Towards high speed inkjet printed electronics - Technology transfer from S2S to R2R production

An economically successful implementation of printed electronics technologies in industrial production processes requires high throughput and large scale compatible manufacturing techniques. Roll-to-roll inkjet printing and photonic sintering of metal-based conductive inks on flexible plastic substrates is a promising approach in this respect. It is, however, currently mainly applied on a small scale sheet-to-sheet basis, and technology transfer towards roll-to-roll production has proven to be challenging. Presented here is a stepwise strategy, starting with rather basic, laboratory scale equipment and using small amounts of materials. Based on the outcome of these tests, the experimental scale is successively enlarged and the process conditions continuously optimised, until finally industrial applicability is convincingly demonstrated on a pre-pilot roll-to-roll production line with manufacturing rates of up to 20 m/min. Following this stepwise approach, we were able to scale up the production speed by several orders of magnitude in a purposeful and thus cost and labour efficient way. ©2013; Society for Imaging Science and Technology.