A Systematic Study of Pattern Compensation Methods for All-Inkjet Printing Processes

Inkjet printed electronics is a promising technology for low-cost, flexible, and large area manufacturing of electronic systems. This paper presents a complete characterization methodology, automated and capable of extracting key technology parameters from a large amount of samples. We used this methodology to extract viable compensation strategies for a particular printer, ink, and substrate, analyzing more than a half million structures with a very low human interaction. The results show a promising improvement in yield and fidelity of printed patterns, when using an optimal compensation pattern. As an example, the fabrication yield for 120-μm width-40-μm separation structures raised from less than 10% up to 100% after applying compensations.