Aerosol jet printing head for printed microscale electronics

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.