High-performance printed electronics based on inorganic semiconducting nano to chip scale structures

Dahiya Abhishek Singh,Shakthivel Dhayalan,Kumaresan Yogeenth,Zumeit Ayoub,Christou Adamos,Dahiya Ravinder 나노기술연구협의회 2020 Nano Convergence Vol.7 No.33

The Printed Electronics (PE) is expected to revolutionise the way electronics will be manufactured in the future. Building on the achievements of the traditional printing industry, and the recent advances in flexible electronics and digital technologies, PE may even substitute the conventional silicon-based electronics if the performance of printed devices and circuits can be at par with silicon-based devices. In this regard, the inorganic semiconducting materials-based approaches have opened new avenues as printed nano (e.g. nanowires (NWs), nanoribbons (NRs) etc.), micro (e.g. microwires (MWs)) and chip (e.g. ultra-thin chips (UTCs)) scale structures from these materials have been shown to have performances at par with silicon-based electronics. This paper reviews the developments related to inorganic semiconducting materials based high-performance large area PE, particularly using the two routes i.e. Contact Printing (CP) and Transfer Printing (TP). The detailed survey of these technologies for large area PE onto various unconventional substrates (e.g. plastic, paper etc.) is presented along with some examples of electronic devices and circuit developed with printed NWs, NRs and UTCs. Finally, we discuss the opportunities offered by PE, and the technical challenges and viable solutions for the integration of inorganic functional materials into large areas, 3D layouts for high throughput, and industrial-scale manufacturing using printing technologies.

Measurement of Geometric Properties of Printed Patterns and Evaluation of their Printability

Sung Woong Jeon(전선웅),Cheol Kim(김철),Jong-Chan Park(박종찬),Dong Soo Kim(김동수),Chung Hwan Kim(김충환) Korean Society for Precision Engineering 2014 한국정밀공학회지 Vol.31 No.11

Printed electronics devices are made of several sets of printed patterns. The quality or printability of the printed patterns determines the electrical performance of such devices. Moreover, control of the printability determines the reliability of such devices. Despite its importance, few studies have been reported for the measurement of the printed patterns to evaluate their printability. In this study, a measurement method is proposed for printed patterns, including the definition of the properties to be measured, and the related software is described. The proposed method measures the width, pinholes, and edge waviness and evaluates the printability of the patterns quantitatively. The proposed measurement method could be an efficient tool to evaluate and enhance the printability of printed patterns in printed electronics.

Control and Measurement of Doctoring Angle at Deformed State in Doctoring Apparatus for Printed Electronics

전성웅,김충환,김철 한국정밀공학회 2017 International Journal of Precision Engineering and Vol.18 No.5

In printed electronics, the performance of printed devices depends on the quality of the printed patterns, or printability. It depends on the printing ink, the printing equipment, and printing conditions. Therefore, for reliable printed patterns with high printability, the printing conditions should be optimized and then maintained at constant values. Among the various printing conditions, parameters related to the doctoring process are important in gravure printing. In this study, the doctoring angle is redefined by the contact angle between the master plate and the doctor blade at the deformed state rather than the undeformed initial angle. The doctoring apparatus, capable of varying the angle of the doctor blade by controlling the position of the blade at the desired position, is developed. To estimate the doctoring angle in the deformed state without measurement from the photo image, mathematical model that calculates the doctoring angle in the deformed state using only geometric properties are derived. The doctoring angles based on the proposed mathematical model are compared with those measured from direct photo images for verifying the proposed method. In addition, the effect of the doctoring angle on the printability of the printed patterns is examined qualitatively through an experiment.

패턴 형상, 인쇄 및 건조 조건이 전도성 잉크를 이용한 그라비아 인쇄 결과물의 성능에 미치는 영향

안병준(Byoung Joon Ahn),한경준(Kyung Joon Han),고성림(Sung Lim Ko) 대한기계학회 2010 大韓機械學會論文集A Vol.34 No.3

