Effects of Substrate and Surface Energy on Ink-jet Printing

The fundamental parameters controlling ink-jet printing liquids are the viscosity and surface energy. The wetting contact angle determines the spread of a liquid drop on the surface and depends on the relative surface energy. The characteristics of silver ink-jet printing were studied with control of surface energy and head temperature. Polyethylene terephthalate(PET) film and Si-wafer(ptype) were used as substrates and atmospheric plasma was treated to control the surface energy. With silver ink, the hydrophilic surface treatment could reduce the radius of droplets due to the hydrophobic nature of silver ink.