Comparison of Silver Sources for Silver/Glass Compounds by Multi-Material 3D-Printing

Inkjet printing of conductive silver lines on solid or flexible substrates for the fabrication of electronic components has been reported in a variety of ways over more than the last decade. Numerous publications highlight the importance of the silver source for the feasibility of the process as well as the resulting properties of the printed structures. In previous work [1] we reported the first experimental attempt to realize such conductive silver components inside a structure printed with a custom three dimensional powder printer. Aim of this study was to combine the functionality of directly printed functional elements with the geometrical flexibility of powder-based three-dimensional printing. While functionality in the printed glass/metallic compound is achieved in principle, an inhomogeneous microstructure with differentiated silver and glass areas is observed. In this article the silver source for the printing process is varied in order to achieve a homogeneous compound in desired areas. Three di...