1 Nanotechnology and Its Contribution to Technical Inks for Printed Electronics

Printed electronics is an emerging manufacturing technology with applications in consumer electronics including future display products. Direct deposition methods such as inkjet printing can be used to deposit droplets of ink directly onto a substrate using an additive method. A wide variety of materials including dielectrics, metals, organic semiconductors, etc., can be printed. Metalic nanoparticles, in particular, are used for metalic inks due to the quantum confinement effect observed in these metalic inks when the size of the particles is less than 100 nanometers. For example, copper nanoparticle inks for inkjet printing are a promising substitute for more expensive silver- or gold-based inks for consumer electronics applications. However, because of the relatively high melting temperature of copper and tendency to oxidize in ambient atmosphere the utilization of copper in the printed electronics industry was delayed. This paper we will present novel inkjettable copper nanoparticle inks for use with Kapton substrates. Copper is a common material in electronics and less expensive than noble metals. Potential applications for printable copper inks range from polymer based flexible circuits, metalization and printable transistors for backplanes among others. 1