Innovative High Resolution Electro-Static printing of Multifunctional Materials.

Project Information

Hi-Response

Grant agreement ID: 646296

DOI

10.3030/646296

Project closed

EC signature date 15 December 2014

Start date 1 March 2015

End date 31 December 2018

Funded under

• INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Leadership in enabling and industrial technologies – Nanotechnologies

Total cost

€ 7 601 984,21

EU contribution

€ 6 281 339,83

Coordinated by

PRECISION VARIONIC INTERNATIONAL LIMITED
United Kingdom

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - Hi-Response (Innovative High Resolution Electro-Static printing of Multifunctional Materials.)

Reporting period: 2017-03-01 to 2018-12-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

The HI-RESPONSE project will overcome the current limitation relating to the resolution, viscosity and engineering design through the development of a highly innovative pulsed Electro-static printing technology (ESJET) that:
• Can achieve a droplet volume down to 0.001 Pico liters (compared to 5-90 Pico liters for commercial inkjet) so that a resolution of ≤1 µm can be achieved for a range of (pre-existing and novel) multi-functional materials – one order of magnitude better than current ink jet printing technologies. This will further enable 10,000 dots per inch (dpi) to be achieved in comparison to 50 to 360dpi for commercial inkjet printers.
• Can deposit a wide range of viscosities from 1 to 10,000 centipoise, compared to 1-40 centipoise for commercial inkjet printers, therefore enabling the deposition of highly filled inks with a solids content of up to 60 Vol.-% and larger conductive particles as well as the deposition of other high viscosity inks of viscosity of up to 40.000 cP.
• Has no moving parts, in contrast to current high-resolution inkjet printers based on piezo-operation and can achieve an output speed of up to 50m/min, compared to 6m/min for commercial inkjet printers.
In HI-RESPONSE a full scale multi-head ESJET pilot system will be developed and tested. A range of conducting and semiconducting inks will be adapted and different printed electronic components will be developed tested based on end-user defined specifications to demonstrate the industrial viability of the new printing technr

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

(1) Reviewed and Status on Action Plan 1: Specification- Materials, Processes and Devices
(2) Reviewed and Feed Back of Project Website
(3) Reviewed Action Plan 2: Single Channel Devices + Status update on design
(4) Reviewed Action Plan 3: Materials Testing and Characterisation
(5) Reviewed Action Plan 4: Single and Multi Printing Head + Status update on design
(6) Updated on Mask design of electrode designs with dimensions of 20 x 20 um and smaller
(7) Press release format discussions
(8) Expected delivery single channel device

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

The HI-RESPONSE technology will enable the printing of a range of functional electronic components and will therefore directly address resolution issues for a range of end-user defined technologies of importance to a range of industrially and commercially important products currently being manufactured and developed within the EU. Of specific relevance to the consortium partners:
• Printing of sensors / encoders and aerials for automotive applications requires the printing of high conductivity Cu tracks, that can achieve 50% of the bulk conductivity, sequentially with insulating / dielectric materials;
• Printing of deep copper filled trenches for through silicon vias for Silicon cells requires the printing of very highly filled copper inks with high conductivity and high solid content (up to 60 Vol.-%) that can fill trenches of dimensions of width 5-15µm, depth up to 60µm and length up to 100µm.
• Printing of metal meshes for Touch-screen and OLED requires the printing of Cu wires to a width of 1µm to remove optical inconsistencies and achieve a transparency of >95% for Touch Screen and OLED. Due to the reduced cross-sectional area, high conductivity (50% of bulk) is required so as to achieve a sheet resistivity of <100Ω/Sq. for Touch Screen and <1Ω/Sq. for OLED lighting. Separation of the x- and y-axis conductive tracks requires cross-overs and interconnects to be created from the sequential printing of conductive and non-conductive layers.
• Printing of the active materials for OLED display applications requires high resolution of well below 10µm, which cannot be achieved by conventional inkjet printing.
• Printing of ceramic ribs for strengthening of thin silicon wafers to achieve a resolution of 30 µm requires deposition of inks with a solid fraction of up to 60 Vol.-% and viscosity of > 10.000 cP which cannot be achieved by conventional inkjet printing.
Based on the exploitation of the HI-RESPONSE, the consortium estimate that it will be able to address a market of €566m/year as shown in the table for the electronic printing markets by 2020 following post-project exploitation.
In addition, HI-RESPONSE will contribute to the wider Europe 2020 targets, through:
 Increased employment of 20-64 year-olds;
 Increased R&D spending;
 Reduced energy usage and greenhouse gas emissions;
 Increased education, especially at third level education;

Drop on Demand Animation