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Printing Force Effect on Conductive Silver Tracks: Geometrical, Surface, and Electrical Properties

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Abstract

This study provides a quantitative contribution to the determination of the printing force effect on silver tracks properties deposited by screen-printing. A water-based silver paste containing 75% of silver particles was formulated and printed by screen-printing process. Printing force effect on line definition, thickness, width, roughness, and on electrical properties was evaluated. A minimum theoretical line width of 100 μm was aimed. A 114 μm width and 14 μm thickness was achieved with a printing load of 5 kg. It was demonstrated that higher forces were needed to enhance line definition and to print thicker and narrower lines. On the other hand, it was shown that printing pressure had no effect on line roughness and electrical conductivity of printed lines, after sintering. Electrical resistivity values varied from 18 × 10−9 to 30 × 10−9 Ω · m after sintering. Sheet resistance was also measured on sintered printed films. It varied from 4.5 to 5.9 m · Ω/square for thicknesses varying from 3.9 to 6.6 μm.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the European Union for financial support through the MULTILAYER project (FP7-NMP4-2007-214122), B. Khelifi for performing the SEM micrographs and T. Haas and Christian Zeilmann from Micro System Engineering for providing us by LTCC tapes.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory of Pulp and Paper Science and Graphic Arts (LGP2), UMR 5518, Saint-Martin-d’Hères, France

    Rita Faddoul, Nadège Reverdy-Bruas & Anne Blayo

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  1. Rita Faddoul
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  2. Nadège Reverdy-Bruas
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  3. Anne Blayo
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Correspondence to Rita Faddoul.

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Faddoul, R., Reverdy-Bruas, N. & Blayo, A. Printing Force Effect on Conductive Silver Tracks: Geometrical, Surface, and Electrical Properties. J. of Materi Eng and Perform 22, 640–649 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11665-012-0245-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11665-012-0245-9

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