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Effect of the light spectrum of various substrates

for inkjet printed conductive structures sintered
with intense pulsed light

Conference Paper February 2015

DOI: 10.1063/1.4908589

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 Effect of the light spectrum of various substrates for inkjet printed conductive
structures sintered with intense pulsed light
Dana Weise, Kalyan Yoti Mitra, Peter Ueberfuhr, and Reinhard R. Baumann

Citation: AIP Conference Proceedings 1646, 101 (2015); doi: 10.1063/1.4908589

View online: http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4908589
View Table of Contents: http://scitation.aip.org/content/aip/proceeding/aipcp/1646?ver=pdfcov
Published by the AIP Publishing

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 Effect of the light spectrum of various substrates for inkjet
printed conductive structures sintered with intense pulsed
light
Dana Weise1,a), Kalyan Yoti Mitra1, Peter Ueberfuhr1, Reinhard R. Baumann1,2
1
Institute for Print and Media Technology, Department of Digital Printing and Imaging Technology, Technische
Universitt Chemnitz, Chemnitz, Germany
2
Fraunhofer Institute for Electronic Nano Systems (ENAS), Department Printed Functionalities, Chemnitz,
Germany
.
a)
Corresponding author: dana.weise@mb.tu-chemnitz.de

Abstract. In this work, the novel method of intense pulsed light (IPL) sintering of a nanoparticle silver ink is presented.
Various patterns are printed with the Inkjet technology on two flexible foils with different light spectra. One is a clear
Polyethylenterephthalat [PET] foil and the second is a light brownish Polyimide [PI] foil. The samples are flashed with different
parameters regarding to pulse intensity and pulse length.
Microscopic images are indicating the impact of the flashing parameters and the different light spectra of the substrates on the
sintered structures. Sheet and line resistance are measured and the conductivity is calculated.
A high influence of the property of the substrate with respect to light absorption and thermal conductivity on the functionality
of printed conductive structures could be presented
With this new method of IPL sintering, highly conductive inkjet printed silver patterns could be manufactured within
milliseconds on flexible polymeric foils without damaging the substrate.

INTRODUCTION
The Inkjet Technology is due to its non-impact printing as well as additive deposition of smallest amounts of
material with high accuracy an attractive patterning technology in the field of printed electronics [1].
One of the main components of printed electronic devices is the conductive structure. Independent if a metal
nanoparticle (NP) or a metallo-organic decomposition (MOD) solution is deposited on a substrate, main challenge is
the formation of the functionality, which is in this case electrical conductivity. In a post treatment step, heat is
applied to the printed sample which evaporates all solvents, as well as stabilization additives and all organic parts
are cast out and a solid metal layer is formed. This process is called as sintering. Traditional sintering methods like
direct sintering in ovens or on hotplates [2] applies temperature to both, the printed metal layer as well as the
substrate. The mostly high required temperatures for silver, copper or even gold layers makes this method not
suitable for polymer foils with low thermal stability. Next to this, this method requires long sintering times in ranges
of minutes up to hours.
Novel methods such as microwave sintering, laser sintering, infrared (IR) sintering and intense pulse light (IPL)
sintering replace this traditional sintering and open new opportunities [3, 4, 5, 6]. The IPL sintering technology
stands out with its sintering time of only few milliseconds or even microseconds [7]. Its selective sintering opens the
opportunity of the usage of flexible polymer foils with low glass transition temperature (Tg) without damaging
them. One of the key benefits is the possibility of the integration of the printing and post processing into a roll to roll
(R2R) process.

International Conferences and Exhibition on Nanotechnologies and Organic Electronics (NANOTEXNOLOGY 2014)
AIP Conf. Proc. 1646, 101-105 (2015); doi: 10.1063/1.4908589
2015 AIP Publishing LLC 978-0-7354-1285-9/$30.00

101
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 MATERIALS & METHODS
Inkjet printing was carried out with the Dimatix Materials Printer DMP 2831 from Fujifilm Dimatix with 10 pl
printheads. Two different substrates were used. On the one hand a transparent Poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET)
foil (50 m thickness) and on the other hand a slightly yellowish & Polyimide (PI) foil (25 m thickness). The used
ink was a commercial available nanoparticle silver ink from ANP (Advanced Nano Products Co., Ltd). The printed
samples were first dried at low temperatures (80 C) in an oven (Nabertherm). The intense pulsed light (IPL)
sintering was carried out with the PulseForge 3200 from Novacentrix at varying light intensities. The digital patterns
used for printing can be seen in Fig. 1. Squares (Fig. 1a) with dimensions of 5x5 mm were printed for the electrical
characterization with a manual probe system PM5 (Sss Microtec). Two smaller squares (1x1 mm) with a thin
(0.1x1 mm) connection line (Fig. 1b) were used for optical analysis with a light microscope (Leica DM 4000) as
well as surface profile measurements (Dektak 150, Veeco). In Fig. 1c the two areas are highlighted for the light
microscope investigation and the surface profile measurements.

