Abstract
Aluminum metal is of particular interest for use in printed electronics due to its low cost, high conductivity and low migration rate in electrically driven organic-based devices. However, the high reactivity of Al particles at the nano-scale is a major obstacle in preparing stable inks from this metal. We describe digital printing of aluminum micro-structures by laser-induced forward transfer in a sub-nanosecond pulse regime. We manage to jet highly stable molten aluminum micro-droplets with very low divergence, less than 2 mrad, from 500 nm thin metal donor layers. We analyze the micro-structural properties of the print geometry and their dependence on droplet volume, print gap and spreading. High quality printing of aluminum micro-patterns on plastic and paper is demonstrated.
Original language | American English |
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Article number | 205303 |
Journal | Journal Physics D: Applied Physics |
Volume | 48 |
Issue number | 20 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - 29 May 2015 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© 2015 IOP Publishing Ltd.
Keywords
- digital printing
- laser-induced forward transfer
- organic electronics
- transparent conductive coating