This document discusses conductive inks for functional printing. It describes Agfa, a company that produces two core technologies for thin printable conductors: PEDOT:PSS conductive polymer and nano-silver ink. PEDOT:PSS is transparent, flexible and formable, while nano-silver ink offers high conductivity and allows printing thinner layers and smaller features. The document provides examples of applications for each technology and discusses parameters like curing time and temperature to optimize conductivity. It emphasizes that nano-silver ink can achieve high conductivity through multiple printing steps and higher curing temperatures.

1. Conductive Inks for Functional Printing
Less is More
< = >
Bavo Muys
Application Manager Orgacon & Silver Electronic Materials
Advanced Coatings and Chemicals
Agfa Materials

2. 2/31
Today’s Presentation
Agfa - Agfa-Materials
Printed Electronics Challenges
Thin Printable Conductors: 2 core technologies:
PEDOT:PSS Conductive Polymer
– Key properties
– Applications and examples of application know how
Nano-Silver Ink
– High conductive efficiency
– Drying and curing
– Continuous Improvements: curing time, adhesion, environmental stability
– Inkjet Ink
– Applications
Conclusions

3. 3/31
Agfa in the World
Agfa Gevaert Group 2014 : 10,846 FTE
Headquarters in Mortsel (Antwerp), Belgium
Group Sales 2014 : €2,620 Billion
Graphics €1,355 B
Healthcare €1,069 B
Specialty Products €0.197 B
2014 Recurring EBIT €152 M , EBITDA €222 M
2014 Net Cash from Operating Activities €151 M
2014 Profit for the year €59 M
Healthcare: No 1-2 Prepress: No 1-2
Sales organizations in 40 countries
Manufacturing sites in 10 countries
Representations in 100 countries
Listing Euronext Brussels
Agfa Gevaert Group 2014 : 10,846 FTE
Headquarters in Mortsel (Antwerp), Belgium
Group Sales 2014 : €2,620 Billion
Graphics €1,355 B
Healthcare €1,069 B
Specialty Products €0.197 B
2014 Recurring EBIT €152 M , EBITDA €222 M
2014 Net Cash from Operating Activities €151 M
2014 Profit for the year €59 M
Healthcare: No 1-2 Prepress: No 1-2
Sales organizations in 40 countries
Manufacturing sites in 10 countries
Representations in 100 countries
Listing Euronext Brussels
Integrated prepress solutions to
the printing and industrial ink jet
printing industry: consumables,
hardware, software and services
for production workflow, project
and color management.
Integrated prepress solutions to
the printing and industrial ink jet
printing industry: consumables,
hardware, software and services
for production workflow, project
and color management.
Integrated solutions for capturing,
processing and managing diagnostic
images and IT solutions that integrate
the imaging workflow into the overall
hospital operations across departmental
disciplines (PACS, HIS, RIS, CIS).
Integrated solutions for capturing,
processing and managing diagnostic
images and IT solutions that integrate
the imaging workflow into the overall
hospital operations across departmental
disciplines (PACS, HIS, RIS, CIS).
Supplies film-based products and
high-tech solutions to large B2B
customers outside the graphic and
healthcare markets, e.g. synthetic
paper, functional foils, conductive
materials, specialty inks.
Supplies film-based products and
high-tech solutions to large B2B
customers outside the graphic and
healthcare markets, e.g. synthetic
paper, functional foils, conductive
materials, specialty inks.
Agfa Graphics Agfa HealthCare
Agfa-Gevaert Group
Parent Company
Agfa Materials
Specialty Products
Agfa Graphics Agfa Materials
Specialty Products
Agfa Materials
Specialty Products
Agfa-Gevaert Group
Parent Company
Agfa Materials
Specialty Products
Agfa-Gevaert Group
Parent Company
Agfa Materials
Specialty Products
Graphics
51.7%
HealthCare
40.8%
Specialty Products
7.5%
By Business Group By Region
Europe
40.1%
NAFTA
24.7
%
Latin
America
Asia & ROW
26%
9.2%
Agfa Gevaert Group
Agfa Graphics Agfa HealthCare
Agfa-Gevaert Group
Parent Company
Agfa Materials
Specialty Products
Agfa Graphics Agfa Materials
Specialty Products
Agfa Materials
Specialty Products
Agfa-Gevaert Group
Parent Company
Agfa Materials
Specialty Products
Agfa-Gevaert Group
Parent Company
Agfa Materials
Specialty Products

