Nishi et al.

: Printed Electronics on Flexible Substrate Using Inkjet (1/4)

Printed Electronics on Flexible Substrate Using Inkjet Technology

Shinichi Nishi, Kazuo Asano, Daisuke Ishibashi, Akiko Kitami and Kumiko Furuno
KonicaMinolta IJ Technologies, Inc., Tokyo 191-8511, Japan

(Received August 5, 2009; accepted November 9, 2009)

Abstract
Inkjet technology is believed to be suitable for the mask-less production of various electronic devices. Printed electronics
using inkjet technologies have major benefits as shown below: 1) direct printing of metal patterns on large and/or flexible
substrates is possible, 2) the waste of coating materials, which are usually expensive, is minimized. In this paper, the
jetting characteristics of Ag nano particle dispersed ink with shear mode piezo print heads are described. A 2.7 pl droplet
can be ejected with a minimum line width of 70 µ m. For applications with flexible substrates, the inkjet patterning of
electrodes for PCBs and thin film coating on PET substrates are described using a line-head module.
Keywords: Inkjet, Printed Electronics, Flexible Substrate, Ag Nano Ink, Line-Head Module

1. Introduction
Recently inkjet technologies have been applied to indus-
trial fields. In Figure 1, examples of applied inkjet technol-
ogies are classified. Printing mode is classified as shuttle
type or single pass type, indicated on the upper and lower
halves, respectively. Application is classified as normal
printing of images and/or characters and industrial print-
ing of lines and/or patterns, indicated on the right and left
sides, respectively. In the electronics field, inkjet pro-
cesses have been used for printed electronics and display
manufacturing. Examples of those applications are PCBs,
Ceramic circuits, IC packages, LCDs, PDPs, OLEDs, and
Solar Cells.
For those applications, many kinds of substrates are
used: rigid or flexible, sheet or roll, and smooth or rugged
surfaces. Recent attentions have been focused on flexible
substrates, especially plastic sheets, such as PI (polyim-
ide), PET (polyethylene terephthalate), and PEN (polyeth-
ylene naphthalate). The electronic devices and modules
using the above plastic substrates are suitable for light-
weight or handy products, and 3R policy (Reduce, Reuse,
Recycle) in respect of environment requirements.
We have developed a shear-mode piezo inkjet print head
which is operated most effectively and has contributed to
the new applications in the industrial field.
The structural model of the piezo actuator of the print
head is shown in Figure 2.[1]
2. Inkjet Technology for Printed Electronics
Inkjet technology is a remarkable process whereby a
small droplet of special liquid can be placed at a requested
point with high accuracy and at a precise volume. The com-
bination of those droplets makes a line pattern or area pat-
tern freely according to a digital image designed previously.
Utilizing the merits of inkjet technology, printed elec-
tronics has become a focus because of the features
described below:[2] 1) direct drawing without a mask on a
large substrate, 2) manufacturing of low volumes of many

Fig. 1 Industrial printing fields using inkjet technologies. Fig. 2 Shear-mode piezo actuator.

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Transactions of The Japan Institute of Electronics Packaging Vol. 2, No. 1, 2009

Table 1 Various print heads with different numbers of

nozzles and droplet volumes.
Shared Nozzle Nozzle Usable Ink Drop Ejecting
Wall Number Density Volume Frequency
[npi] [pl] [kHz]
L Solvent-based 42 7.6
M Ink 14 12.8
512 360
S Aggressive 4 20
Solvent Ink
Independent Nozzle Nozzle Usable Ink Drop Ejecting
Wall Number Density Volume Frequency
[npi] [pl] [kHz] Fig. 3 A view of the whole direct printing system.
M 256 180 Aqueous Ink 15 15
M 128 90 Aqueous Ink 15 15
S 128 90 Aggressive 6 20–40 were used as oil-based or organic solvent-based inks.
Solvent Ink
3. 3 Direct printing system
We tested the jetting properties of various kinds of metal
kinds of devices 3) real-time production by digital design dispersed inks using a drop-watcher system. Metal
4) low levels of loss in coated materials. electrode patterns were obtained using a direct printing
We have established targets for developing a shear- system easily operated for experimental research as
mode piezo print head. shown in Figure 3. The system is constructed from 1) an
1) The many kinds of inks which are used in printed XY stage which scans the print head as the X axis and the
electronics must be compatible with the material-compo- media on the table as the Y axis, 2) a memory board and
nents used in constructing a print head. These include head driving board which generate the waveform of pulse
aqueous inks which are acidic or basic, organic solvent ejecting droplets as required for the drawing patterns, 3) a
based inks which are various ethers, esters, ketones, and PC and software which control the electric boards and XY
aromatic hydrocarbons, as well as special nitrogen contain- stage movement, 4) an ink storage syringe which supplies
ing cyclic compounds. We have developed a newly synthe- ink to the print head by a static pressure difference.
sized epoxy glue, engineering plastics for the ink manifold,
and a passivation layer for the electrode of the piezo mate- 4. Results and Discussion
rial, which contact the ink fluid directly. 4.1 Inkjet ejection of Ag nano particle dispersed ink
2) A highly sensitive piezo material, PZT (Pb(Zr,Ti)O3 For stable ejection of nano-metal particle dispersed ink,
ceramics), was selected and relatively high viscous ink it is necessary that the aggregation and precipitation of
should be ejected at low driving voltages, below 20 V.[3] particles be inhibited under all conditions and that the vis-
3) Good directionality of the ejected droplets is required cosity of the ink used not be increased at the meniscus at
for highly precise patterning. We achieved an average angle the liquid-air boundary near a nozzle of the print head. The
deviation of droplets less than 0.1 degree as 1σ. preferable viscosity of ink is from 5 to 15 mPa sec.
4) According to the required line width, which is The properties of the ink and printing conditions are
proportional to the droplet volume, and the thickness, we listed below;
developed 4 types of print heads which can eject droplets 1) Ag nano particle dispersed ink:
of different volumes, 42 pl, 14 pl, 6 pl, and 4 pl, respec- viscosity at 20°C 14 mPa sec
tively. In Table 1, the line-up of print heads is shown. density 1.8 g/cm3
metal contents 55 wt%
3. Experiment solvent tetradecane
3.1 Inkjet head 2) print head: 512 nozzles
We used the 42 pl head for large area pattern drawing droplet volume 2.7 pl
and the 4 pl head for fine patterns. droplet weight 4.8 ng
3.2 Ink driving frequency 1.6 kHz
We used various kinds of sample inks supplied by many applied voltage 14 V
ink manufacturers. Ag nano-metal particles dispersed inks drive pulse unit width 4.1 µ sec

