Patterning of High-Viscosity Silver Paste by an Electrohydrodynamic-Jet Printer for Use in TFT Applications

Abstract Electrohydrodynamic (EHD) jet printing has a variety of benefits compared to conventional inkjet techniques, such as high resolution and the ability to work with high-viscosity pastes. In this work, Ag nanoparticles with 4000 cPs were chosen because they are printable on various substrates for electronic devices. The effects of additive on the high-viscosity Ag paste formulation were investigated, and pattern lines narrower than 100 μ m were achieved by EHD-jet printing with an average sheet resistance of 0.027 Ω □ −1 . Furthermore, solution-processed oxide TFTs were fabricated with EHD jet-printed Ag electrodes for the first time. The electrical properties obtained were a current ratio of 1.5 × 10 6 , a mobility of approximately 1 cm 2 V −1 s −1 , a threshold voltage of 21.5 V, and a subthreshold slope of 3.05 V dec −1 .