Copper conductive patterns through spray-pyrolysis of copper-diethanolamine complex solution

Area of Science:

• Materials Science
• Nanotechnology
• Electrical Engineering

Background:

• Fabricating low-cost, low-temperature copper conductive patterns is essential for printed electronics.
• Existing spray-pyrolysis methods produce granular copper patterns with suboptimal electrical properties.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate low-temperature spray-pyrolysis of copper formate-diethanolamine complex for fabricating copper conductive patterns.
• To determine the effect of spraying conditions, particularly spraying rate, on the microstructure and electrical properties of the copper patterns.

Main Methods:

• Utilized low-temperature spray-pyrolysis of a copper formate-diethanolamine complex solution under nitrogen (N2) flow at 200 °C.
• Systematically varied spraying conditions to analyze their impact on the resulting copper patterns.

Main Results:

• Identified spraying rate as a critical parameter influencing the degree of sintering and electrical resistivity.
• Achieved well-sintered copper patterns with a lowest electrical resistivity of 6.12 μΩ.cm (3.6 times bulk copper resistivity) on a polyimide substrate using a low spraying rate.

Conclusions:

• Low-temperature spray-pyrolysis of copper formate-diethanolamine is a viable method for creating copper conductive patterns.
• Optimizing spraying rate is key to achieving high-quality, low-resistivity copper patterns for printed electronics applications.