skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Principles of aerosol jet printing

Journal Article · · Flexible and Printed Electronics

Aerosol jet printing (AJP) has emerged as a promising method for microscale digital additive manufacturing using functional nanomaterial inks. While compelling capabilities have been demonstrated in the research community in recent years, the development and refinement of inks and process parameters largely follows empirical observations, with an extensive phase space over which to optimize. While this has led to general qualitative guidelines and ink- and machine-specific correlations, a more fundamental understanding based on principles of aerosol physics and fluid mechanics is lacking. This contrasts with more mature printing technologies, for which foundational physical principles have been rigorously examined. Presented here is a broad framework for describing the AJP process. Simple analytical models are employed to ensure generality and accessibility of the results, while experimental validation using a silver nanoparticle ink supports the physical relevance of the approach. In conclusion, this basic understanding enables a description of process limitations grounded in fundamental principles, as well as guidelines for improved printer design, ink formulation, and print parameter optimization.

Research Organization:
Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC04-94AL85000
OSTI ID:
1459994
Report Number(s):
SAND2018-6957J; 665151
Journal Information:
Flexible and Printed Electronics, Vol. 3, Issue 3; ISSN 2058-8585
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

References (50)

Recent Progress in the Development of Printed Thin-Film Transistors and Circuits with High-Resolution Printing Technology journal November 2016
Conductive Nanomaterials for Printed Electronics journal January 2014
Technologies for Printing Sensors and Electronics Over Large Flexible Substrates: A Review journal June 2015
Additive Manufacturing of Hybrid Circuits journal July 2016
Roll-to-Roll fabrication of large area functional organic materials journal October 2012
Printed, Sub-3V Digital Circuits on Plastic from Aqueous Carbon Nanotube Inks journal June 2010
Coplanar-Gate Transparent Graphene Transistors and Inverters on Plastic journal September 2012
Improving Contact Interfaces in Fully Printed Carbon Nanotube Thin-Film Transistors journal April 2016
Printable ion-gel gate dielectrics for low-voltage polymer thin-film transistors on plastic journal October 2008
Aerosol Jet Printed, Low Voltage, Electrolyte Gated Carbon Nanotube Ring Oscillators with Sub-5 μs Stage Delays journal February 2013
Stretchable Graphene Transistors with Printed Dielectrics and Gate Electrodes journal November 2011
High-Resolution Transfer Printing of Graphene Lines for Fully Printed, Flexible Electronics journal July 2017
Three-dimensional microarchitected materials and devices using nanoparticle assembly by pointwise spatial printing journal March 2017
Metal aerosol jet printing for solar cell metallization journal January 2007
Aerosol-Jet-Assisted Thin-Film Growth of CH 3 NH 3 PbI 3 Perovskites-A Means to Achieve High Quality, Defect-Free Films for Efficient Solar Cells journal July 2017
Digital Aerosol Jet Printing for the Fabrication of Terahertz Metamaterials journal December 2017
Formation of Copper Zinc Tin Sulfide Thin Films from Colloidal Nanocrystal Dispersions via Aerosol-Jet Printing and Compaction journal May 2015
Aerosol-Jet Printed Flexible Organic Photodiodes: Semi-Transparent, Color Neutral, and Highly Efficient journal June 2015
Photonic Sintering of Aerosol Jet Printed Lead Zirconate Titanate (PZT) Thick Films journal April 2016
High-Performance Semiconducting Nanotube Inks: Progress and Prospects journal October 2011
Conductive-on-demand: Tailorable polyimide/carbon nanotube nanocomposite thin film by dual-material aerosol jet printing journal March 2016
Computational Fluid Dynamics Modeling and Online Monitoring of Aerosol Jet Printing Process
  • Salary, Roozbeh (Ross); Lombardi, Jack P.; Samie Tootooni, M.
  • Journal of Manufacturing Science and Engineering, Vol. 139, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1115/1.4034591
journal October 2016
Optimization of Aerosol Jet Printing for High-Resolution, High-Aspect Ratio Silver Lines journal May 2013
Inkjet Printing of Functional and Structural Materials: Fluid Property Requirements, Feature Stability, and Resolution journal June 2010
Gravure-printed electronics: recent progress in tooling development, understanding of printing physics, and realization of printed devices journal June 2016
Femtoliter-Scale Patterning by High-Speed, Highly Scaled Inverse Gravure Printing journal November 2012
A Computational Study of Particle Deposition Patterns from a Circular Laminar Jet journal July 2017
A Review on Aerosol-Based Direct-Write and Its Applications for Microelectronics journal January 2012
Aerosol focusing in micro-capillaries: Theory and experiment journal August 2008
Analytical Investigation of Aerosol Jet Printing journal August 2014
Ultrasonic Atomization of Liquids journal January 1962
Ultrasonic Atomization of Liquids journal September 1963
Using ultrasonic atomization to produce an aerosol of micron-scale particles journal November 2005
Measurements of the Size Distribution of Aerosols Produced by Ultrasonic Humidification journal January 1990
Properties of the Log-Normal Particle Size Distribution journal January 1994
Multicomponent evaporation of single aerosol droplets journal January 1982
Evaporation of Multicomponent Droplets journal January 1997
Copper–Zinc–Tin–Sulfide Thin Films via Annealing of Ultrasonic Spray Deposited Nanocrystal Coatings journal May 2017
Aerosol-Jet-Printed, 1 Volt H-Bridge Drive Circuit on Plastic with Integrated Electrochromic Pixel journal November 2013
Fundamental Aerosol Studies with an Ultrasonic Nebulizer journal November 1991
High-speed beams of small particles journal July 1967
Generating Particle Beams of Controlled Dimensions and Divergence: II. Experimental Evaluation of Particle Motion in Aerodynamic Lenses and Nozzle Expansions journal January 1995
Generating Particle Beams of Controlled Dimensions and Divergence: I. Theory of Particle Motion in Aerodynamic Lenses and Nozzle Expansions journal January 1995
Aerodynamic focusing of particles in a carrier gas journal October 1988
Characteristics of laminar jet impactors journal July 1974
Impactor design journal January 1976
Particle Impaction Patterns from a Circular Jet journal January 1993
Sessile drop deformations under an impinging jet journal June 2015
Fluid dynamics in conically tapered microneedles journal January 2005
A computational study of particle deposition patterns from a circular laminar jet text January 2016

