Common conductive ink printing techniques can be divided into contact and non-contact categories. Contact printing includes gravure printing, flexographic printing, and screen printing, while non-contact printing includes inkjet printing, electrohydrodynamic printing, aerosol jet printing, and slot-die coating. Screen printing and inkjet printing are the most commonly used methods for conductive ink, each with different characteristic parameters.
Screen Printing:Screen printing falls under the category of stencil printing. It involves transferring the design from a mesh screen made of silk or nylon onto a flat surface. This method is characterized by its simplicity, low cost, high production efficiency, and wide scalability. Additionally, screen printing does not require high physical and chemical performance of the conductive ink, making it compatible with most inks. It also offers versatility and can be used with various substrates. Currently, screen printing is widely used for preparing silver electrodes in many electronic products.
Inkjet Printing:Inkjet printing is a non-contact technique that ejects ink from an ink chamber in precise quantities to deposit it in specific areas. It is divided into continuous inkjet printing (CIJ) and drop-on-demand (DOD) printing. DOD technology is further classified into thermal, piezoelectric, and electrostatic methods, with piezoelectric being the most widely used. Compared to other printing techniques such as screen printing, inkjet printing offers advantages like low cost, digitalization, contactlessness, masklessness, high resolution, fast printing speed, minimal waste, high reproducibility, and a high degree of automation.
Transfer Printing:Transfer printing can be used for low-temperature preparation processes and flexible substrates, and it exhibits good compatibility with various materials.
Direct Writing:For small-batch and personalized production, direct writing is the simplest method to transfer conductive ink onto substrates. It features low cost, low consumption, net shaping, and the ability to integrate multiple types of functional materials in parallel. Conductive ink is directly deposited onto the substrate surface using a pen, which prevents ink wastage compared to screen printing. Moreover, direct writing has low requirements for the physical and chemical properties of the conductive ink.
