International Journal of Scientific Research Engineering & Technology (IJSRET), ISSN 2278 0882

Volume 4, Issue 11, November 2015

A Survey on Printing Technologies

Sarika Achyutrao Shinde1, Prof. Shailesh Jadhav2
1
2

Department of electronics & telecommunication, Savitribai Phule Pune University, Pune

Department of electronics & telecommunication, Savitribai Phule Pune University, Pune

Abstract
Sensors are playing an increasingly major role in printed
electronics. Due to low cost fabrication & easy
availability of multifunction electronics over large areas
printing sensors & electronics over flexible substrates
are an area of significant research & interest. Printing
technology is a set of printing methods used to create
electrical devices using various substrates. Typically,
Printing uses common printing equipment suitable for
defining patterns on material, such as solution/dry
printing contact & non contact printing technologies,
flexography, gravure, gravure offset, printing screen
and inkjet. Various printing technologies have been
developed using a wide range of electronic materials on
diverse substrates. Here we review the current status of
flexible electronics, various electronic materials, printing
technologies & attempt to predict the challenges of these
technologies.

combination of conductive polymers and inorganic

materials with printing technologies enables thin,
lightweight and extremely cost-efficient electronic
systems [35]. Printed electronics on polymer substrates
has also opened new avenues for low-cost fabrication of
electronics on areas larger than the standard wafers
available commercially. In accordance with the
electronics industry roadmap, the research in this field is
slowly inching towards a merge of well-established
microelectronics and the age-old printing technologies
[26]. This can be done due to development of many
devices such as solar cells, antenna, light emitting
diodes, transistors, radio frequency identification tags
(RFID), printed pressure sensors, electronic cloths.

Keywords Printed electronics, RFID, roll to roll, ink

Viscosity, Fabrication

1. Introduction
Now a days research in printed circuits on boards
(PCB) has brought about various changes &
advancements to modern electronics. Recently, with
more concerns raised in the complicated and energyconsuming fabrication processes of conventional
electronics, plentiful attentions have been made to find
an additive way to make electronic components on any
desired substrates, especially those flexible ones[12] .
Easy & Simplified processing steps, reduction in
materials wastage, less fabrication costs and simple
patterning techniques make printing technologies very
attractive for the profitable manufacturing [16][18].
These features of printed electronics have allowed
researchers to explore new avenues for materials
processing and to develop sensors and systems on even
non-planar surfaces, which otherwise are difficult to
realize with the conventional wafer-based fabrication
techniques. The printed electronics on flexible substrates
will enable conformable sensitive electronic systems
such as electronic skin that can be wrapped around the
body of a robot or prosthetic hands [20][25].The

Fig.1 Types of Printing technology [1]

In traditional methods of printing electronics and sensors
involve bringing pre-patterned parts of a module in
contact with the flexible (or non-flexible) substrates and
transferring the functional inks or solutions onto them
[6][9], [11], [13]. The two major types of printing
technology usually used for development of
printing/coating system are contact and non-contact
printing, as shown in Fig. 1 and described in later
section. In contact printing process, the patterned
structures with inked surfaces are brought in physical
contact with the substrate. In a non-contact process, the
solution is dispensed through via openings or nozzles
and structures are defined by moving the stage (substrate
holder) in a pre-programmed pattern [1]. Various types
of contact-based printing technologies are gravure
printing, gravure-offset printing, flexographic printing

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International Journal of Scientific Research Engineering & Technology (IJSRET), ISSN 2278 0882
Volume 4, Issue 11, November 2015

and R2R printing. The non-contact printing techniques

comprise of screen-printing, slot-die coating and inkjet
printing.
This article presents various printing technologies used
recently in market, electronic materials used for printing,
challenges associated with it & finally, a summary of the
recent improvements in printed electronics and

comments on the future scope are provided.

2. Printing Techniques
Printing area is continued to develop & expand rapidly
from printed text on paper to printed electronics on
materials such as printed foils as well as textiles.
Semiconductor research & the invention of transistors,
MOSFETS paving the way to practically all modern
electronics.
Printing technologies are mainly divided into two broad
categories, as shown in Fig. 1. The contact and non
contact-based patterning types discussed below using the
classification given in Fig. and the challenges of these
printing techniques are discussed below. [1] An
important benefit of printing technologies is that they
can do a production of large area electronics and sensors
by R2R manufacturing in a cost effective way. [1]
A) Non contact Printing
1. Screen printing technology
Screen printing is a widely used technology in electronic
technology. Even though there are many developments
in the technology, it is still under improvement. The
technology is useful in the field of decal fabrication,
patterning of cloths & balloon, fabrication of textile,
producing signs and displays, and last is printed
electronics containing printed boards of circuit and thick
film technology [20].
Screen printing is faster and more versatile in
comparison to other printing tools, as it is simple,
affordable, speed and adaptability to the fabrication
process. Screen-printing results or output can be
reproduced by repeating a few steps.
There are two types of screen printing, one is flat-bed
screen printing and another is rotary screen printing. The
principle of the two methods is the same and shown in
Fig. 2 The squeegee generally moves in proportionate
with the screen and forces the ink paste through the
mesh opening, which defines the desired motif. There is
a significant difference in the operation of the two
techniques. The advantages of flat-bed screen printing
(Fig. 2(a)) are that the mask used is lower cost and it is
possible to make one print at a time and can make
adjustments between each print if necessary.

