Inkjet Printing Technology: A Novel Bottom-up Approach for Multilayer Ceramic Components and High Definition Printed Electronic Devices

This paper describes the methodology of thick film and multilayer ceramic capacitor (MLCC) component manufacturing by inkjet printing. The printing unit is a CeraDrop 3D multimaterial inkjet printer. Aqueous conductive and dielectric inks were formulated according to the printhead specifications in terms of viscosity, surface tension, particle size, and sedimentation. Jetting behavior was controlled and optimized to reach the best droplet characteristics with regard to the design. The numerical processing simulation tool helps to control the printing job and to identify potential beneficial issues during the processing. Therefore, printing parameters (droplet spreading, layer thickness, filling strategy, layer drying, etc.) were optimized according to material and component design characteristics. In this way, high definition and thin conductive tracks were achieved on an alumina substrate with good electrical properties. Moreover, two printheads were used to successively build 3D multimaterial MLCC components with thin dielectric and conductive layers (i) with good precision of margins compared with traditional processes, and (ii) with very high complex configurations thanks to the flexibility of the inkjet printing process. For both applications, large area components were accessible in a single batch.