Development and characterization of a Drop-on-Demand inkjet printing system for nuclear target fabrication

A novel target preparation method based on Drop-on-Demand (DoD) inkjet printing has been developed. Conventional preparation methods like the electrochemical method “Molecular Plating” or the “Polymer-Assisted Deposition Method” are often limited, e.g., concerning the dimensions and geometries of depositions or by the requirement for electrically conducting substrates. Here, we report on the development of a new technique, which overcomes such limits by using a commercially available DoD dispenser. A variety of solutions with volumes down to 5 nL can be dispensed onto every manageable substrate. The dispensed volumes were determined with a radioactive tracer and the deposits of evaporated salt solutions were investigated on titanium and graphene foils. Additionally, the high precision of the printing system with which individual drops can be positioned was used to determine the spatial resolution of storage phosphor imaging plates with three tracers of different β-decay energies. The new technique is able to produce new kinds of targets with improved spatial geometries and thin layer deposits.