Electrical Characterization of Inkjet Printed

Interconnections on Flexible Substrates

†‡Botao Shao, †Roshan Weerasekera, †Abraham Tareke Woldegiorgis, †Li-Rong Zheng,
‡Ran Liu, ⋆Werner Zapka, ⋆Peter Lindberg
†School of Information and Communication Technology
Royal Institute of Technology
SE-164 40 SWEDEN
Email: {botao,roshan,lirong}@kth.se
‡Department of Microelectronics
School of Information Science and Engineering Fudan University
200433 Shanghai P.R.China
⋆XaarJet AB,Sweden
Address: Elektronikhojden 10, SE-175 43, Jrflla, Sweden

Abstract—This paper presents a design and characterization
of inkjet printed interconnects on flexible substrates, polyimide,
through nano-paticle silver ink for the future green electronic ap-
plications. The inkjet printed interconnects are carefully designed
and fabricated on polyimide substrates widely used in industry.
TDR/TDT and S-parameter measurements are performed from
30 KHz to 1 GHz for the purpose of the RFID applications.
The methodology of constructing model is presented with a
detailed lumped model and a distributed model of the printed
interconnects. Additionally, the electrical parameters of the nano-
particle silver inkjet printed interconnects are extracted in this
paper.
Index Terms—inkjet printed, nano-particle, TDR/TDT, VNA,
lumped circuit model, distributed circuit model
I. I NTRODUCTION
With urgent market requirements for reducing cost of
electronics and people’s increasing attentions for the envi-
ronmental protection, printable electronics have largely been
developed in recent years. Printable electronics process, which
often consists of direct inkjet printing and reel-to-reel process,
enable an extremely inexpensive way for mass-produce cir-
cuits. Especially in the field of RFID(Radio Frequency Identifi-
cation) a large amount of application cases are emerging[1][2].
Printable electronics, as its name means, realize the func-
tions of a circuit or a component by printings, in particular,
inkjet printings[3]. Recently, the advances in the field of
materials, printings, and processes have enabled the evolution
of the field of printable electronics. In this paper, a conductive
silver ink is used for the realization of high conductivity films
because of its ease of processing and compatibility with low-
cost manufacturing processes.
Moreover, many pattern transferring methods are imple-
mented on the printing of electronics such as the direct
inkjet printing, Gravure, Micro-Contact Printing etc[4]. The
inkjet printing is frequently employed since it has a higher
throughout and better resolution, as well as a wider material
compatibility than others.
In recent years, there have been some demonstra-
tions of printed passive components in plastic-compatible
technology[5][6]. However, little work is done on characteriza-
tions and modeling for primary inkjet printed components, in
particular, interconnects, as one of the most important parts of
a circuit. In order to fill this blank and realize the preliminary
work towards the future green electronics, a characterization
methodology for inkjet printed interconnects on ployimide,
a conveniently available low-cost substrate material, is pre-
sented.
In the next section, we present the materials and the instru-
ments used for printing the silver conductive films, followed
by the measurements in time-domain and frequency-domain.
II. E XPERIMENTAL
A. Materials, Instruments and Process
The conductive silver ink, Cima NanoTech IJ242-39, a silver
nano-particle based ink with an organic solvent carrier, is
provided by Cima NanoTech and contains 36-42 wt% silver.
Xaar provides the binary print head, Xaar XJ126/50, and a
flatbed XY-printer for the printed trails.
The pattern design of inkjet printed interconnects are di-
vided into two sets. One consists of Ground-Signal two lines,
while the other is Ground-Signal-Ground three lines, shown
in Fig.1. The fabrication of the test patterns is performed in
a laboratory not in clean room environment. When polyimide
substrate is put and fixed on the flatbed printer, the print head,
XAAR XJ126/50, is adjusted to print the nano-particle silver
ink in 50 pl droplets at the resolution of 360 × 360dpi(dots
per inch). At this resolution and print speed of 0.1 m/s good
edge definition is obtained. The samples are dried for 1 minute
at 130◦ C and fused for 15 minutes at 250◦ C. Fig.2 shows
printed samples from A to E patterns. Due to the interaction
between the substrate and the ink, known as dispersion, the
certain differences exist between the designed geometrical
parameters and the actual printed ones. Since the methodology
of characterization on inkjet printed interconnects is focused
Fig. 1. Inkjet printed interconnects top views and cross-section views of
different samples
Fig. 3. a) TDR measurement setup; b) TDT measurement setup; c) Equivalent
Circuit at DC

Fig. 2. Pictures of actual measured samples

in this paper, it is crutial just to pay attention to the actual

sizes, shown in the Table I.

