Method of forming electric wiring using inkjet printing

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9386708-B2
Application number	US-201313861754-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 12, 2013
Priority date	Nov 22, 2012
Publication date	Jul 5, 2016
Grant date	Jul 5, 2016

Abstract

Disclosed is a method of forming an electric wiring using inkjet printing. The method includes forming a main trench and first and second guide trenches on a substrate. The first and second guide trenches are disposed at opposite sides of the main trench. The method includes ejecting ink into the main trench, the ink including a conductive material. The method also includes heating the substrate to sinter the ink such that the electric wiring is formed an upper portion of the main trench, and contract the ink such that a tunnel is formed in a lower portion of the main trench.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method of forming an electric wiring, the method comprising:
forming a main trench and first and second guide trenches on a substrate, the first and second guide trenches being disposed at opposite sides of the main trench;
performing an ink-phobic surface treatment with respect to a surface of the substrate by coating fluorine on the surface of the substrate after forming the main trench and the first and second guide trenches;
ejecting ink into the main trench to fill the main trench with the ink, the ink including a conductive material and a solvent; and
sintering the ink filled in the main trench to form the electric wiring formed of the conductive material in an upper portion of the main trench and form a tunnel in a lower portion of the main trench,
wherein the ejecting the ink includes ejecting ink so as to contact an upper surface of a first portion of the substrate between the main trench and the first guide trench and to contact an upper surface of a second portion of the substrate between the main trench and the second guide trench, and
wherein the forming the main trench and the forming the first and second guide trenches includes forming each trench such that a sum of a width of the upper surface of the first portion of the substrate and a width of the upper surface of the second portion of the substrate is greater than a width of a bottom surface of the main trench, and
wherein during the sintering of the ink, the ink filled in the lower portion of the main trench moves up by contraction of the ink due to evaporation of the solvent so that the ink substantially separates from the bottom surface of the main trench and the tunnel is formed in the lower portion of the main trench.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the ejecting the ink includes ejecting the solvent of the ink at a contact angle of greater than about 30 degrees with respect to the surface of the substrate.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the ink has a sintering temperature ranging from about 100° C. to about 500° C.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
planarizing an upper surface of the electric wiring after the forming of the electric wiring.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the forming the main trench and the forming the first and second guide trenches includes patterning the substrate via dry etching using a photolithography method.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the ejecting the ink is for an inkjet printing method.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the solvent comprises one of a polar and a non-polar solvent.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the conductive material comprises metal nanoparticles.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the substrate comprises at least one of glass and silicon.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the ejecting the ink ejects the ink such that a coupling force between the ink and the upper surfaces of the first and second portions of the substrate is greater a coupling force between the ink and the bottom surface of the main trench.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein the electric wiring in the upper portion of the main trench represents a larger portion of the main trench than the tunnel in the lower portion of the main trench.

Assignees

• Samsung Electronics Co Ltd

Inventors

• Kim Joong-Hyuk
• Jin Yong-Wan
• Hong Young-Ki
• Kang Sung-Gyu
• Lee Seung-Ho
• Hong Jin-Seok

Classifications

• H05K2201/09036

  Recesses or grooves in insulating substrate · CPC title

• H05K3/125

  by ink-jet printing · CPC title

• H05K3/1208

  Pretreatment of the circuit board, e.g. modifying wetting properties; Patterning by using affinity patterns (providing shape patterns H05K3/1258; adhesion treatments H05K3/38) · CPC title

• C23C22/78

  Pretreatment of the material to be coated · CPC title

• C23C22/83

  Chemical after-treatment · CPC title