All-photonic drying and sintering process via flash white light combined with deep-UV and near-infrared irradiation for highly conductive copper nano-ink.

ABSTRACT

We developed an ultra-high speed photonic sintering method involving flash white light (FWL) combined with near infrared (NIR) and deep UV light irradiation to produce highly conductive copper nano-ink film. Flash white light irradiation energy and the power of NIR/deep UV were optimized to obtain high conductivity Cu films. Several microscopic and spectroscopic characterization techniques such as scanning electron microscopy (SEM), a x-ray diffraction (XRD), and Fourier-transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy were employed to characterize the Cu nano-films. Optimally sintered Cu nano-ink films produced using a deep UV-assisted flash white light sintering technique had the lowest resistivity (7.62 µΩ·cm), which was only 4.5-fold higher than that of bulk Cu film (1.68 µΩ•cm).