Process monitoring, modeling, and quality assessment for printed electronics with aerosol jet printing technology

Abstract

Aerosol jet printing (AJP) has several advantages over other printing technologies such as smaller feature size, thinner layer deposition, large material selections and non-planar printing capability. However, AJP is lack of in situ monitoring or control capabilities which leads to inconsistent device performance. The thesis was developed to address AJP quality issues and extend AJP capabilities. Chapter 4 introduces two representative applications of AJP for demonstrating its unique capabilities, as well as identifying the fabrication variation and limitations in developing these applications. The applications include a printed ammonia gas sensor for hazardous environment detection, and a transmission line for a D-band wireless application. Chapter 5 introduces process monitoring strategies for the AJP process, which includes an image-based quality metrics for printed line morphologies, a vibration-based signal analysis for atomization process monitoring, and a design of experiment for investigating process parameters. Chapter 6 explores new manufacturing processes based on AJP. Two novel process methods were developed for extending the AJP capability to emerging advanced manufacturing fields, including 3D printing and nanocomposite fabrication.