Cited By (8)

Electrohydrodynamic Jet Printing Driven by a Triboelectric Nanogenerator journal April 2019
Additive Manufacturing of Batteries journal October 2019
All WSe2 1T1R resistive RAM cell for future monolithic 3D embedded memory integration journal November 2019
Digitally printed stretchable electronics: a review journal January 2019
Aerosol Jet® Direct-Write for Microscale Additive Manufacturing journal March 2019
Support-Material-Free Microfluidics on an Electrochemical Sensors Platform by Aerosol Jet Printing journal April 2019
Printed Strain Gauge on 3D and Low-Melting Point Plastic Surface by Aerosol Jet Printing and Photonic Curing journal September 2019
Aerosol Jet Printed 3D Electrochemical Sensors for Protein Detection journal November 2018

Similar Records

Guided ink and process design for aerosol jet printing based on annular drying effects
Journal Article · Thu Sep 27 00:00:00 EDT 2018 · Flexible and Printed Electronics · OSTI ID:1459994

Predicting Deposition Rate and Closing the Loop on Aerosol Jet Printing with In‐Line Light Scattering Measurements
Journal Article · Thu Apr 06 00:00:00 EDT 2023 · Advanced Engineering Materials · OSTI ID:1459994

Understanding effects of printhead geometry in aerosol jet printing
Journal Article · Thu Jul 30 00:00:00 EDT 2020 · Flexible and Printed Electronics · OSTI ID:1459994