All-Printed Conformal High-Temperature Electronics on Flexible Ceramics

• Published in: ACS applied electronic materials Vol. 2; no. 2; pp. 556 - 562
• Main Authors: Li, Zheng, Scheers, Scott, An, Lu, Chivate, Aditya, Khuje, Saurabh, Xu, Kevin, Hu, Yong, Huang, Yulong, Chang, Shuquan, Olenick, Kathy, Olenick, John, Choi, Jun Hwan, Zhou, Chi, Ren, Shenqiang
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: American Chemical Society 25.02.2020
• Subjects: ink materials; printed electronics; conformal sensor; metal nanowires; flexible ceramics
• ISSN: 2637-6113; 2637-6113
• DOI: 10.1021/acsaelm.9b00798

Each year, Cu is used in more than 60% of electrical applications due to its excellent electrical, thermal, and mechanical properties. Here, we report all-printed flexible conformal electronics consisting of Cu nanowire features (>106 S/m) and dielectric substrates. High aspect ratio Cu nanowires enable a conductive percolation network after printing to produce a conductive trace onto a variety of artificial substrates. The electrical conductivity of printed Cu nanowires can be controlled by aqueous-based reaction and printing conditions, while the stability of printed features is shown by Cu/Ni alloying to effectively protect it from oxidation. We demonstrate a reflection coefficient of −60 dB at the resonant frequency of 2.5 GHz using flexible radio-frequency antenna by printing Cu nanowires on flexible ceramics. Such flexible antenna electronics also exhibit high sensitivity (0.05% °C–1) and accuracy (15 °C) for real-time high-temperature sensing. The findings shown here suggest the potential of high-temperature hybrid conformal electronics using all-printed Cu ink and flexible ceramic materials.