• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.46 no.1
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• pp.41-46
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• 2009

The rheological properties of highly concentrated Ag nano sol depending on particle size were studied. The Ag nano sol was prepared by reducing the Ag ion in aqueous solution. The size of Ag nano particle was controlled by two steps of nucleation and growth, and the thickness of adsorption layer was varied by molecular weight of polyelectrolytes. The polyelectrolytes acted as not only ionic complex agent in ionic state and but also dispersant after formation of Ag nano sol. The effective volume was controlled by combination of varying the molecular weight of polyelectrolytes and the size Ag nano sol. The particle size and the viscosity of nano sol were characterized by particle size analyzer, HR-TEM and cone & plate viscometer. It was found that the 10 nm and 40 nm-sized Ag nano sols were prepared by controlling the nucleation and growth steps, respectively. Finally, we could prepare highly concentrated Ag nano sol over 50 wt%.

• Journal of the Semiconductor & Display Technology
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.73-81
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• 2011

We manufactured the inkjet printing system for the application into the nano Ag finger line interconnection process in Si solar cells. The home-made inkjet printer consists of motion part for XY motion stage with optical table, head part, power and control part in the rack box with pump, and ink supply part for the connection of pump-tube-sub ink tanknozzle. The ink jet printing system has been used to conduct the interconnection process of finger lines on Si solar cell. The nano ink includes the 50 nm-diameter. Ag nano particles and the viscosity is 14.4 cP at $22^{\circ}C$. After processing of inkjet printing on the finger lines of Si solar cell, the nano particles were measured by scanning electron microscope. After the heat treatment at $850^{\circ}C$, the finger lines showed the smooth surface morphology without micropores.

• 한국정보디스플레이학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2009.10a
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• pp.1118-1121
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• 2009

We have fabricated inverted staggered pentacene Thin Film Transistor (TFT) with 1-${\mu}m$ channel length by micro contact printing (${\mu}$-CP) method. Patterning of micro-scale source/drain electrodes without etching was successfully achieved using silver nano particle ink, Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) stamp and FC-150 flip chip aligner-bonder. Sheet resistance of the printed Ag nano particle films were effectively reduced by two step annealing at $180^{\circ}C$.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.29 no.5
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• pp.90-94
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• 2011

Ag metallic particles from nano-scale to submicron-scale are combined with organic solvent to provide fine circuits and interconnection. Ink-jet printing with Ag nano particle inks demonstrated the potentials of the new printed electronics technology. The bonding at the interface between the Ag wiring layer and the various substrates is very important. In this study, the details of interfaces in Ag wiring are investigated primarily by microstructure observation. By adjusting the materials and sintering conditions, nicely formed interfaces between Ag wiring and Cu, Au or organic substrates are achieved. In contrast, transmission electron microscope (TEM) image clearly shows interface debonding between Ag wiring and Sn substrate. Sn oxides are formed on the surface of the Sn plating. The formation of these is a root cause of the interface debonding.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2006.06a
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• pp.551-552
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• 2006

This study was attended to demonstrate synthesis of silver nanoparticles stabilized with polymer and their applicability to printed electronics. Silver nanoparticles were synthesized by reduction of silver nitrate in aqueous solution in the presence of polyvinyl pyrrolidone (PVP) as a stabilizer. The ink used here is composed of 50 wt% Ag NP, 15 wt% humectant and then were printed on polyimide film. Particle deposit morphologies were controlled by varying the ink compositions. Printed silver patterns and dots were cured on a convection oven in air at $300^{\circ}C$ for 60 min. The printed patterns show good shape definition and the resistivity of the printed films is about $5{\mu}{\Omega}{\cdot}cm$.

