Liquid metal fusion with conductive inks and pastes
AssigneesUniversidade De Coimbra, Carnegie Mellon University
InventorsMahmoud Tavakoli, Hugo Paisana, Anibal T. De Almeida, Carmel Majidi
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Abstract
Coating inkjet-printed traces of silver nanoparticles (AgNP) ink with a thin layer of eutectic gallium indium (EGaIn) increases the electrical conductivity and significantly improves tolerance to tensile strain. This enhancement is achieved through a room temperature “sintering” process in which the liquid-phase EGaIn alloy binds the AgNP particles to form a continuous conductive trace. These mechanically robust thin-film circuits are well suited for transfer to highly curved and non-developable 3D surfaces as well as skin and other soft deformable substrates.
Claims13
A conductive, printable ink for producing electrically conductive patterns, consisting of:
- metal particle suspension including a polymer carrier medium, wherein the suspension is diluted to thereby adjust a viscosity of the suspension;
- and
- liquid metal mixed into the polymer carrier medium at room temperature, wherein the liquid metal is an alloy of gallium and indium, and wherein the liquid metal is in liquid phase below 30° C.,
- wherein the ink is at least 0.1% weight percent of the liquid metal,
- wherein the metal particles consist of silver in the form of silver particles, or silver-covered particles, or both silver particles and silver-covered particles, and
- wherein the ink has a viscosity that is within a range that enables inkjet printing, screen printing, roll-to-roll printing, aerosol deposition, contact printing, or uniform thin film deposition by spin coating wherein the carrier medium is a polymer diluted to adjust the viscosity of the ink.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.