Assessing Ink Transfer Performance of Gravure-Offset Fine-Line Circuitry Printing

In this study, the printing mechanism and performance of gravure-offset fine-line circuitry printing technology are investigated in terms of key printing parameters through experimental and theoretical analyses. First, the contact angles of the ink deposited on different substrates, blankets, and gr...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of electronic materials 2018-03, Vol.47 (3), p.1832-1846
Main Authors: Cheng, Hsien-Chie, Chen, You-Wei, Chen, Wen-Hwa, Lu, Su-Tsai, Lin, Shih-Ming
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Absorption
Characterization and Evaluation of Materials
Chemistry and Materials Science
Circuits
Contact angle
Electronics and Microelectronics
Gravure
Ink & ink industry
Instrumentation
Loading rate
Materials research
Materials Science
Metal plates
Optical and Electronic Materials
Printing
Printing industry
Solid State Physics
Substrates
Surface chemistry
Surface properties
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:In this study, the printing mechanism and performance of gravure-offset fine-line circuitry printing technology are investigated in terms of key printing parameters through experimental and theoretical analyses. First, the contact angles of the ink deposited on different substrates, blankets, and gravure metal plates are experimentally determined; moreover, their temperature and solvent content dependences are analyzed. Next, the ink solvent absorption and evaporation behaviors of the blankets at different temperatures, times, and numbers of printing repetitions are characterized by conducting experiments. In addition, while printing repeatedly, the surface characteristics of the blankets, such as the contact angle, vary with the amount of absorbed ink solvent, further affecting the ink transfer performance (ratio) and printing quality. Accordingly, the surface effect of the blanket due to ink solvent absorption on the ink contact angle is analyzed. Furthermore, the amount of ink transferred from the gravure plate to the blanket in the “off process” and from the blanket to the substrate in the “set process” is evaluated by conducting a simplified plate-to-plate experiment. The influences of loading rate (printing velocity), temperature, and solvent content on the ink transfer performance are addressed. Finally, the ink transfer mechanism is theoretically analyzed for different solvent contents using Surface Evolver. The calculation results are compared with those of the experiment.
ISSN:0361-5235
1543-186X
DOI:10.1007/s11664-017-5967-x