Processing of printed silver patterns on an ETFE substrate

Printed electronics makes it possible to fabricate devices on thin and flexible substrates at a low cost and with simple processing. However, substrate characteristics can make patterning challenging. Here, we report our approach for processing printed silver patterns on an extremely hydrophobic ethylene-tetrafluoroethylene (ETFE) foil substrate. The effects of selected surface modification methods on substrate characteristics and final print quality were studied, and the thermal characteristics of ETFE were determined. Conductive silver patterns were fabricated using both screen printing and inkjet printing techniques. Additionally, intense pulse light method was compared to thermal annealing as an alternative annealing method. The surface modification of ETFE was observed to affect ink wetting and print quality. It was concluded that the impact of the chosen annealing method on the final characteristics of the printed structures was significant.