Functional inks are the key enabler for printed electronics applications. Electrodes in most of the devices are made up of conductive inks. Conductive inks are an important component of the ecosystem in the printed electronics applications like printed RFID antennas, smart tags, printed membrane keyboards, smart packages, security devices, print interconnects, data lines and many more.
As per market forecast, there is a huge demand for conductive inks in the commercial market. The number of companies offering products (conductive inks) is very less as compared to the market demand. The ecosystem of this technology has to be developed within India and is important to incubate industries within the country.
Formulation of conductive Ag and Cu inks, suitable for screen printing process, is also developed in-house. The material is stable in ambient conditions and there is no signature of metal oxidation before or after printing. The Ag conductive ink is suitable for paper with good adhesion and does not require any sintering. Printed copper ink has to be sintered using intense photon pulse to get the conductive path. The typical resistivity of a conductive metal film is in the order of 10-4 Ohm-cm
Conductive silver ink pen has been made using in-house developed Ag nanoparticle based ink. Conductive pen has the following salient features:
i) Self-sintered ink
ii) Suitable for glossy paper
iii) Low cost