e-Printing은 전통 인쇄 기술을 기반으로 하는 전자소자를 생산하기위한 새로운 기술이다. 이러한 인쇄 전자소자들은 가격을 낮추기 위하여 대면적 인쇄가 요구된다. 이렇듯 원가를 절감하며 전자 소자에 요구되는 정밀도를 충족하기 위하여 롤투롤(Roll to Roll) 방식의 그라비아(Gravure) 인쇄 시스템이 하나의 대안으로 제시된다. 그라비아 인쇄에는 인쇄 전자 소자의 성능에 영향을 미치는 요소들이 매우 많다 : 건조 방식, 건조 온도, 운전 장력, 인쇄 속도, 잉크 점도, 잉크의 전도성, 망점 및 패턴의 정밀도. 이상에서 언급한 요소들은 각각 매우 밀접한 관계를 가지고 있다. 따라서 인쇄 전자소자의 성능을 향상시키기 위해서는 반듯이 인쇄 적합조건을 찾아야만 한다. 본 논문에서는, 전도성 잉크 및 그라이아 인쇄기를 사용하여 다양한 요소의 조건을 변화하여 패턴(선 및 면)을 인쇄하였으며, 각 인쇄 요소의 변화가 인쇄 전자소자의 성능에 미치는 영향에 관하여 분석 및 연구를 수행하였다. e-Printing is a new manufacturing technology for electronic products and is based on traditional printing technology. The electronic products require a large area to facilitate printing and to be economical. A gravure printing system that supports a roll to roll (R2R) manufacturing process can be used to reduce the cost and to achieve the required accuracy. Many factors such as drying method, drying temperature, tension,-printing velocity, ink viscosity, ink conductivity, pattern accuracy, and dot geometry influence the performance of printed electronics. These factors are closely interrelated. The optimum condition for printing must be determined to enhance the performance of the printed electronics. In this study, lines and areas are printed using a gravure printer with conductive ink under different conditions of the above mentioned factors. The results are analyzed to investigate the influence of various factors on the performance of the printed electronics.

3D Printed Electronics of Non-contact Ink Writing Techniques: Status and Promise

Haining Zhang,Seung Ki Moon,Teck Hui Ngo 한국정밀공학회 2020 International Journal of Precision Engineering and Vol.7 No.2

Non-contact ink writing techniques are a newly developed three-dimensional printing technology to fabricate customized and flexible electronic devices, while dramatically reducing chemical waste and lowering manufacturing costs. However, the use of non-contact ink writing technologies for fabricating electronics is still limited due to printing quality. To develop an electronic device with high performance, conductive lines should be printed with high controllability and excellent uniformity. Under such circumstances, many traditional optimization methods have been proposed to improve the printing quality. However, as the non-contact ink writing process is very sensitive to the system drifts and random variations, in situ process monitoring and online optimization technologies to optimize the printed line quality are in demand for practical printing. In this paper, we describe the processes of non-contact ink writing techniques based on inkjet printing (IJP) and aerosol jet printing (AJP). The key influencing factors in the non-contact ink writing processes are also discussed based on the three main printing stages. Then we analyze the advantages and disadvantages of the IJP and AJP techniques and review the state of art in quality optimization and precise control techniques that can be adopted in non-contact ink writing process. Additionally, to further develop a non-contact ink writing system, the major challenges and limitations of the current printing quality optimization technologies are also highlighted in this paper.

AI-Aided Printed Line Smearing Analysis of the Roll-to-Roll Screen Printing Process for Printed Electronics

Anton Nailevich Gafurov,Thanh Huy Phung,Beyong-Hwan Ryu,Inyoung Kim,Taik-Min Lee 한국정밀공학회 2023 International Journal of Precision Engineering and Vol.10 No.2

Screen printing has been adopted for fabricating a wide variety of electronic devices. However, the printing defects and reliability have been an obstacle for industrialization of printed electronics. In this research, the artificial intelligence (AI) model was developed and integrated with the in-house roll-to-roll screen printing system to detect smearing defect, which is one of the main defects of screen printing. The U-Net architecture was adopted, and a total of 19 models were designed with model sizes ranging from 8E + 3 to 3E + 7 number of parameters. Their performances as validation mean Intersection over Union (IoU) were analyzed, and the optimal model was chosen with a validation mean IoU of 95.1% and a number of parameters of 8E + 6. The printed line images were evaluated by the AI model for various printing conditions, such as printed line widths, printing paste premixing, printing speeds, and printed line directions, which showed that the model could effectively detect the smearing defects. Also, the AI model capabilities were investigated for repeated printing, which demonstrated that it can be used for the reliability assessment of the screen printing process.