Fig . 2 Schematic illustration of (a) the screen-printing

processes (b) a rotary screen printer.
For development and laboratory work screen printing is
very cost effective. Production can be done at a very
large area on the scale of 10 square meters. In Rotary
screen printing (fig. (b)) the ink contained inside the
rotating cylinder is differs with a fixed internal squeegee
and the ink is less exposed to the surroundings. The
mask used is very expensive than the flat-bed printing
mask, but if one can think it in terms of speed,
resolution, and suitable thickness of wet, rotary screen
printing is superior than flat-bed screen printing .
Because of the cost of the mask, the more delicate
operations, difficult adjustments, and time consuming
cleaning procedures, rotary screen printing is less suited
for laboratory work than the flat-bed technique. Rotary
screens provide relatively high speed as compared to the
flatbed, but the screens for rotary setup are expensive
and very difficult to clean [1], [18], [21]. Although it is
simple to use many factors such as composition, size and
form, solution viscosity, angle, pressure, speed of the
blade (squeegee), geometry of squeegee, material can
affect on print quality & characteristics. At one time
most blades were made from rubber which has a
tendency to warp and distort.
Screen printing technique is usually compatible with the
high-viscosity inks, Rather than dispensing out the mesh
as the lower viscosity inks will simply run through the
mesh [22], [23]. The advantageous thing is the screenprinting is suitable under low capital investment.
2. Inkjet Printing
Inkjet Printers are widely used in small offices and home
office segment; it uses simple mechanism of boiling ink
and pumps it through nozzles. Print head contains an

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International Journal of Scientific Research Engineering & Technology (IJSRET), ISSN 2278 0882
Volume 4, Issue 11, November 2015

array of tiny nozzles that ejects ink drops onto the paper
to form impression. Only we have to buy print head and
ink container separately. Today, full ink cartridge
containing both print head and ink container are
available in market. Basic working principle of ink jet
printer contains pumping a small amount of ink through
tiny nozzles and to spray on the paper to form
impression. There are two types of print heads available
one is thermal (Bubble jet /inkjet) and piezoelectric are
printing technologies. Thermal print heads have an array
of tiny nozzles with small resistors near to each of the
nozzles to boil the ink. When looking at one side of the
ink cartridge it can notice a circuit pasted in the
cartridge. Similar circuit is available in the printer
cartridge house. When installing ink cartridge in the
house both circuit touches to close the circuit.
To start a printing, current has to pass through the
particular heating resistor to boil the ink. When the ink is
boiled it get pops through the nozzle and comes out.
When the bubble get expands, at one stage it will get
burst & will sprays ink on the paper used, & same
process will be repeated to print the whole page.
Piezoelectric print heads generally uses special crystal
that vibrates when get electrified. This vibrating crystal
acts as a plunger & it pushes ink out of the nozzles to
print on the paper. Piezoelectric print heads are used in
almost all inkjet printers.
Inkjet printing is a technique for material-conserving
deposition used for liquid phase materials. These
materials, or inks, consist of a solute dissolved or
otherwise dispersed in a solvent. The process essentially
involves the ejection of a fixed quantity of ink in a
chamber, from a nozzle using a piezoelectric action. This
sudden reduction can set up a shocking wave in the
liquid, which causes a liquid drop to eject from the
nozzle [4].
Inkjet printing has a slow speed due to limited number of
nozzles and the clogging can result in complexities of
the system. Slow speed of inkjet printing process results
in low throughput & is a challenge for becoming an
industrial production. Due to the spreading of solution
on substrate used and disturbed behavior of droplets
during the time of flight results in pattern resolution in
and more, creates the issues of inkjet. Droplets
spreading , popping out of the ink after sintering due to
hydrophobic substrates, shape, thickness and structure of
the dried droplets should be controlled [34], [121][1].
3. Slot Die coating
The printing techniques allows for two dimensional
printing through physical contact. The coating is a
process of continuous feeding of ink to the cartilage that
is standing between the coating head and the web.

Most of the coating techniques are zero-dimensional &

used for a purpose that it should not create a pattern. An
even coat over the substrate should apply. The control of
the wet thickness is far superior than the other printing
techniques and even layers can be prepared. Mostly two
coating techniques are used for roll-to-roll processing of
polymer solar cells are slot-die coating and knife coating
[26-27].

