Ink substrate

CIJ inks need to work on numerous substrates and there is a relationship between drop spread on a substrate and print quality. The amount of drop spread depends upon a number of issues in a CIJ ink, including surface tension, viscosity, solvent evaporation rate, interaction with substrate, amount and type of polymer in the ink etc. You may wish to improve the print quahty of a certain ink-substrate combination by optimally adjusting the drop spread. A common method to do this is by adding a surfactant to the ink formulation. Depending upon the chemistry of the surfactant, it will either increase or decrease drop spread, and hence is a good mechanism for tuning print quality. There are many hundreds of surfactants available, and you can use all chemical types, including anionic, cationic, non-anionic forms. Specific examples include polyoxyethylene fatty ethers and diethylhexyl sodium sulphosuccinate. 

The interaction between the ink and the substrate, both during and after deposition, strongly influences the quality of printing. Dynamic ink-substrate interactions such as ink drop impact, wetting, spreading, penetration, and solvent evaporation rate, as well as drying and coalescence of the ink particles on the substrate, are aU important factors. 

The complete system for manufacturing a desired product with printed features includes the printing and maintenance equipment, software, inks, substrates, conveying equipment, user-interface software, and all other application-specific requirements. 

Table 6.4. Summary of the Ink-Substrate Combinations Used to Date for DPNI O ]...

More recently, DPN techniques have been extended and developed to pattern a variety of ink-substrate combinations. DPN has been shown to be compatible with a wide array of ink types including small organic molecules, organic and biological polymers, colloidal particles, metal... 

Poly(3-octylthiophene-2,5 diyl) (POT) was used as an intermediate polymer layer, carbon ink substrates and the membranes were prepared using only polymer (PVC) and an ionic liquid (EL) as die plasticizer [38]. 

The focused aerosol particles are 1 to 5 pm in size and permit microfine conductor structures down to widths of 10 pm and 20 pm spacing. Ink, substrate, and print parameters all have to be closely matched in order to achieve structures as fine as this. On account of the parallel alignment and high exit speed of the aerosol, the contour sharpness of the conductor track geometry remains virtually constant even when the nozzle-to-substrate gap is as wide as 3 mm. Consequently, small irregularities in the substrate surface are easy to print without modification of the print head s z-axis alignment. 

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