Low-Temperature Deposition of Gold Patterns with Improved Adhesion and Conductivity Characteristics for Printed Electronic Applications.

Development of efficient metal deposition methods for patterning and depositing metal structures is crucial for advancing electronics manufacturing. Existing multistep processes that require separate equipment for each step hinder the progress of scalable and rapid metal deposition techniques. Plasma jet printing (PJP) is an advanced printing technique that has the capability to deposit plasma-assisted sintered metal traces with improved adhesion with the help of a dielectric discharge plasma. In this work, we conducted a comprehensive study of the effect of plasma parameters on improving the surface properties of the substrate and electrical performance. Our findings demonstrate a 6× improvement in the adhesion strength and a resistivity of 1.75 × 10 Ω m achieved through low temperature plasma sintering, making it suitable for depositing conductive traces on low-temperature substrates. We also demonstrate the heating-assisted plasma sintering to efficiently sinter metal nanoparticle inks containing PVP, significantly reducing the thermal budget while maintaining a single-step process. These results highlight PJP as a promising alternative to conventional metal deposition methods, offering a streamlined approach to high-performance electronic applications.