan
AU - Kumar, Satish
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 American Chemical Society.
PY - 2020/12/23
Y1 - 2020/12/23
N2 - High-resolution, low-resistance, flexible metal interconnects that are many centimeters long were additively manufactured on plastic substrates using a roll-to-roll compatible print and plate process. Connected networks of ink-receiving reservoirs and capillary microchannels were first roll-to-roll molded on plastic films. Silver ink was jetted into the easily-targeted inkreceiving reservoirs, and the connected microchannels were fed and coated with ink by capillary flow and drying. Subsequent electroless plating of copper into the silver-coated channels created solid, high aspect ratio conductive traces. Processing windows for uniform silver deposition were identified as a function of ambient humidity, ink flow time, and channel geometry. Plating conditions were also optimized to alleviate copper stress development and debonding and to allow conductor flexibility. Overall, the optimized print-and-plate process is promising for additively manufacturing micron-scale, high aspect ratio (>1), low-resistance (linear resistance ∼1 Ω/cm) conductors embedded in plastic, addressing a long-standing fabrication challenge for flexible printed electronics.
AB - High-resolution, low-resistance, flexible metal interconnects that are many centimeters long were additively manufactured on plastic substrates using a roll-to-roll compatible print and plate process. Connected networks of ink-receiving reservoirs and capillary microchannels were first roll-to-roll molded on plastic films. Silver ink was jetted into the easily-targeted inkreceiving reservoirs, and the connected microchannels were fed and coated with ink by capillary flow and drying. Subsequent electroless plating of copper into the silver-coated channels created solid, high aspect ratio conductive traces. Processing windows for uniform silver deposition were identified as a function of ambient humidity, ink flow time, and channel geometry. Plating conditions were also optimized to alleviate copper stress development and debonding and to allow conductor flexibility. Overall, the optimized print-and-plate process is promising for additively manufacturing micron-scale, high aspect ratio (>1), low-resistance (linear resistance ∼1 Ω/cm) conductors embedded in plastic, addressing a long-standing fabrication challenge for flexible printed electronics.
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U2 - 10.1021/acs.iecr.0c03081
DO - 10.1021/acs.iecr.0c03081
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85097760275
SN - 0888-5885
VL - 59
SP - 22107
EP - 22122
JO - Industrial and Engineering Chemistry Research
JF - Industrial and Engineering Chemistry Research
IS - 51
ER -