Patterning of High-Viscosity Silver Paste by an Electrohydrodynamic-Jet Printer for Use in TFT Applications

• Published in: Scientific reports Vol. 9; no. 1; pp. 9180 - 8
• Main Authors: Can, Thi Thu Thuy, Nguyen, Tuan Canh, Choi, Woon-Seop
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 24-06-2019; Nature Publishing Group
• Subjects: 639/301/1005/1007; 639/301/119/995; Electrical properties; Electronic equipment; Glass substrates; Humanities and Social Sciences; Microscopy; multidisciplinary; Nanoparticles; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Silver; Solvents; Viscosity
• ISSN: 2045-2322; 2045-2322
• DOI: 10.1038/s41598-019-45504-5

Electrohydrodynamic (EHD) jet printing has a variety of benefits compared to conventional inkjet techniques, such as high resolution and the ability to work with high-viscosity pastes. In this work, Ag nanoparticles with 4000 cPs were chosen because they are printable on various substrates for electronic devices. The effects of additive on the high-viscosity Ag paste formulation were investigated, and pattern lines narrower than 100 
μ
m were achieved by EHD-jet printing with an average sheet resistance of 0.027 Ω □
−1
. Furthermore, solution-processed oxide TFTs were fabricated with EHD jet-printed Ag electrodes for the first time. The electrical properties obtained were a current ratio of 1.5 × 10
6
, a mobility of approximately 1 cm
2
 V
−1
s
−1
, a threshold voltage of 21.5 V, and a subthreshold slope of 3.05 V dec
−1
.