Process development for a high-throughput fine line metallization approach based on dispensing technology

In order to enhance prosperous dispensing technology towards an industrial application, besides a continuous process development, especially throughput rate has to be increased. In this study, paste rheology of two different dispensing pastes was transferred to CFD-simulation (CFD: Computational Fluid Dynamics) to investigate different nozzle geometries and print head designs. In the following, a single nozzle dispensing setup was used to verify simulative values by comparing them with those obtained from experimental investigations. Consequently, the single nozzle process was scaled to a parallel application, where a homogeneous pressure and flow distribution within the print head turned out to be crucial to achieve a homogeneous mass flow at all nozzles. In various iteration steps, the influence of fabrication tolerances especially concerning the nozzle geometry was isolated and print head designs were optimized based on CFD towards maximum process stability. Based on these results, a novel 10 nozzle fine line dispensing unit was designed and fabricated. Finally, successful cell production with resulting finger widths of less than 35 mm could be demonstrated using the novel prototype.