Perspective methods of creating conductive paths by Aerosol Jet Printing technology

This paper presents a research focused on four-wire resistivity measurement of the selected materials printed by Aerosol Jet Printing system (AJP) with different process parameters. The aerosol jet printing technology is an additive deposition technique which is based on the idea of the formation the aerosol mist from the printed ink and its transportation on the substrate by gas flow. The aerosol formation - the atomization process can be made by two different ways. One way is the pneumatic atomizer which smashes the ink on the wall of the jar and so creates the aerosol. The inks of viscosity from 1 to 1000 mPa·s can be used. The second way is the ultrasonic atomizer which creates the aerosol by smashing the ink by ultrasonic waves. In ultrasonic one, the viscosity of the ink should be in the range from 1 to 5 mPa·s. Three different conductive inks based on nanoparticles were printed to the form of the test pattern. Printing parameters were optimized in order to achieve highest conductivity of printed line. The impedance measurement and used inks are described in this paper. The main application of such aerosol jet printed materials could as follows: organic electro-chemical transistors (OECT), gas sensors, smart ID cards or RFID antennas.