Conference Program - LOPE-C 2011

SCIENTIFIC CONF. | THURSDAY-JUNE 30, 2011
Track 5
Sintering of Inorganic Materials (02:30 pm - 04:00 pm) | LOCATION HARMONIE E / LEVEL C2
03:40 pm Cost Effective Patterning of Conductors Utilizing Silver Nanoparticle Inks with Traditional Printing Processes
Dr Michael Mastropietro,
PChem Associates Inc. , Co-founder / Director of R&D, United States
With the price of silver doubling in the last six months there is increasing pressure on functional printers trying to maintain their profit margins while meeting their
customers? price targets. PChem?s silver nanoparticle based inks enable the cost effective printing of highly conductive patterns using traditional methods such as
flexography and screen printing. The nanoparticles sinter into foil like structures with continuous metallic paths between the particles resulting in much lower volume
resistivity compared to conventional polymer thick film (PTF) silver flake based inks. This makes it possible to minimize the amount of silver used relative to PTF inks while
maintaining performance. Mild curing temperatures and short residence times are necessary to process the inks allowing the use of lower cost substrates and higher press
speeds. These factors allow for reductions in manufacturing and materials costs for the printed conductor portion of smart packages and electronic devices.
Further, the ability to print very thin films which maintain uniform conductivity enables higher resolution patterning then previously possible with these print methods.
Features sizes of 25 microns have been produced repeatedly under manufacturing conditions and the feasibility of higher resolutions demonstrated with flexographic
printing. The ability to print much thinner films with significantly lower surface roughness while maintaining equivalent sheet resistance to PTF can also lead to mechanical
performance advantages in the finished product constructions. All of these capabilities can be easily scaled to the production of large areas as these printing methods are
commonly used for this purpose in graphic communication production.
The general properties and processing requirements of PChem?s silver nanoparticle based flexo and screen inks as well as printed results on various substrates will be
discussed. The commercial advantages of using nanoparticle based conductive inks including process ability, electrical and mechanical properties, and economic viability
will be presented.
04:00 pm COFFEE BREAK
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