Mechanical Characterization of Ink-Jet Printed Ag Samples on Different Substrates

In this paper, the main activity was to investigate how different substrates, temperature of sintering and percentage of silver ink containing silver nanoparticles influence on Young’s modulus and hardness of printed silver thin samples. Samples were prepared by low cost ink-jet printing technique using Dimatix Material Printer on polyimide flexible substrate and slide glass. Characterization of these samples was carried out by Nano Indenter using a three sided pyramidal (Berkovich) diamond tip. Measurement results show that the thickness of ink-jet printed silver layer varies for different percent of nanoparticles in silver ink. All measurements were done at same depth of indentation to avoid possibility of perforation of printed layer. The higher temperature of sintering and the higher percent of silver nanoparticles give the bigger Young’s modulus and hardness of printed silver sample. This research provides very useful information about mechanical characterization of the silver layers on flexible substrates for printed-electronics.