SBIR Phase I: Direct Write Printing of Metals by In-Situ Plasma Jetting for Flexible Hybrid Electronics

SBIR 第一阶段：通过原位等离子喷射直接书写金属打印，用于柔性混合电子产品

• 批准号: 1819676
• 负责人: Ram Prasad Gandhiraman
• 金额: $ 22.48万
• 依托单位: Space Foundry Inc
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2018
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2018-07-01 至 2019-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1819676&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: SBIR; Phase; Direct; Write; Printing

This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project is focussed on developing a plasma jet printing technology to serve the printed electronics industry. Printed electronic devices including flexible electronics and flexible hybrid electronics (FHE) are next generation smart devices that have applications in both consumer and industrial segments. These devices combine the flexibility and low cost of printed substrates made of plastic with the performance of semiconductor devices to create a new category of electronics. The main challenge in FHE is integration of semiconductor die to the flexible substrate and interconnects. Plasma jet printing has high potential to address the problems associated with printed electronics manufacturing, in particular the interconnects. The plasma process control allows printing metallic materials with required electronic properties by in-situ treatment, thereby eliminating the need for post processing. The global market for printed electronics equipment is $1.5 billion in 2017 and is estimated to reach $4 billion globally in 2020 and growing at a compound annual growth rate of 38%. Immediate industrial application of our technology is in replacing wire bonding with direct write printing of metallic interconnects for flexible hybrid electronics. The intellectual merit of this project is in developing a plasma jet print head hardware for direct write printing of conducting metallic interconnects with reduced process steps. The project focus will be on technological de-risking of the print head hardware and process de-risking for reliable and re-producible printing. Developing the plasma process that can be used for pre-treatment of substrate, in-situ treatment of nanoparticles, printing and post processing all in one tool and simultaneously can reduce the process steps, number of equipments needed and time taken for manufacturing. Oxidation of metal nanoparticle ink and its limited shelf life is currently being addressed by polymer capping of the nanoparticles and thermal/laser processing. Developing a plasma process that can be used to print high quality conducting patterns using in-situ treatment can take the technology closer to adoption by printed electronics industry. The anticipated outcome of this project is a robust plasma jet print head and a process that can reliably and reproducibly print conducting metal films with tailored oxidation state and electronic structure.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

这个小型企业创新研究第一阶段项目专注于开发一种等离子喷墨打印技术，以服务于印刷电子行业。印刷电子设备包括柔性电子设备和柔性混合电子设备(FHE)，它们是在消费和工业领域都有应用的下一代智能设备。这些器件将塑料印刷基板的灵活性和低成本与半导体器件的性能结合在一起，创造了一种新的电子产品类别。FHE的主要挑战是半导体芯片与柔性衬底和互连的集成。等离子喷射打印在解决与印刷电子制造相关的问题方面具有很高的潜力，特别是在互连方面。等离子过程控制允许通过原位处理来打印具有所需电子性能的金属材料，从而消除了对后处理的需要。2017年，全球印刷电子设备市场规模为15亿美元，预计2020年全球市场规模将达到40亿美元，并以38%的复合年增长率增长。我们技术的直接工业应用是用柔性混合电子产品的金属互连的直写印刷来取代引线键合。该项目的智能优点在于开发了一种等离子喷墨打印头硬件，用于导电金属互连的直写打印，减少了工艺步骤。该项目的重点将是降低打印头硬件的技术风险和降低可靠和可重复打印的工艺风险。开发可用于基片的前处理、纳米颗粒的原位处理、印刷和后处理的等离子体工艺在一个工具中，同时可以减少工艺步骤、所需的设备数量和制造时间。金属纳米颗粒油墨的氧化及其有限的保质期目前正在通过对纳米颗粒进行聚合物覆盖和热/激光处理来解决。开发一种可用于使用原位处理打印高质量导电图案的等离子体工艺，可以使该技术更接近印刷电子行业的采用。该项目的预期结果是一个坚固的等离子喷墨打印头和一个能够可靠和可重复地打印具有定制氧化态和电子结构的导电金属薄膜的工艺。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。