Nanoparticles sinter inks

Reported volume resistivities for printed patterns formed from commercial silver-based inks are higher than that of bulk silver. This occurrence reflects the fact that sintered ink patterns contain non-ideal defects such as incomplete particle-to-particle contact, incomplete sintering between contacting particles, residual porosity, and the presence of non-conductive additives. The morphology and extent of void formation in two representative sintered silver nanoparticle inkjet inks are illustrated in Fig. 1. 

The applications of the nanoparticles and structures that we have surveyed here have extended from various kinds of sensors and analytical devices, through spectrally selective coatings and sinter inks to medical diagnostics and therapeutics. Nanoscale gold must surely be one of the most versatile and valuable materials systems available ... 

The first use of ink-jet printing to construct MEMS has recently been described by Fuller et al. [64]. Metal nanoparticles suspended in a solvent were deposited, followed by sintering at elevated temperatures. 

Chiolerio, A., Cotto, M., Pandolfi, R, Martino, R, Camarchia, V., Rirola, M., Ghione, G., 2012. Ag nanoparticle-based inkjet printed planar transmission lines for RF and microwave applications considerations on ink composition, nanoparticle size distribution and sintering time. Microelectron. Eng. 97, 8-15. 

Perelaer, J. et al Plasma and Microwave Flash Sintering of a Tailored Silver Nanoparticle Ink, Yielding 60% Bulk Conductivity on Cost-Effective Polymer Foils. In Journal of Advanced Material, Vol. 24, Issue 29 (2012), pp. 3993-3998. 

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