Cu salt ink formulation for printed electronics using photonic sintering.

We formulate copper salt (copper formate/acetate/oleate) precursor inks for photonic sintering using high-intensity pulsed light (HIPL) based on the ink's light absorption ability. The inks can be developed through controllable crystal field splitting states (i.e., the ligand weights and their coordination around the metal centers). The inks' light absorption properties are extremely sensitive to the carbon chain lengths of the ligands, and the ink colors can drastically change. From the relationship between the ratios of C/Cu and the required sintering energies, it is possible to ascertain that the integral absorbance coefficients are strongly correlated with the photonic sintering behavior. These results suggest that the ink absorbance properties are the most important factors in photosintering. The wires formed by sintered copper formate complex ink via the HIPL method showed good electronic conduction, achieving a low resistivity of 5.6 × 10(-5) Ω cm. However, the resistivity of the wires increased with increasing contains carbon chain length of the inks, suggesting that large amounts of residual carbon have negative effects on both the wire's surface morphology and the electrical conductivity. We find in this study that high light absorptivity and low carbon inks would lead to a lower environmental load in future by reducing both energy usage and carbon oxide gas emissions.