Inks for printed electronics developed in the laboratory have several advantages over commercial ones – researchers have full information about the composition and are able to change its properties without the danger of undesirable interactions between the components. The requirement for this type of ink is long term stability in order to utilize its individuals features. Within this paper the difference between freshly created and 3-months old inks was examined to determine the effect of different sonication processes and solvents on the ageing of silver nano-particle ink. Ink was sonicated using a sonotrode and an ultrasonic bath. To examine inks printability in the aerosol jet printing process, their ability to create dense aerosol mist for 1 hour using an ultrasonic atomiser was investigated. Aerosol droplets diameters were measured to compare fresh and 3 months old printable inks.
The article contains a review of the achievements in the field of unconventional methods of antenna production. In particular, it concerns solutions based on 3D printing methods, screen printing, and ink-jet printing. The focus is on microwave antennas, whose widespread use in modern electronic devices for data transmission, as well as parasitic activity, allows us to assume faster implementation. Attention has been drawn to the new possibilities offered by the abovementioned methods in terms of adjusting the shape and materials used. This, in turn, affects the change of mechanical properties of the antennas. It allows to use the resulting antennas for new devices, requiring adjustment to specific working conditions.
The paper also presents more classical ways of producing antennas with a similar range of operation. This, in turn, allows for easier comparison of the collected results with the results obtained for commonly used methods.
Fused deposition modeling is one of the most popular methods of additive manufacturing (AM). Typically, the thermoplastic polymer in the form of filament is melted in extrusion head and deposited layer by layer to fabricate object directly from 3D model data. Nowadays, FDM technology is also used to fabricate much more complex elements, like structural electronics or 3D printed electronics. Due to that, there is a necessity to develop new composite materials for this technology. In this work, an acrylonitrile butadiene styrene(ABS)/iron powder composite filament for use in 3D printing was fabricated by a two-stage solvent assisted processing method. Homogenously distributed iron powder in filaments with a filler content of 30 and 50 vol %, were fabricated using a single screw extruder machine. A static tensile test was carried out on samples printed from the developed composite materials. To demonstrate the thermal performance of 3D printed elements made with developed composites, exemplary heatsinks were printed. To exposed differences in thermal conductivity depending on iron powder contain, infrared thermography of printed objects was used. The results obtained were compared with the results for pure ABS prints. The research has shown that increasing filler content in composite filament decreases maximum engineering stress of materials but at the same time increase its thermal conductivity. Developed composites can be used to 3D print complicated and complex shaped heatsinks to improve thermal properties of 3D printed electronic circuits and objects.
Three dimensional structures made of sugar based materials can be utilized in tissue engineering since sugar serves as a nutrient for growing cells. It can also be applied in other areas of life like food industry or art. Following paper describes preparation of a material based on commonly used sucrose and proteins contained in chicken eggs. Furthermore a method of additive manufacturing with use of the mentioned material is also described. Method is based on a direct write 3D printing technology and was implemented by utilizing a low cost commercial 3D printer alongside with an industrial glue dispenser. The printed parts are then dried using UV light or a common oven and presented results are discussed.
Development of the three-dimensional printing made, that these techniques are more widely used. Initially, it was invented for quick prototypes manufacturing and models making, then adopted for final parts or even tools producing and nowadays even human organs and microstructures, smaller than human hair, can be 3D printed. It is not surprising, that these methods are adopted for electronics manufacturing, which gave the different approach of circuits producing called structural electronics. In this idea, electrical and mechanical modules are merged together what has great potential in building complex, multifunctional devices with limited sizes and weight. In this paper, a brief overview of structural electronics manufacturing methods are presented on both, industrial and academic, levels. Advantages and disadvantages of existing on the market systems are shown and the newest, often still under development, solutions are analysed. Potential and limitation of each method are presented and challenges of the whole branch of structural electronics manufacturing are shown.
