Date of Award

5-2015

Degree Name

Master of Science

Department

Chemical and Paper Engineering

First Advisor

Dr. Alexandra Pekarovicova

Second Advisor

Dr. Margaret Joyce

Third Advisor

Dr. Paul D. “Dan” Fleming

Fourth Advisor

Dr. Veronika Husovska

Keywords

Gravure, semiconductor, zinc oxide, silver dopine, printed electronics

Access Setting

Masters Thesis-Abstract Only

Restricted to Campus until

5-15-2025

Abstract

Conventional printing methods are gaining popularity in the manufacturing of electronic components hence being termed as Printed Electronics (PE). IDTechEx has predicted that the total market size of flexible electronics by 2024 would be $70.4 billion. Their report predicts that majority of applications would consume conductive inks. (1)

The main challenge in PE is developing suitable inks for the different printing processes being used to manufacture these electronic components. The experiments in this work mainly involved selecting suitable components for formulating solvent based, semiconductive ZnO inks and then sintering using the NovaCentrix® PulseForge® 1200. ZnO inks were also doped with metals such as aluminum and silver to observe if these metals have any effect on electrical properties of ZnO inks. The formulated inks after printing on a Gravure K-Proofer, exhibited a semi conductive behavior and the study pointed out that selection of binder and doping levels affect the electrical performance of the inks. ZnO doped with silver reduces its band gap and allows it to perform as a semiconductor. The inks exhibited conductivity only when the electrons were excited at a higher temperature which was an indication of its semiconductive behavior .

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