Intense pulsed light sintering of copper nanoink for printed electronics

Abstract

An intense pulsed light (IPL) from a xenon flash lamp was used to sinter copper nanoink printed on low-temperature polymer substrates at room temperature in ambient condition. The IPL can sinter the copper nanoink without damaging the polymer substrates in extremely short time (2 ms). The microstructure of the sintered copper film was investigated using X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray micro tomography, and atomic force microscopy (AFM). The sintered copper film has a grainy structure with neck-like junctions. The resulting resistivity was 5 μΩ cm of electrical resistivity which is only 3 times as high as that of bulk copper. The IPL sintering technique allows copper nanoparticles to be used in inkjet printing on low-temperature substrates such as polymers in ambient conditions.