Parametric study on conductive patterns by low-temperature sintering of micron silver ink.

The fabrication of dense conductive patterns was achieved by low-temperature sintering of 1-3 μm micron silver flakes. A small amount of 20-50 nm nanosilver particles were added in the gaps of the micron silver flakes. The effects of sintering temperature, holding time and heating rate on the morphological evolution and formation mechanism of the sintered silver pattern were investigated in detail. Interestingly, rapid sintering (RS) can be achieved by removing the heating process from 70 °C up to the sintering temperature. The electrical resistivity of the sintered silver patterns was 10.8 × 10 Ω cm at 140 °C for 30 min under a pressure of 10 MPa. Moreover, the electrical resistivity of the sintered silver pattern for RS for 20 min does not change significantly after 6000 bending cycles. This work provides a new method to fabricate conductive patterns using micron silver flakes with the purpose of promoting the application of silver inks.