Investigation of ink modification for aerosol jet printing process on FR-4 substrate

Non-contact, direct-write aerosol jet (AJ) printing technology using a variety of functional nanomaterial inks has been regarded as one of the most promising approaches for large-area additive manufacturing. The development and atomization of inks have a considerable effect on the printing quality. Therefore, in this study, the effect of a specific ratio of silver nanoparticle ink and a co-solvent of propylene glycol monomethyl ether (PGME) and ethylene glycol (EG) was investigated. The results indicated that the proportion of the solvent in the silver nanoparticle ink could affect the electrical characteristics of the printed lines. The prepared conductive ink with 95% silver nanoparticle ink and 5% co-solvent at a curing temperature of 180 °C demonstrated superior electrical conductivity and adhesion on the substrate.