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Flashlight Sintering Characteristics of the Inkjet-Printed Nanosized Copper Ink on an Auxiliary Heated Paper Substrate

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Abstract

The flashlight sintering characteristics of inkjet-printed nanosized copper ink on paper substrates with varying pattern widths and intervals were studied. The copper nano particles (CNPs) synthesized using vapor self-assembled multilayer (VSAM) method to prevent oxidation, were produced with ink and patterned on a paper substrate through inkjet printing. The width and interval of the Cu patterns were varied from 350 to 550 μm to investigate the flashlight sintering tendency. It was confirmed that the Cu pattern resistivity decreased as the width of the Cu pattern increased, with decreasing interval between the Cu patterns. For the Cu pattern with the largest width and narrowest interval, the lowest specific resistivity was 6.43 × 10–6 Ω∙m. For auxiliary heating at 80 °C, the lowest resistivity of the Cu pattern was 7.10 × 10–6 Ω∙m with improved adhesion to the substrate, and this resistivity was 6.2 times lower than that without auxiliary heating. The temperature gradient of the CNP pattern during the flashlight sintering process was predicted using custom made simulation program. Therefore, the experiments and simulations confirmed that the wider the width and the narrower the interval between patterns, the flashlight sintering characteristics improved through higher heat generation by minimizing heat spreading.

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Data availability

The data that support the findings of this study are available on request from the corresponding author.

Abbreviations

CNPs:

Copper nano particles

VSAM:

Vapor self-assembled multilayer

PCBs:

Printed circuit boards

OLED:

Organic light emitting diode

RFID:

Radio frequency identification

Xe:

Xenon

R.T:

Room temperature

PVP:

Polyvinyl pyrrolidone

DEG:

Diethylene glycol

TDMA:

Tridiagonal matrix algorithm

LDPE:

Low-density polyethylene

HDPE:

High-density polyethylene

EDS:

Energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy

FLS:

Flashlight sintering

SEM:

Scanning electron microscope

XPS:

X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy

TEM:

Transmission electron microscopy

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported by the NanoMaterial Technology Development Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Science, ICT, and Future Planning (2009-0082580), by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grant funded by the Korea government (MSIT) (2022R1F1A1071156) and by Korea Evaluation Institute of Industrial Technology (KEIT) grant funded by Korea government (MOTIE) (Project No. 20014863, Development of 3D formable heating elements and forming technology for energy-efficient radiant heating of electric vehicles).

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Author notes

  1. Sungjun Choi and Yong-Rae Jang contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Materials and Chemical Engineering, Hanyang University, Hanyangdaehak-ro 55, Ansan-si, 15588, South Korea

    Sungjun Choi & Caroline Sunyong Lee

  2. Department of Mechanical Convergence Engineering, Hanyang University, 222, Wangsimni-ro, Seongdong-gu, Seoul, 04763, South Korea

    Yong-Rae Jang & Hak-Sung Kim

  3. Institute of Nano Science and Technology, Hanyang University, 222, Wangsimni-ro, Seongdong-gu, Seoul, 04763, South Korea

    Hak-Sung Kim

  4. Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, 20742, USA

    Yong-Rae Jang

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  1. Sungjun Choi
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Correspondence to Hak-Sung Kim or Caroline Sunyong Lee.

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Choi, S., Jang, YR., Kim, HS. et al. Flashlight Sintering Characteristics of the Inkjet-Printed Nanosized Copper Ink on an Auxiliary Heated Paper Substrate. Int. J. of Precis. Eng. and Manuf.-Green Tech. 11, 365–379 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40684-023-00562-z

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