Electrohydrodynamic Inkjet Printing System for Ultrafine Patterning

Abstract

The application of inkjet technology has been broadening from home printers to manufacturing tools. Recently, there have been demands for high-resolution printing, especially in the field of printed electronics applications. To improve upon the conventional inkjet printing patterning method, electrohydrodynamic (EHD) inkjet technology has recently attracted attention because droplets smaller than the nozzle diameter can be ejected and materials with wider viscosity range can be used for jetting. In this study, an EHD jet printing system for fine patterning is presented. To print various patterns based on drop on demand printing, vector and raster printing algorithm are implanted in the printing software. Fine conductive patterns with line width of less than 7 mu m can be easily achieved via EHD jet using a nozzle with inner diameter of 8 mu m.