Printing and scaling of metallic traces and capacitors using a laboratory-scale rotogravure press

In this paper we demonstrate the design and development of a small-size, sheet-fed gravure printer which can achieve 10 mum alignment of multiple layers and requires less than 200 muL of ink per print. Using this printer we demonstrate highly-scaled metallic silver lines, 20 mum wide, printed with nano-particle and precursor based inks. We describe some scaling trends which are specific to the printing technique, and the inks used. We also demonstrate the use of rotogravure for printing poly-vinyl phenol dielectric layers and describe how ink formulation and gravure roll design affect thickness and uniformity of these layers. Finally, we describe printed capacitors fabricated using a hybrid gravure/ink-jet process presenting some of the challenges of printing multiple layer devices and the need for hybrid-technique printing processes.