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 Nishi et al.: Printed Electronics on Flexible Substrate Using Inkjet (3/4)
The ejected droplets were monitored by a drop-watcher
apparatus. The results are shown in Figure 4. Stable ejec-
tion was observed for a long period at room temperature.
The ejection characteristics of the Ag nano particle dis-
persed ink with 4 pl print head are shown in Figures 5 and 6.
In Figure 5, a linear relationship was observed between
the applied voltage which generates the drop-ejecting
acoustic power from the piezo walls and the drop velocity
of the ejected drop measured 1.3 mm from the nozzle
plate. This linearity proves the stable ejection of the Ag
nano particle dispersed liquid by the piezo print head. In
the drawing pattern experiment, the drop velocity was 6
m/sec at 14 V applied to the print head used.
In Figure 6, the linear relationship was also observed
between the drop velocity and the drop weight. The slope
of the line represents the sensitivity of drop size to velocity
depending on ejection frequency. A low frequency seems
to result in relatively small drop generation.
According to the above results, the drop weight, i.e., the
drop volume, can be controlled mainly by the applied
voltage.
Fig. 4 Ejected droplets monitored by drop- watcher.
Fig. 5 Relationship between applied voltage and velocity of
ejected drop.
The dot size on the OHP sheet was 42 µ m diameter as
shown in Figure 7.
Using the direct printing system with the 42 pl print
head, a sample print of an Ag electrode pattern for a
printed circuit board was obtained on PI film and cured at
150°C for one hour as shown in Figure 8. An enlargement
of the pattern of Figure 8 is shown in Figure 9. The mini-
mum line width was 70 µ m when drawn one droplet wide
on a PI sheet treated with N2 plasma.
In further experiments with 4 pl print heads, we
observed a 30 µ m wide Ag pattern on a fluorine-polymer
layer coating on a PET sheet. The layer made a large con-
tact angle with the Ag dispersed ink, over 80 degrees.
These results indicate that the surface energy of the pat-
terned substrate is the most important factor in determin-
ing the line width.
The diameter of a 42 pl drop is 43 µ m, that of a 4 pl drop
is 20 µ m, and that of a 1 pl drop is 12 µ m. This relationship
means that the line width is not only determined by drop
volume but drop diameter. Furthermore, a drop will
Fig. 6 Relationship between velocity of ejected drop and
weight of the drop.
Fig. 7 Ejected dots on OHP sheet for IJ printing.
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Transactions of The Japan Institute of Electronics Packaging
Fig. 8 A sample of printed electrode pattern on a PCB.
Fig. 9 An enlargement of the printed electrode of the PCB
pattern from Figure 8.
spread on contact with the surface of the substrate depend-
ing on the surface energy of the substrate. A non-wetting
surface makes small dots and a fine pattern. We estimate
that a 1 pl print head can make a fine pattern with lines
approximately 20 µ m wide.
4.2 Inkjet printing on flexible substrate
We studied constructing an inkjet coating system for
flexible sheets, usually called a web coating apparatus.
One example was an apparatus for PET roll film in which
a line-head module with 12 heads was installed. The mod-
ule shown in Figure 10 had 6144 nozzles in total and was
216 mm wide. The nozzle pitch was 720 npi (nozzles per
inch), or 35 µ m. The droplet volume was 14 pl.
Ejecting droplets at 12 kHz, the coating speed was 400
mm/sec. When a uniform coating of PI film is required, 14
pl droplets make a film 5 µ m thick wet, which results in a
thickness 0.5 µ m dried if the density of the ink is 10 vol%.
Using the line-head module shown in Figure 10, an example
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Vol. 2, No. 1, 2009
Fig.10 A line-head module constructed with 12 heads.
of the obtained optical anti-reflection film on TAC (Triacetyl
cellulose) film showed good uniformity of thickness, 0.5 µ m
± 2%.
5. Conclusions
Inkjet technology is suitable for the mask-less produc-
tion of various electronic devices. The shear-mode piezo
print head and Ag nano particle dispersed ink make fine
electrode patterns by direct drawing. A line-head module is
usable for coating flexible substrates.
Acknowledgments
The authors are grateful for supplies of Ag nano particle
dispersed inks by ULVAC, Inc., Harima Chemicals, Inc.,
and Cabot Specialty Chemicals, Inc.
References
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Inkjet Technology”, Proceedings of the IMAPS/ACerS
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