A highly conductive thermoplastic electrically conductive adhesive for flexible and low cost electronics

A commercial thermoplastic screen printing ink is employed as the binder of conductive adhesive (ECA). The electrically resistivity of 3.6 × 10^-5 Ω·cm is observed at 80 wt% silver loading. The printed circuit based with the ECA is foldable because of the thermoplastic nature of the binder, and it is sufficiently reliable for the practical application. The lap shear test indicates the shear strength of the ECA is 12.5 MPa. Due to the excellent mechanical property and the processability of the resin binder, this formulation is especially advantageous in the application of flexible electronics applications with the features of low cost and convenience for fabrication.