Flexible 2-Layer Paper Printed Circuit Board Fabricated by Inkjet Printing for 3-D Origami Electronics

강민규,강경태 한국정밀공학회 2018 International Journal of Precision Engineering and Vol.5 No.3

Inkjet printing has advantages to be easy to use, environmentally benign and adaptable for flexible electronics manufacturing. Also, paper is an emerging potential substrate due to extremely cheap price and its abundance. We used inkjet printing on a paper to make inexpensive flexible 3-D origami electronics. We printed two pads of 2 × 2mm2 and the metal lines between pads that had the width of 0.2 mm and the length of 5 mm on the paper. Repetitive printing methods reduced the resistance value of metal lines. The measured resistance values of metal lines printed on a chromatography paper ten times repeatedly were less than 10 ohms. We confirmed that the metal lines printed on both sides of the paper were not connected and could be connected through the ‘printed via without holes’. The inkjet-printed metal lines on paper were successfully used to construct the simple PCB with LED. We also tested bending test and confirmed lighting the LED. In order to prevent that metal lines were broken during folding the paper PCB, both sides of the folding point were additionally printed such as via. As a result, the metal line was not broken even when folded.

All-printed triboelectric nanogenerator

Seol, Myeong-Lok,Han, Jin-Woo,Moon, Dong-Il,Yoon, Kyung Jean,Hwang, Cheol Seong,Meyyappan, M. Elsevier 2018 Nano energy Vol.44 No.-

<P><B>Abstract</B></P> <P>Mechanical energy harvesters have not much benefited from the significant advantages of additive manufacturing techniques because the functional materials are not compatible with most printable schemes. In this work, a triboelectric nanogenerator is designed and demonstrated only by additive manufacturing methods. The all-printed triboelectric nanogenerator (AP-TENG) combines the advantages of 2D and 3D printing technologies. The structural frame is formed by 3D printing as a core-shell structure, which effectively converts external vibrations into continuous sliding motion. The contact layers are created by 2D inkjet printing with precisely patterned grating structure. The nanoscale printed contact layers made on nanocellulose paper assure high output power and abrasion durability. The un-optimized AP-TENG here produces a maximum instantaneous voltage of 98.2V and a maximum instantaneous current of 13.7μA, with a threshold vibration amplitude of 1mm and an optimum frequency range of 30–60Hz. The AP-TENG can be autonomously manufactured by printers at the point-of-demand anywhere, making it particularly attractive in remote locations including other planets and the International Space Station where the logistics is complex and expensive.</P> <P><B>Highlights</B></P> <P> <UL> <LI> Mechanical energy harvesters have not much benefited from the significant advantages of additive manufacturing techniques because of material and process compatibility issues. </LI> <LI> All-Printed triboelectric nanogenerator is developed combining advantages of 2D and 3D printings. </LI> <LI> High output power and abrasion durability are experimentally verified. </LI> </UL> </P> <P><B>Graphical abstract</B></P> <P>[DISPLAY OMISSION]</P>

Fully-printed, all-polymer, bendable and highly transparent complementary logic circuits

Mandal, S.,Dell'Erba, G.,Luzio, A.,Bucella, S.G.,Perinot, A.,Calloni, A.,Berti, G.,Bussetti, G.,Duo, L.,Facchetti, A.,Noh, Y.Y.,Caironi, M. Elsevier Science 2015 ORGANIC ELECTRONICS Vol.20 No.-

In this contribution we show a simple approach for the development of all-polymer based complementary logic circuits fabricated by printing on plastic, at low temperature and in ambient conditions. This is achieved by patterning, with a bottom-up approach, solely synthetic carbon-based materials, thus incorporating earth-abundant elements and enabling in perspective the recycling - a critical aspect for low-cost, disposable electronics. Though very simple, the approach leads to logic stages with a delay down to 30μs, the shortest reported to date for all-polymer circuits, where each single component has been printed. Moreover, our circuits combine bendability and high transparency, favoring the adoption in several innovative applications for portable and wearable large-area electronics.

전자 인쇄에서의 인쇄 패턴 왜곡

김충환(Chung Hwan Kim),이택민(Taik-Min Lee),김동수(Dong Soo Kim),최병오(Byung Oh Choi) Korean Society for Precision Engineering 2007 한국정밀공학회지 Vol.24 No.8

The distortion of printed pattern is frequently observed in gravure offset printing process, which can be a serious problem in printing process for printed electronics. The mechanism of pattern distortion is studied and the factors which affect the amount and shape of distortion are found using FEM. The amount and shape of distortion is influenced by material properties of the roller, thickness of roller, applied load, and so on. As the printing pressure increases and Possion ratio increases, the degree of the image distortion increases. And the increase of the thickness of rubber roller brings a large distortion of image, too. In some cases, the distortion of printed pattern can reach a few hundred micro­millimeters. The comparison of the experiment result and the simulation result shows good agreement in their quantitative tendency.