: Müller, M.; Knothe, M.; Wend, J.; Jahn, S.; Blaudeck, T.

Abstract
As an established technology in the area of small-office, home-office (SOHO) and industrial
printing, inkjet becomes more and more interesting in the field of depositing conductive materials
in a structured, additive way. Small, defined structures, high conductivity and the use of
flexible and low-cost substrates are in the focus of research to enable improved performance of
inkjet-fabricated devices. In order to reach reasonably high conductivities, knowledge on the
post treatment of the printed structures is an essential but also critical step. The most common
post treatment method is thermal sintering. However, with the respect to the use of polymer
substrates, process temperatures below 130 \'0eC are needed. Alternative methods such as electric
field, microwave or plasma sintering were recently discussed in the scientific literature. Another
promising method is the use of ultraviolet radiation. Our paper focuses onto the influence of UV
lightapplied during the thermal sintering process of inkjet-printed metal-organic silver precursor
materials. We report a faster decomposition of the precursor materials and sintering of silver
structures is possible at temperatures below 130 \'0eC as compared to pure thermal sintering. We
discuss the influence of the chosen process parameters on both effective conductivity and feature
sizes by measuring the edge sharpness of printed structures.