Design and Fabrication Process Optimization of Silver-Based Inkjet-Printed Microheater

Abstract

This paper examines the simulation, design, and fabrication of a nano-particle silver microheater. COMSOL Multiphysics is used to simulate the microheater of an area of 720 × 720 μm (Formula presented.). Different stages of the microheater fabrication process are discussed. The size of the cartridge used is 10 pL and the nozzle diameter was 50 (Formula presented.). The drop spacing was chosen to be 45 (Formula presented.) after testing several different values. Controlled printing of Ag ink was reached by setting the tickle control frequency to 8 kHz and cartridge print height to 0.4 mm. The nozzle temperature was set at ambient temperature. The inkjet printed microheater is of same area and track and gap widths of 110 (Formula presented.). The measured resistance of the microheater, 119 Ω, is approximately equal to the simulated resistance of 100 Ω. It was observed that the temperature at the center of the heater reaches up to 250 °C.