Project R-11162

Indranil Basak: Drop-on-Demand inkjet printing of sensors and circuits for 3D forming applications (Research)

In the past few years, there has been a growing interest in the field of low-cost, flexible, and stretchable high-resolution conductive patterns that can be 3D-formed around complex geometries. 3D-forming applications require stretchable substrates together with stretchable conductive materials. Conventional manufacturing techniques have time and cost disadvantages; besides, it has substrate limitations. Drop-on-demand (DoD) inkjet printing has emerged as one of the most attractive manufacturing technologies for printed electronics. Compared to conventional techniques, it is user friendly, does not have any substrate limitations, has low material waste, high freedom of design, and cost and time advantages. However, it can fabricate only micro-structures with substandard resolution, and it suffers from reduced layer-to-layer registration. This project focuses on the DoD inkjet printing of high-resolution conductive patterns. Inkjet printing has material limitations; it works best only with materials that have a tiny window of rheological properties. This project deals with the development of conductive stable inks that can be inkjet printable without blocking the printer orifice. Additionally, in this work we try to implement those materials for 3D-forming applications. The focus lies on the drop-on-demand inkjet printing of stretchable sensors and circuits, which is characterized (electrical and morphological) after integration on 3D complex geometries. The stretchable sensors manufactured by the full inkjet printing approach can be considered as an outstanding contribution towards the behaviour and the failure origin of 3D-formed electronic devices.

16 November 2020 - 15 February 2021