Development, characterization, and processing of thin and thick inkjet-printed dielectric films

• Polymer inks are presented to realize thin/thick inkjet-printed dielectric films.
• Thin dielectric ink achieves thickness in the range of several hundred nanometers.
• Thick dielectric ink can pattern films greater than one hundred micrometers thick.
• Dielectric inks are used to fabricate a fully-printed multilayer on-chip capacitor.

This work introduces the material and electrical characterization of two dielectric inks for use with inkjet printing fabrication and the realization of fully-printed multilayer electronic structures. The dielectric inks are categorized by the thickness of their per-layer profiles, where SU-8 polymer and poly(4-vinylphenol)-based solutions are utilized to realize thick (>4 μm) and thin (< 400 nm) inkjet-printed dielectric films, respectively. The material formulations for each ink are outlined in detail in order to achieve the desired viscosity and surface tension for optimal printing with a Dimatix inkjet printing system. Once printability and processing techniques are tuned and established, various material and electrical characterizations are performed, including printed profile measurement, multilayer profile tendencies, thermal reflow processing, UV-ozone surface energy modification, relative permittivity extraction, leakage current density, and dielectric breakdown voltage. Finally, the demonstration of fully-printed post-processed on-chip capacitors utilizing both thin and thick dielectric inks in conjunction with a silver nanoparticle-based metallic ink is presented and compared with other inkjet-printed capacitors.

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