Fabrication and characterization of Ag flake hybrid circuits with IPL-sintering

The study of photonic sintering has gained interest based on the advantages of fast processing at room temperature. However, printed electronics made from photonic sintering with an intensive pulsed light (IPL) energy source exhibit more mechanical instability than those made from conventional thermal sintering processes. To solve the mechanical instability problems, we fabricated Ag flake hybrid pastes with a variety of concentrations of Ag flake (0, 25, 50, 75, and 100 wt.%). All of the screen-printed hybrid Ag circuits were fabricated on polyimide substrates and were sintered at 3.5 MW. Surface porosity was analyzed using the Brunauer-Emmett-Teller method. An IPC (Packaging Electronic Circuits) sliding test was performed to analyze the flexibility of the screen-printed Ag flake hybrid circuits. The adhesion strength of the hybrid circuits was evaluated with a roll-type 90 degrees peel test. The hybrid Ag printed circuit showed improvements in both the flexibility and adhesion strength with the addition of Ag flake. (C) 2020 Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of The editorial office of Journal of Materials Science & Technology.