B. Measurements Fig. 4. Experimental Instruments and Setups

1) TDR/TDT Measurements: TDR/TDT(Time Domain Re-
flectrometry/Time Domain Transmission) oscilloscope of type
Agilent Infinuum DCA 86100B wide-bandwidth oscilloscope line if the propagation delay is greater than half of the rise
is used to perform the measurements. From TDR and TDT time of the applied signal. In this case the half rise time is
measurements it is possible to calculate characteristic im- 0.5×tr = 0.5×180 = 90ps and the propagation delay is 116ps
pedance, propagation delay, dielectric constant, impedance (from the bottom-right in Fig.5b). Therefore it is reasonable
profile and series resistance of the samples. The whole mea- to model the interconnect as a transmission line. V1 is shown
surement setup is shown in Fig.4. in Fig.5b when Sample E is connected to TDR.
a) TDR Measurements: Fig3a shows the TDR measure- Reflection Coefficient
ment setup.The connector cable used is a 50Ω SMA cable. Vr −0.06
Coplanar probes of type ACP40-W-SG-150 and ACP50-W- ρ= = = −0.3 (1)
Vi 0.2
GSG-250 are used to connect the SMA cables and the DUT.
Since the incident voltage is known to be a step input of 0.2V, ZDU T − Zprobe ZDU T − 50
the reflected wave is calculated from V1 by subtracting 0.2V ρ= = = −0.3 (2)
ZDU T + Zprobe ZDU T + 50
step voltage.
The rise time of the step input supplied by the oscilloscope =⇒ ZDU T = 27Ω (3)
source is 140ps. The rise time is further increased due to the
delay caused by the SMA cable and coplanar probe. At the Therefore the characteristic impedance of Sample E is 27Ω.
tip of the coplanar probe the rise time is determined from
the reflected wave in Fig.5a and it is approximately 180ps.
An interconnect is considered as a distributed transmission

Patterns L/(cm) Ws /(mm) Wg /(mm) g/(µm) t/(nm)

A 5 1.47 0.7 70 800
B 10 1.47 0.7 70 800
C 5 0.7 0.49 70 800
D 10 0.7 0.49 70 800
E 3.5 2 2 70 800

TABLE I
THE PARAMETERS OF THE SAMPLES Fig. 5. a) Measured V1 without DUT; b) Measured V1 with Sample E
connected
 Fig. 8. a) S(1, 1) of Sample E, f = 30 kHz - 1GHz; b) S(1, 2) of Sample
E, f = 30 kHz - 1GHz

Fig. 6. a) Transmitted voltage V2 ; b) Incident plus reflected voltage; c) c) Propagation Delay and Dielectric Constant: The
Impedance Profile corresponding to V1 propagation delay of the sample interconnects can be measured
from either the TDR or TDT plots. The simplest and accurate
method for measuring propagation delay is completed with the
TDR used in TDT mode. The advantage of this technique over
the TDR is that the captured signal has propagated only once
down the DUT when it is captured, which will allow less time
for the edge rate to be degraded by losses or reflections. The
propagation delay is obtained by measuring the delay between
Fig. 7. Propagation delay of Sample A calculated from the time difference
of reflected the transmitted and received signals. The ideal measurement
point is where at which the response just begins to rise. This
would eliminate the error due to different edge rate degradation
b) TDT Measurement: TDT measures the transmitted if measurement was taken at, for example, the 50% point.
voltage at the output end of the DUT by applying a step From Fig.3b the TDR/TDT setup again, the difference in
voltage at the input. In this measurement setup the instrument time between the time when the first voltage reflection from
applies a step input voltage on one channel and the output the DUT appears at channel 1 and the time the transmitted
voltage from the DUT is measured on another channel. The voltage arrives at channel 2 is equal to the propagation delay of
measurement setup is shown in Fig.3b. When Sample A is the sample interconnect. The connector cables used for channel
connnected with the probes, transmitted and reflected voltages 1 and channel 2 are identical. The propagation delay of Sample
V2 and V1 are plotted in Fig.6a,b. A is measured and ploted as Fig7.
From TDT measurements of Fig.6a,b, detailed equivalent
circuit parameters for the DUT can be calculated. The trans- P DDU T = Tt − Tr (9)
mitted and the reflected waves settle to a constant value after
initial oscillations. The impedance profile can be calculated The propagation delay of all sample patterns is calculated
using Equation 4,5. Z0 is the characteristic impedance of the by plotting the reflected and transmitted voltage as shown in
measurement setup which is 50Ω. Fig. 3c. From propagation delay(P D), length of interconnect
and the speed of light(c), the velocity of propagation(υp ) and
ρ+1 the dielectric constant are calculated using Equations 10 and
ZL (t) = Z0 (4)
ρ−1 11 and are shown in Table II.
where
Vr length
ρ= (5) υp = (10)
Vi PD
Impedance profile of Sample A corresponding to the voltage √ c
V1 in Fig.6b is shown in Fig.6c. After the oscillations die out ǫr = (11)
υp
there is a constant voltage. The circuit seems as in Fig.3c.
From Fig.6b Vr + Vi = 0.319V and Vr = 0.2V − 0.319V =
C. Frequency Domain Measurements
−0.019V and Reflection Coefficient
Vector Network Analyzer (VNA) is used for frequency do-
Vr main characterization. 8753ES S-parameter network analyzer
ρ= (6)
Vi of Agilent Technologies is used to make the measurements.
ZL − Z0 From the measured S-parameters lumped and distributed
ρ= (7) equivalent circuit models are extracted. S-parameters are con-
ZL + Z0
verted to ABCD matrix using the following formulas.
=⇒ ZDU T = 146Ω (8) A = (1 + S11 − S22 − ∆S)/(2S21 ) (12)
 Samples PD/(ns) Velocity/(108 m/s) Dielectric Constant
A 0.260 1.923 2.43
B 0.524 1.908 2.47
C 0.259 1.93 2.46
D 0.533 1.875 2.56
E 0.176 1.99 2.27

