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

这个小型企业创新研究第一阶段项目的重点是开发等离子体喷射打印技术，以服务于印刷电子行业。包括柔性电子器件和柔性混合电子器件（FHE）的印刷电子设备是在消费者和工业领域都有应用的下一代智能设备。这些器件将塑料制成的印刷基板的灵活性和低成本与半导体器件的性能相结合，创造了一种新的电子产品类别。FHE的主要挑战是将半导体芯片集成到柔性衬底和互连上。等离子体喷射印刷具有很高的潜力来解决与印刷电子制造相关的问题，特别是互连。等离子体工艺控制允许通过原位处理打印具有所需电子特性的金属材料，从而消除对后处理的需要。2017年，全球印刷电子设备市场规模为15亿美元，预计2020年将达到40亿美元，复合年增长率为38%。我们的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代替引线键合。该项目的智力价值在于开发一种等离子体喷射打印头硬件，用于以减少的工艺步骤直接写入打印导电金属互连。 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。开发等离子体工艺，可用于基板的预处理，纳米颗粒的原位处理，印刷和后处理，所有这些都在一个工具中，同时可以减少工艺步骤，所需设备的数量和制造所需的时间。金属纳米颗粒油墨的氧化及其有限的保质期目前正通过纳米颗粒的聚合物封端和热/激光加工来解决。开发可用于使用原位处理印刷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工业的采用。该项目的预期成果是一个强大的等离子体喷射打印头和一个过程，可以可靠地和可重复地打印导电金属薄膜定制氧化态和电子结构。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已被认为是值得通过评估使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准的支持。

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.