Electrical characterization of Aerosol Jet Printing (AJP) deposited conductive silver tracks on organic materials

This work investigates electrical properties of AJP (Aerosol Jet Printing) silver layers deposited at low temperature on variety of conventional and non-conventional for electronic application organic substrates such as polyimide, FR4, polycarbonate (PC), and acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS). We measured resistance at DC and studied complex impedance on AC voltages at six frequencies: 60 Hz, 1 kHz, 10 kHz, 100 kHz, 1 MHz and 2 MHz. Up to a frequency of 100 kHz the value of resistance remains approximately constant and up to 1–2 MHz we observed slight increase in electric losses. The effect of thermal treatment on the electrical performance of AJP layer was also investigated. Generally speaking, the thermal treatment improves the electrical properties of investigated samples. Because of relatively low resistivity (16 μΩ∗cm) and low reactance of the AJP deposited silver layers, are good enough to support a wide variety of electronic applications for a frequency range up to 1–2 MHz. We also demonstrated that for specific applications, such as for Internet of Things (IoT), conventional interconnection techniques such as wire bonding can be successfully replaced by AJP deposited conductive silver tracks.