(1) (2)

(a) (b) (c)

FIGURE 1. Digital image of the printed patterns, (a) 5x5 mm pattern for sheet resistance measurement, (b) 1x1 mm contact
pads with 0.1x1 mm connection, (c) area of interest for surface profiles (1) and microscopic images (2)

RESULTS & DISCUSSION

Optical analysis
The printed and IPL sintered samples were analyzed with a light microscope (Fig. 2 and Fig. 3). In Fig. 2 the
sintered results printed on PEN are shown. At lower flashing energies of 0.41 J/cm the samples show no defects
like cracks or delaminating (Fig. 2a). Increasing the flashing energy up to 0.6 J/cm results in small cracks at the
edge of the printed silver layer (Fig. 2b). Further increase to 0.82 J/cm causes a big crack at the edge of the silver
pattern (Fig. 2c). Independent if lines or big squares are printed, this crack runs around the whole pattern at the
border between the silver layer and the substrate.

(a) (b) (c)

FIGURE 2. Magnification of the narrow silver connection printed on PET foil after intense pulsed light sintering with
various energies: (a) 0.41 J/cm, (b) 0.6 J/cm, (c) 0.82 J/cm

The samples printed on PI (Fig. 3) do not show any crack formation, even not at high energies up to 0.82 J/cm.
Main reason is seen in the glass transition temperature (Tg) of the two substrate materials.

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 (a) (b) (c)
FIGURE 3. Magnification of the narrow silver connection printed on PI foil after intense pulsed light sintering with various
energies: (a) 0.41 J/cm, (b) 0.6 J/cm, (c) 0.82 J/cm

PI has no melting point and a thermal shrinkage of 0.1 % at thermal treatment of 200 C for 2 hours (test
method: JIS C2318) [9]. The melting point of PET is at 255 - 260 C and it shows 3 % shrinkage at 190 C after 5
minutes (test method: ASTM E794-85) [10]. When flashing with the IPL technique, the dark silver layer gets heated
up rapidly by absorbing the irradiated light. The transparent PET substrate does not absorb light and hence it does
not get heated up. However, at the border, where the silver layer meets the substrate, the heat of the silver layer can
lead to a local thermal impact on the substrate at this point. This thermal impact can now cause defects in the
substrate, like deformation by shrinkage, which in turn causes small cracks. The higher the radiant exposure J/cm,
the more the silver layer heats up and leads to deformation in the PET foil, which at the end results in the complete
crack seen in Fig. 2c.

Electrical analysis
In this section the electrical behavior depending on the energy J/cm of the light flash is demonstrated. In Fig. 4a
it can be seen that the sheet resistance of only dried patterns printed on the PI substrate is at 1.21  0.18 
and for the PET substrate nearly doubled with 2.51  0.59 / Especially on the PET substrate high
fluctuations appear, demonstrating an inhomogeneous and not complete sintering with only 80 C.

0,8
3,0 PET
0,7
PI
2,5
Sheet resistance [/]

Sheet resistance [/]

0,6
PET thermal sintering
2,0 PI thermal sintering 0,5

0,4
1,5
0,3
1,0
0,2
PET
0,5
0,1
PI
0,0 0,0
0,0 0,1 0,2 0,3 0,4 0,5 0,6 0,7 0,8 0,9 0,2 0,3 0,4 0,5 0,6 0,7 0,8 0,9

Radiant exposure [J/cm] Radiant exposure [J/cm]

(a) (b)
FIGURE 4. (a) Sheet resistance demonstrated in dependence on the flashing energy on the substrates PET and PI, (b) detail
of the flashed results.

