Fabrication of Ag micro-patterns by electrohydrodynamic jet printing

Electrohydrodynamic jet printing is a rapid manufacturing method in additive manufacturing fields, which is employed to generate micro-nano patterns, functional structures, sensors and electronics in recent years. It is a rapid manufacturing, low-cost, mask-free route to manufacture one dimensional to three dimensional structures by nanoink. In this paper, silver dots, lines and designed patterns are printed by electrohydrodynamic jet printing. The results are stable and uniform, which can be adjusted by printing parameters. With high voltage, large pulse width or small stand-off distance, the size of dots increase. By increasing frequency or decreasing shifting speed, the distance between dots becomes short, then the structures are getting into lines from dots. Multi-layer silver lines are characterized by X-ray imaging and exhibit good absorption of X-ray, leading to the significant radiation attenuation effectiveness. The printed silver structures are good candidates for radiation shielding in electronics and circuit boards.