Fig. 3 (a) Schematic diagram of the piezoelectric inkjet

head using PZT actuator [1]. (b) Schematic of Electro
hydrodynamic inkjet system. Electric field is generated
between nozzle and counter electrode [24][1]. (c)
Description of an Electrospray system with complete
setup [25][26].
B. Contact Printing
1. Gravure printing
A widely used printing technique in our everyday life is
gravure printing which is commonly used in the printing
of magazines and long run catalogues printing.. As

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Volume 4, Issue 11, November 2015

shown in Fig. 2, gravure technique depends on the

transfer of ink, from small engraved cavities & it forms
the pattern on the gravure cylinder, to the web by surface
tension, when the web is brought into contact with the
gravure cylinder by using pressure from the impression
cylinder. By using pattern and depth of the cavities in
the gravure cylinder the shape and thickness of the final
imprint can defined. The engraved cells generally
presents in the gravure cylinder & they are continuously
filled from the ink bath and for removal of excess ink a
doctor blade is used , ensuring that the ink is only
present in the cavities.[27] Gravure printing uses a direct
transfer of functional inks through physical contact of
the engraved structures with the substrate. Gravure
printing is capable of production at high quality using
low cost by roll to roll process.[1] Gravure printing tools
consist of a large cylinder which is electroplated with
copper and engraved with micro cells, as shown in Fig.

embedded into the exterior. Which allows the collection

of ink this is then transferred to the relief on the printing
cylinder that performs the final transfer to the web.[27]

Fig.5. Schematic of Flexographic printing [8].

Recent technologies has some limitations in their
features such as reduced supply voltage, high switching
speed that are needed for many applications. These
limitations result in degradation in device parameters
like overlay precision registration accuracy, charge
carrier mobility & parasitic capacitances [28]. For fine
patterning, here are some challenges to be overcome are
ragged lines availability of suitable functional and nonmaterials surface irregularities and pores, no uniform
films [29].

Fig. 4 Schematic of Gravure Printing

Gravure printing is applicable for the printing of low
viscous inks at very high speeds up to 15 m/s, but
optimization of the inks surface tension should be
careful & is important, as the quality of the print is
highly depend on ink rheology, speed of web , and
the pressure of the impression cylinder[1].
2. Flexographic printing
In Flexographic printing , R2R technology is used that
differs from gravure printing mainly in case of transfer
of the ink is performed from a relief which is opposed to
cavities (see Fig. 5).The printing plate which is typically
made from rubber or a photopolymer which generates
the final pattern.
The flexographic system consisting fountain rollers that
continuously transfer the ink onto the ceramic anilox
roller which is having engraved cells/micro cavities

3. Microcontact Printing
A version of a simple stamping process is a good
example of micro contact printing (mCP) that is familiar
even to most children. Like conventional printing micro
contact printing also uses an ink, a substrate and a stamp.
Microcontact printing can produce multiple copies of
two dimensional patterns by using patterned stamp
developed in master mold [1] [30], [31][32].
Microcontact printing is attractive because it is flexible,
simple, straightforward & inexpensive. Microcontact
printing (PCP) is one of the non-photolithography
techniques that make up soft lithography" & it uses
stamp i.e. an elastomeric stamp which prints the
molecules of an "ink" onto the surface of a solid
substrate & generates 2-dimensional patterns. The most
common configuration uses the stamp which is
fabricated from the Poly (dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS),
alkanethiol, ink, an elastomeric polymer, and the
substrate on which the printing occurs is a thin film is of
gold or silver. Microcontact printing is a practically
simple methodology; the elastomeric stamp can be easily
fabricated by molding a liquid prepolymer against a
master. Once the master is available, multiple copies of

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International Journal of Scientific Research Engineering & Technology (IJSRET), ISSN 2278 0882
Volume 4, Issue 11, November 2015

the pattern can be produced using simple experimental

procedure. The first products of PCP are normally
patterned regions of self-assembled minelayers (SAMs).
These printed SAMs afterwards can be used as templates
to control the wetting, dewetting, adsorption, nucleation,
growth, and deposition of a rich variety of materials
[29].

Fig.6. Microcontact printing (CP) steps: (a) prepolymer

poured onto
photo-lithographically structured master, (b) relieving of
prepolymer and peeling off the stamp, (c) the stamp
cutting in smaller pieces , (d) soaking of stamp in an
ink solution results in inked stamp (e) printing ink by
contacting the stamp with a proper surface, and (f)
patterned substrate [1].
Oftenly, the master mold on a silicon wafer is made up
with standard photolithography as shown in Fig. 13.
Features are then reproducing by pouring in the
elastomeric, which is exactly the shape of patterned
mold Fig. 13(b-c).
Important challenge in microcontact printing is
broadening of features and blurring of feature edge.
Another problem in microcontact printing is swelling of
the soft polymer used for transformation of micrometerscaled patterns which often causes increased feature
sizes. Overflowed ink can enhance diffusion of the
molecular imprint on the surface.

3. CONCLUSION
Because of low cost of fabrication technique printed
sensors and electronics have attracted greater interest.
Research and demonstration of printed electronics in
various applications & reflection of good interest of the
researchers in their research to fulfill the work in large
area electronics on flexible substrates through
worthwhile printing technologies. In this paper, we have
presented a brief overview of various technologies that
have been employed for the printed devices such as

RFID tags, printed batteries, energy harvesters and

capacitors, TFTs, LEDs, sensors, displays, solar cells.

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