Every year additive techniques are becoming more and more important and popular method of making components. Along with the increasing importance of these techniques, mainly Fused Deposition Modeling technology (FDM), there has been a need to develop new materials that can broaden the scope in which these technologies are used. It is necessary to develop materials with new properties in relation to the standard ones used. Thanks to the addition of metal powders, nanomaterials and other additives to thermoplastic polymers, composites with better magnetic, electrically conductive or heat conductive properties etc. were obtained. This article presents a method for producing polymer composites containing copper powders as the functional phase in order to obtain electrically conducting filaments. Acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) was used as the matrix of the composite as one of most popular thermoplastic polymer uses in FDM 3D printing. The process of producing the filament, from polymer granulate and metal powder to the finished composite was developed. Composite filaments with a content of 75 to 84,6 wt% of copper were tested. The effect of filling the composite with copper powder on its electrical properties has been studied. Samples with a copper content above 80 wt% showed high electrical conductivity. Electrical conductive paths of the developed composite in the closed polymer housing were printed using the dual extrusion 3D printer.
Aerosol jet printing is a new technology which is able to form a micrometer size patterns directly on the substrate. It is possible due to the special ink treatment - first, the ink is formulated to form a mist or fog with a very small droplets (average size about 1 μm). Then the atomized ink is transported to the printing head. In the printing head, a special shear gas flow focuses the mist into several micrometer size stream. This technology is an additive method which allows printing even on the 3D substrates. The achievement of 10 μm line wide makes it comparable with conventional flat, many stages photolithography. In this article, authors present the self-made printing head for the aerosol jet method and the results of the printing process. The printing process was performed with ultrasonic atomizer and the nanosilver ink. As a result, authors have obtained conductive, 40 μm wide silver lines.
In this paper a combined technique of screen printing and laser sintering of a paste based on the mixture of silver nanoparticles and silver microflakes is presented. This method is excellent for rapid prototyping or short series production of printed electronics devices. Tests with two different substrates (Polyethylene Terephthalate [PET] and Polyimide [PI] foil) and near infrared diode laser (808 nm) are made. Effects of sintering with different parameters (laser beam power and scanning speed) are presented. Resistances of manufactured patterns are measured and the resistivity is calculated. Possibility of using paste which theoretical sintering temperature is higher than substrate melting point is presented.
In the thick film technology it is very important that paste can be printed easily on the substrate and that printed pattern is correct and precise. Paste printing behavior is characterized by its rheology. The main aim of this work was to examine the influence of paste composition on the rheology of pastes containing graphene nanoplatelts. The secondary aim was to find the optimal composition of the pastes. The resulting measurements graphs of viscosity curves shows the influence of: binder type, functional phase content, dispersant type and content on the rheological properties of polymer pastes. The thicknesses of printed layers, obtained from pastes which characterized by various viscosity, were measured. At the end composition of the pastes with graphene nanoplatelets that exhibit the best rheological properties was described.
Graphene nanoplatelets exhibit high potential for current engineering applications, particularly in context of conductive inks for organic and flexible electronic. Electrodes for organic displays are expected to be transparent in the visible part of electromagnetic spectrum.
Thus this study aimed at full-field transmission measurements in the visible wavelength range. The paper presents transmission characteristics of different graphene samples. Samples, prepared using spray coating methods contained 3 types of deposited inks. Each of them was based on different concentration and size of graphene nanoplatelets. Moreover, they had various numbers of layers. Such materials were characterized by different parameters, like distribution of deposited carbon nanoparticles which is influencing layers homogeneity, resulting in different optical properties.
Further, this research tries to establish a robust indicators characterizing examined samples. Authors built in Institute novel scanning optical system with fiber-based, compact spectrometer instead of other expensive techniques used for material characteristic in nanosciences i.e. high-resolution scanning electron microscopy. An optical scheme, design of system and technical parameters are described.
