Date of Award

12-2013

Degree Name

Master of Science

Department

Chemical and Paper Engineering

First Advisor

Dr. Margaret K. Joyce

Second Advisor

Dr. Alexandra Pekarovicova

Third Advisor

Dr. Massood Zandi Atashbar

Access Setting

Masters Thesis-Open Access

Abstract

In the 21st century, it has been shown that printing methodologies can be used to print electrically functional devices on a variety of substrates. In comparison to conventional electronic manufacturing methods, printing is a more cost effective and less complex process. The requirements for manufacturing Printed Electronics (PE) components are much more demanding than graphic printing applications due to the additional requirement of easy electron flow. This additional requirement increases the need for print uniformity and layer-to-layer registration to a much higher degree. In this work, hybrid UV-curable, water-based, electrical resistive inks were formulated. Inkjet inks were prepared by blending nano silver particles with a UV resin, while screen printable inks were blended from graphite and conductive carbon fillers. After printing, the electrical properties were tested and the results compared to a commercial silver ink, which served as the control. The average sheet resistances of the formulated screenprinted ink blends fell between 50Ώ/□ to 300Ώ/□. Of all the inks printed, the screen process conductive carbon filler/graphite inks performed the best. The inkjet inks failed to be conductive due to the inability to formulate at sufficient solids for film continuity. Based on the results, these new screen process inks could find application in PE devices where the cost of silver is prohibitive and the high conductivity of silver is not needed.

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