Low-temperature sintered conductive silver patterns obtained by inkjet printing for plastic electronics

Silver metal patterns onto plastic substrates have been obtained by inkjet printing with commercial ink based on silver nanoscale particles. Morphological characterization by scanning electron microscopy of spin-coating processed films indicates that a sintering treatment at 250 degrees C for 30 min is enough to sinterize the silver metal nanoparticles. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy characterization of sintered metal films shows that the sinterization is accompanied by a reduction of carbon surface concentration coming from carbon-containing chemical compounds present in the ink formulation. After sintering at 250 degrees C for 30 min, the material shows typical electrical resistivity of 4.6 x 10(-6) Omega cm (i.e. about three times the value of bulk silver).Printed test structures show typical resistivity after sintering at 250 degrees C for 30 min in the range of 5-7 x 10(-6) Omega cm. Copyright (C) 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.