Full densification of inkjet-printed copper conductive tracks on a flexible substrate utilizing a hydrogen plasma sintering

Low temperature sintering techniques are crucial in developing flexible printed electronics. In this work, we demonstrate a novel hydrogen plasma sintering method that achieves a full reduction and densification of inkjet-printed patterns using a copper complex ion ink. After inkjet printing on polyethylene terephthalate (PET) substrates, both hydrogen plasma and conventional hydrogen thermal treatment were employed to compare the resulting microstructures, electrical properties and anti-oxidation behavior. The plasma treated pattern shows a fully densified microstructure with a resistivity of 3.23 μΩ cm, while the thermally treated pattern shows a relatively poor microstructure and high resistivity. In addition, the hydrogen plasma-treated copper pattern retains its electrical resistivity for one month without any significant decrease. This novel hydrogen plasma sintering technique could be used to produce conductive patterns with excellent electrical properties, allowing for highly reliable flexible printed electronics.