I-Corps: Inks for Printed Electronics

Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo MI

Investigators

Abstract

The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project is to develop a functional ink formulation process, which would be scalable, economical and effective for printed electronics. Developed manufacturing processes would be low cost while resulting in high performance functional inks suitable for printed electronics market. Electronics devices are constantly getting smaller, thinner and sleeker. Newly designed electronics devices therefore require new methods of manufacturing components such as electrical boards. The printed electronics market can offer benefits that conventional circuits cannot. Additionally, other application areas for these functional inks can include touch screens, printed circuit boards, display panels, marketing displays/packaging, RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) tags, wearables, and sensors. Therefore, commercial potential of our functional inks would be to transition from conventional electronics manufacturing and allow the customer to reap economic benefits related to printing manufacturing process using specifically tailored functional printed electronics inks. This I-Corps project is focused on the formulation of functional inks suitable for printed electronics. The uniqueness of this formulation approach is to create specialty inks that can easily transition into existing printing systems and equipment such as screen-printing, flexo, and gravure. Proprietary ink manufacturing processes allow for functional nanoparticles to be efficiently made into high performance, low cost functional inks and coatings. The proposed technology uses a single stream of raw materials that can be used for one functional ink and then with simple alterations, ink can be tailored for specific printing process (screen, flexo, gravure). Traditionally, inks are made and optimized for each printing process separately. This ink formulation process could allow for applications ranging from replacement of traditional electronic circuits, interactive displays, wearables and new interactive packaging/labeling. The unique functional ink formulation technology offers a way to use conventional printing processes to economically manufacture electrical components such as batteries, transistors, and sensors which can then be designed into simple circuits and printed on flexible substrates such as plastic or paper.