• Proceedings of the Materials Research Society of Korea Conference
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• 2011.05a
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• pp.2.3-2.3
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• 2011

With increased interest in printed devices, various metal nano inks have been investigated as candidates materials for printed electrodes and wiring as well as conductive film substituting photo-lithography process. Recent advances in organic conductive polymer allow us to fabricate high performance printed device. Meanwhile, there was several attempts to fabricate conductive films by mixing conductive polymer with metal nano-particle or nano-wires. The presence of Ag nanowires in conductive polymer mixture have shown good potential in organic photovoltaic devices.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.41 no.9
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• pp.670-676
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• 2004

The synthesis of highly concentrated silver nano sol assisted by polymeric dispersant (polyelectrolytes) for inkjet method was studied. The silver nano sol was prepared with AgNO$_3$, polyelectrolytes (HS5468cf ; polyacrylic ammonium salt), and reducing agent. The polyelectrolytes play an important role in formation of complex composed of Ag$\^$+/ion and carboxyl group (COO$\^$-/), result in preparation of highly dispersed silver nano particles. The optimization of added amount of polyelectrolytes, and concentration of silver nano sol was studied. The silver nanoparticles were evaluated by XRD, particle size/zeta potential analyzer and FE-TEM. The silver nanoparticles with the range of 10 nm in diameter were produced. The concentration of batch-synthesized silver nano sol was possible up to 40 wt%.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.17 no.9
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• pp.453-457
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• 2007

Interest in use of ink-jet printing for pattern-on-demand fabrication of metal interconnects without complicated and wasteful etching process has been on rapid increase. However, ink-jet printing is a wet process and needs an additional thermal treatment such as an annealing process. Since a metal ink is a suspension containing metal nanoparticles and organic capping molecules to prevent aggregation of them, the microstructure of an ink-jet printed metal interconnect 'as dried' can be characterized as a stack of loosely packed nanoparticles. Therefore, during being treated thermally, an inkjet-printed interconnect is likely to evolve a characteristic microstructure, different from that of the conventionally vacuum-deposited metal films. Microstructure characteristics can significantly affect the corresponding electrical and mechanical properties. The characteristics of change in microstructure and electrical resistivity of inkjet-printed silver (Ag) films when annealed isothermally at a temperature between 170 and $240^{\circ}C$ were analyzed. The change in electrical resistivity was described using the first-order exponential decay kinetics. The corresponding activation energy of 0.44 eV was explained in terms of a thermally-activated mechanism, i.e., migration of point defects such as vacancy-oxygen pairs, rather than microstructure evolution such as grain growth or change in porosity.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.31 no.6
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• pp.491-495
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• 2014

We developed a compact high-precision slot-die coating machine for thin-film deposition on a flexible substrate. For smooth and precise coating, air-bearing and linear motor system were employed to minimize velocity ripple. The gap control mechanism is specially designed to have repeatability of gap between nozzle and substrate under 1 ${\mu}m$. Due to extremely precise gap control, the machine can coat thin-films down to 50 nm with $200mm{\times}100mm$ size. A thin film of Ag nano-particle ink is coated for demonstration.

• Current Photovoltaic Research
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• v.2 no.4
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• pp.173-176
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• 2014

We have investigated the seed layer formation of front side contact using the inkjet printing process. Conductive silver ink was printed on textured Si wafers with 80 nm thick $SiN_x$ anti reflection coating (ARC) layers and thickened by light induced plating (LIP). The inkjet printable sliver inks were specifically formulated for inkjet printing on these substrates. Also, a novel method to prepare nano-sized glass frits by the sol-gel process with particle sizes around 5 nm is presented. Furthermore, dispersion stability of the formulated ink was measured using a Turbiscan. By implementing these glass frits, it was found that a continuous and uniform seed layer with a line width of $40{\mu}m$ could be formed by a inkjet printing process. We also investigated the contact resistance between the front contact and emitter using the transfer length model (TLM). On an emitter with the sheet resistance of $60{\Omega}/sq$, a specific contact resistance (${\rho}_c$) below $10m{\Omega}{\cdot}cm^2$ could be achieved at a peak firing temperature around $700^{\circ}C$. In addition, the correlation between the contact resistance and interface microstructures were studied using scanning electron microscopy (SEM). We found that the added glass particles act as a very effective fire through agent, and Ag crystallites are formed along the interface glass layer.