Enhanced Hybrid Copper Conductive Ink for Low Power Selective Laser Sintering

Copper conductive ink has great potential as an electrode material for flexible electronics due to its low-cost relative to silver conductive ink while having comparable electrical conductivity. The process of fabricating anti-oxidation hybrid copper conductive ink, however, results in an increase of required sintering energy; a high sintering temperature is disadvantageous due to the possibility of thermally damaging the substrate. In this study, selective laser sintering of new hybrid ink compositions was investigated by varying laser intensities and comparatively analyzing the resulting electrical conductivity. Then, the thermal behavior of fabricated inks during the sintering process was studied using experimental and numerical approaches. A finite element model was developed to simulate the laser heat flux and irradiation paths on the ink. Finally, the obtained results of the thermal profile were verified experimentally.