TABLE II
PROPAGATION DELAY,PROPAGATION VELOCITY AND
DIELECTRIC CONSTANT

Fig. 11. a,b) Measured and simulated phase and magnitude of S11 ; c,d)
Measured and simulated phase and magnitude of S12

Fig. 9. a) The T-network Equivalent Circuit model; b) The Lumped

Equivalent Circuit

B = (1 + S11 + S22 + ∆S)Zr /(2S21 ) (13)

C = (1 − S11 − S22 + ∆S)(2S21 Zr ) (14)
D = (1 − S11 + S22 − ∆S)(2S21 ) (15)
where Fig. 12. R, L and C per unit meter of Sample E as a function of frequency
∆S = S11 S22 − S12 S21 (16)

Fig.8 show S11 and S12 of sample E during the frequency

range of 30KHz-1GHz. A transmission line is considered to
be electrically short if at the highest operating frequency of
interest the interconnect length is physically shorter than one-
tenth of the wavelength. Otherwise it is electrically long. Elec-
trically short lines are modeled using lumped element circuit
while distributed elements are used to model electrically long
lines.
Sample E is taken as an example for lumped and distributed
models. The line length is 0.035m, so f = c/λ = 857MHz
Therefore for f < 857MHz the line can be modeled using
lumped circuit models and for f > 857MHz the distributed Fig. 13. R, L and C per unit meter of Sample A as a function of frequency
model is more accurate.

Fig. 10. a) R as a function of frequency; b) L as a function of frequency; Fig. 14. R, L and C per unit meter of Sample C as a function of frequency
c) C as a function of frequency
 1) Lumped Circuit Model: Assuming the sample patterns
have series resistor and inductor and a shunt capacitor a T- C = Im(γ/Z)/ω (26)
network (Fig.9a) is selected as a model to account for series
In the same manner all measurements are done on samples
resistor and inductor and shunt capacitance and conductance
A and C. Distributed parameters resistance, inductance and
of the line.
capacitance for samples A and C are shown in Fig.13,14 in
ABCD matrix of a T network is
the case of G ≈ 0.
" # " # III. F UTURE WORK
A B 1 + Z1 Y Z2 (1 + Z1 Y ) + Z1
= (17) The next step will extend to the further characterization
C D Y Y Z2 + 1
of the nano-particle silver films based on polyimide. Since
Since the patterns are symmetrical,S12 = S21 and Z1 = Z2 , the nowadays film is not high enough in conductivity to be
Z = Z1 = Z2 = R + jωL Based on the above formulas, the properly used in the field of capacitors, inductors etc passive
calculated R, L and C are shown in Fig.10. R,L and C values components, more work to decrease the resistivity is required
of the equivalent T-model oscillate for frequency less than and be continued by the authors.
100MHz. But for frequency values greater than 100MHz we
IV. C ONCLUSIONS
get more or less constant values. R1 = R2 ≈ 17Ω, L1 = L2 ≈
2nH, C ≈ 10pF, G ≈0, are chosen as average equivalent The fabrication and characterization of the inkjet printed
circuit values shown Fig.9b. interconnects on the flexible polyimide substrate is performed.
ADS(Advanced Design System,released by ) simulation of Both TDR/TDT and VNA instruments are employed to explore
Fig.9b results in S11 and S12 which are plotted in Fig.11 their advantages in the measurements of inkjet printed inter-
together with measured S11 and S12 values. Good agreements connects. The electrical parameters dependent on a wide fre-
between the measured and simulated parameters enable the quency range authorized for the RFID systems from 30KHz to
validation of the lumped circuit model. 1GHz is studied. The detailed models and, more importantly,
2) Distributed Circuit Model: The ABCD parameters of a the methodology are achieved for the further applications of
transmission line with characteristics impedance Z, propaga- inkjet printed devices on the RFID systems.
tion constant γ and length l is given by: R EFERENCES
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