US-Egypt Cooperative Research: Inkjet Printing of Electronic and Optoelectronic Devices

该项目支持加州大学伯克利分校的Vivek Subramanian博士与埃及开罗埃及纳米技术中心的Ahmed Khalil博士合作进行的合作研究。他们计划研究“电子和光电器件的喷墨打印”。喷墨印刷是用于大面积且低成本地制造电子和光电器件的有价值的方法。尽管在将喷墨印刷集成到各种电子系统中方面已经取得了巨大的进步，但是与常规的并且通常更昂贵的图案化技术相比，喷墨印刷仍然产生较低的分辨率。PI将尝试通过开发提高喷墨打印能力的技术来扩展喷墨打印的能力，以制造晶体管、太阳能电池和传感器等设备。该项目将支持交流访问和初步研究工作。研究所计划在此项目的基础上提交一份长期合作研究建议书。 这两个团队将共同研究提高打印结构质量以及不同打印参数下分辨率的可能性。将使用不同的均质和预图案化基底以及不同的油墨材料详细研究油墨和基底之间的相互作用。对于基板的预图案化，将利用微接触印刷和凹版印刷，目的是控制基板的润湿性以及粗糙度。将使用不同类型的油墨来研究油墨和图案化基底之间的相互作用。这一过程将允许PI以以前从未通过喷墨印刷实现的分辨率来图案化油墨。PI在表面能控制（埃及）和印刷电子（美国）方面具有互补背景。所提出的技术将允许PI实现印刷电子结构的显著增强的分辨率。该项目将促进两个互补研究小组之间的学术和文化交流。研究生将在两个方向进行交流，为这些科学家和工程师在职业生涯的早期阶段提供更广泛的文化和研究方法，使他们能够成为更广泛，全面的研究人员。该项目还将支持本科生的研究，他们将参与所有阶段的努力，也将成为研究人员交流的候选人。预计这些交流机会将成为本科生的一个巨大的招聘和保留工具，并进一步扩大他们的全球意识，帮助他们在未来的职业生涯中前进。在该项目中，来自埃及和美国的研究生将接受培训，为不同的应用开发低成本印刷技术。该项目由美国-埃及联合科学技术基金项目资助。这些合作项目的美方支持由美国国务院提供给国家科学基金会。埃及政府为合作的埃及方面提供支持。

This project supports a cooperative research effort by Dr. Vivek Subramanian of the University of California-Berkeley in collaboration with Dr. Ahmed Khalil of the Egypt Nanotechnology Center, Cairo, Egypt. They plan to study "Inkjet Printing of Electronic and Optoelectronic Devices". Inkjet printing is a valuable method for fabricating electronic and optoelectronic devices on large areas and at low-cost. Although tremendous progress has been made in integrating inkjet printing into various electronic systems, inkjet printing still produces lower resolution compared to conventional and generally more expensive patterning techniques. The PIs will attempt to expand the capabilities of inkjet printing to fabricate devices such as transistors, solar cells, and sensors by developing techniques to improve the capabilities of inkjet printing. This project will support exchange visits and preliminary research efforts. The PIs plan to submit a long-term collaborative research proposal following based on this project. The two teams will together examine the possibility of increasing the quality of printed structures as well as the resolution at different printing parameters. The interaction between the ink and the substrate will be studied in details using different homogeneous and pre-patterned substrates as well as different ink materials. For pre-patterning of the substrates, microcontact printing and gravure printing will be utilized with the aim to control the wettability as well as the roughness of the substrates. Different types of inks will be used to study the interaction between the ink and patterned substrates. This process will allow PIs to pattern inks with resolutions never previously achieved by inkjet printing. The PIs have complementary background in the control of surface energy (Egypt) and printed electronics (US). The proposed techniques will allow the PIs to achieve significantly enhanced resolution of the printed electronic structures. The project will facilitate intellecutal and cultural exchange between the two complementary research groups. Graduate students will be exchanged in both directions, providing important exposure to broader cultural and research approaches for these scientists and engineers at an early stage in their professional careers,enabling them to become broader, well-rounded researchers. This project will also support research by undergraduates who will be involved in all stages of effort and will also be candidates for researcher exchange. It is expected that these exchange opportunities will serve as a tremendous recruiting and retention tool for undergraduates, and further, will broaden their global awareness, helping them advance in their future careers. Within the project, graduate students from Egypt and USA will be trained in developing low-cost printing techniques for different applications. This project is funded through the US-Egypt Joint Science and Technology Fund Program. Support for the U.S. side of these cooperative projects is provided to the National Science Foundation by the U.S. Department of State. The Egyptian Government provides support for the Egyptian side of the collaboration.