Reasons for the fluctuation and the different results in the sheet resistance for the only dried patterns on the two
substrates can be on one hand seen in an inhomogeneous layer formation due to different wetting behaviors of the

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 silver ink on the substrates, occurring from the different surface tensions. On the other hand both substrates have
different thermal conductivities, resulting in varying heat conduction. The thermal conductivity of the used PI foil
[9] is higher than the thermal conductivity of PET foil [11]. It can be assumed, that on the PI foil with the higher
thermal conductivity, the heat dissipation through the substrate is faster when heating from bottom-up like e.g. on a
hotplate. Hence, the heating of the Silver nanoparticles will be more than on the PET substrate. Furthermore for both
substrates but especially for the PET foil high standard deviations occur, which comes from the incomplete and
inhomogeneous sintering at only low temperatures.
Comparing the flashed results it can be seen that the sheet resistance is significant lower on the PET substrate
when flashing with energies at 0.6 J/cm and higher. Considering the crack formation for the PET substrate, samples
flashed with energies higher than 0.6 J/cm in a single flash are not adequate for printed electronic applications.
However, higher applied energies do not result in a further decrease in sheet resistance and therefore are not
essential at all. The sheet resistance for the samples printed and flashed on the PI substrate show a decrease from the
initial value reached with the thermal sintering too. But compared to the initial value this decrease is less denotative.
On the example of the PET foil the potential of the IPL sintering for increasing the electrical performance of
metallic layers on polymer foils, which are only applicable for low temperatures, could be demonstrated essentially.

SURFACE PROFILES
To further examine the crack formation at the edge of the silver layers printed on the PET substrate for higher
light intensities, surface profiles where made over the thin connection lines at various light energies (Fig. 5a - 5c). In
Fig. 5d surface profiles of silver layers on the PI substrates and flashed at various light energies are presented.

2000 0.41 J/cm 2000 0.6 J/cm

1600 1600
Vertical scanned height [nm]

Vertical scanned height [nm]

1200 1200

800 800

400 400

0 0
70 120 170 220 270 320 70 120 170 220 270 320
-400 -400

-800 -800

-1200 -1200
Horizontal scanned length [m] Horizontal scanned length [m]

(a) (b)
2000 0.82 J/cm 2000
0.41 J/cm 0.6 J/cm 0.82 J/cm
1600 1600
Vertical scanned height [nm]

Vertical scanned height [nm]

1200 1200

800 800

400 400

0 0
70 120 170 220 270 320 70 120 170 220 270 320
-400 -400
-800 -800
-1200 -1200
Horizontal scanned length [m] Horizontal scanned length [m]

(c) (d)
FIGURE 5. Surface profiles for samples flashed with various light intensities, (a) PET with 0.4 J/cm, (b) PET with
0.6 J/cm, (c) PET with 0.82 J/cm, (d) PI with 0.4 J/cm, 0.6 J/cm and 0.82 J/cm

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 In Fig. 5a to 5c the profiles printed on the PET substrate and in Fig. 5d the profiles printed on the PI substrate are
demonstrated. At an intensity of 0.41 J/cm (Fig. 5a) a typical profile of an inkjet printed line is displayed. No
conspicuity regarding cracks can be seen. Increasing the light intensity up to 0.6 J/cm is resulting in small cracks as
discussed in Fig.2b. From the Fig.5b small hills at both edges of the line profile can be note. These hills are enlarged
with even higher light energies of 0.82 J/cm (Fig. 5c). Additional on both sides a valley into the negative range
between the silver layer and the hill arises. Assumption is that at this boundary surface between the silver layer and
the PET substrate the locally generated heat from the silver has an impact on the foil substrate, which leads at this
certain area to a locally heating of the foil and possible deformations, resulting in the hill and valley formation. In
Fig.2c this hill and valley formation is seen as the crack at the edge of the printed silver line. The disconnection
itself (black gab, from the microscopic image) can be identified as the valley whereas the hill will be the small silver
line on top.
Fig. 5d illustrates all three surface profiles of silver lines printed on the PI substrate for the three different
flashing intensities in one diagram. All three profiles do not show any hill or valley formation, they are
homogeneous through the whole line profile, which can be also compared to the microscopic images in Fig. 3.

SUMMARY

The intense pulsed light sintering of inkjet printed nanoparticle silver patterns was presented. A
dependency of the results regarding electrical as well as optical performance on the substrate could be
proved. Silver patterns printed on a PET foil were showing a lower sheet resistance, but at the same time
defects in the form of cracks occurred if high flashing energies were used. Whereas the silver patterns
printed on PI foil resulted in slightly higher sheet resistance but without any visible defects. Compared to
the initial sheet resistance after drying the silver samples in an oven, for both substrates a further decrease
with the intense pulsed light sintering could be achieved. Three main factors influence the results: First,
the spectral light absorption and the thermal conductivity of the substrate affect the energy and the
resulting heat formation and conduction through the substrate. Second, the material properties of the
substrate, like glass transition temperature, can have an effect on the outcome.

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