Performed examinations show, that number of parameters derived from our measurements, strongly correlate with physical properties of deposited inks. Authors estimated surface roughness, homogeneity and distribution of nanoparticles agglomerates within the deposited layers.
Presented results suggest, that this novel cost-effective, simple optical method of materials characterization especially in production of graphene nanoplates coatings can be promising in concern of repeatability assessment and optical properties.
Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is noncontact and nondestructive interferometric method which allows visualization of internal structure of an investigated sample. Till now it has found many applications in measurements of biological tissues, technical materials and conservation of art. Optical coherence tomography in full-field configuration is a great technique for visualization of subsurface structures of measured sample with high resolution. In this technique, en-face data acquisition is applied, which allows application of microscope objectives with high numerical aperture while the depth of field is not a problem. These objectives allow obtaining ultra high transverse resolution like in traditional microscopy. Additionally, light sources with broad spectrum, like low cost incandescent lamps (i.e. halogen lamp), allow measurements with micrometer scaleaxial resolution. In this paper the authors present application of full-field optical coherence tomography with a Linnik microscope for the thickness measurement of layers in flexible display with electrodes made of graphene and carbone nanotubes. Thicknesses of layer have a huge impact on the display parameters. There is a correlation between the thickness of the graphene layer and its electrical resistance. Graphene is a new and very promising material which is durable, flexible and has a good adhesion to diverse substrates. It gives a theoretical possibility to create flexible electronics, such as graphene bendable screens. Using OCT we can evaluate the quality of printed layers and detect subsurface defects.
Polymer substrates which are covered with a thin layer of graphene nanoplatelets or carbon nanotubes have a big potential for modern engineering, especially in organic electronics. The main advantage of those materials is transparency in the visible part of the electromagnetic spectrum. This property creates a possibility of using these materials to produce electrodes in flexible screens and light sources. It is necessary to know the transmission characteristics of these materials to assess their usefulness in optoelectronics. In the article authors present the results of the conducted research on the transmittance characteristics of different samples. The samples contained different deposited substances. They had various diameters of the graphene nanoplatelets, one group contained carbon nanotubes. Samples had 50 or 100 layers. The authors examine the influence of these parameters on ink transmittance and ink transmittance uniformity. These analyses are a base for future research on flexible carbon electrodes, especially for applying them in production of flexible organic displays and light sources.
Paper assesses the greenhouse gas emissions related to the electronic sectors including information and communication
technology and media sectors. While media often presents the carbon emission problem of other industries like
petroleum industry, the airlines and automobile sectors, plastics and steel manufacturers, the electronics industry must
include the increasing carbon footprints caused from their applications like media and entertainment, computers and
cooling devices, complex telecommunications networks, cloud computing and powerful mobile phones. In that sense
greenhouse gas emission of electronics should be studied in a life cycle perspective, including regular operational
electricity use. Paper presents which product groups or processes are major contributors in emission. From available data
and extrapolation of existing information we know that the information and communication technology sector produced
1.3% and media sector 1.7% of global gas emissions within production cycle, using the data from 2007.In the same time
global electricity use of that sectors was 3.9% and 3.2% respectively. The results indicate that for both sectors operation
leads to more gas emissions than manufacture, although impacts from the manufacture is significant, especially in the
supply chain. Media electronics led to more emissions than PCs (manufacture and operation). Examining the role of
electronics in climate change, including disposal of its waste, will enable the industry to take internal actions, leading to
lowering the impact on the climate change within the sector itself.
New method of fabrication conductive paste for screen printing in thick film technology was investigated. Fabrication
of electronic paste with addition of multiwalled carbon nanotubes and nanoscale silver powder leads to many
technological problems in the stir process of nanosized particles. A specialist ultrasonic method was applied to obtain
homogeneous mixture. To obtain paste with proper reological properties and usable in thick film technology a selection
process of suitable organic resin was conducted. Obtained mixtures with optimal parameters will be used for further
experiments.
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