4. 4/31
Printed Electronics Challenges
New PE products are announced almost daily
RFID enabled devices, sensors, smart packaging and clothing, touch enabled surfaces, energy harvesting, …
Key drivers from materials development side [< = >]
efficient material usage with improved material properties
inexpensive substrates paper, low-T° polymer films
are important to open door to mass-applications
efficient manufacturing methods
using installed manufacturing lines screen printing; R2R
reduces investment costs
simple processes additive vs. subtractive processing
reduces process costs
miniaturization and integration in other layers/objects
flexible – formable – unobtrusive
Quad Industries
ThinFilmElectronics

5. 5/31
Agfa Orgacon™ – Thin Printable Conductors
polymer (PEDOT:PSS)
• conductivity and transparency
• flexible
• formable
• low-cost
• industrially proven
nanosilver
• high conductive efficiency
• thinner
• smaller
• inkjet ink
• flexo ink
2 core technologies
[< = >]

6. 6/31
Agfa Orgacon™ – Thin Printable Conductors
2 core technologies
[< = >]polymer (PEDOT:PSS)
• conductivity and transparency
• flexible
• formable
• low-cost
• industrially proven

7. 7/31
Orgacon – Transparent Conductive polymer
PEDOT:PSS is very flexible compared to inorganic coatings like ITO
Direct benefits in flexible applications
Also allows high speed / low cost manufacturing processes
Can be formed after coating and drying, important for IMD & IML applications.

8. 8/31
Courtesy Multek
Orgacon – Transparent Conductive polymer (PEDOT:PSS)
Applications
antistatic applications for optical films and packaging
polymer capacitors
TCF – transparent electrodes: lower optical density < = > higher conductivity
same as: lower SER < = > higher VLT
coated electrodes for PDLC displays
printed electrodes for capacitive sensors and AC-EL
Courtesy KDI

9. 9/31
Orgacon – Transparent Conductive polymer (PEDOT:PSS)
Orgacon Screen Printing Inks
Grade Typical applications SER @ P77/55
(Ohm/square)
SER x OD *
ASTM D 1003
Viscosity
(Pas), 25°C
EL-P3040 Transparent conductive
electrode for EL
applications
680 40 > 8
EL-P3145 Patterned transparent
conductive structures for
EL and touch
applications
240 10 > 12
EL-P3155 Patterned transparent
conductive structures for
LED-backlit capacitive
sensors
350 14 > 12
EL-P5010 Patterned medium-
transparent conductive
fine structures for EL and
touch applications
280 50 > 100
EL-P5015 Patterned transparent
conductive fine
structures for EL and
touch applications, OPV
ITO substitution
125 18 > 100
[< = >]

10. 10/31
Application example:
Printed LED backlit Capacitive switch module
Choosing the right materials for:
White LED stability
Optical Clear Adhesive (OCA)

11. 11/31
Application know how:
Printed LED backlit Capacitive switch module
White LED stability
PEDOT:PSS conductive polymers are sensitive for
light between 400 and 500 nm
This can be a problem with White LED backlit
Because of this typical white LED stability problem,
AGFA developed a new STABILISED screen printing ink EL-P 3155
Relatief activeringsspectrum van ORGACON
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
300 400 500 600 700 800 900
Golflengte (nm)
Relatievegevoeligheid(m²/MJ)
White LED
[< = >]

12. 12/31
Application know how:
Printed LED backlit Capacitive switch module
Optical Clear Adhesive (OCA)
Some OCA’s interact with PEDOT:PSS-conductive polymers,
others do not influence the conductivity over time:
Choose the right OCA
a Clear Mask can be applied between transparent electrode and OCA
[< = >]

13. 13/31
Agfa Orgacon™ – Thin Printable Conductors
nanosilver
• high conductive efficiency
• low temperature sintering
• continuous improvement
• strategic cooperation for inkjet
• applications
2 core technologies
[< = >]

14. 14/31
Nano Silver ink : high conductive efficiency
Nanoparticles sinter at 150°C
Big increase in conductivity
Flake geometry does not
change significantly at curing T°
[< = >]
3D SEM of flake ink layer 3D SEM of SI-P1000x ink layer
SEM of flake ink layer
SEM of SI-P1000x ink layer

15. 15/31
Nano Silver ink : high conductive efficiency
Compared to flake inks, with 1kg SI-P1000x nanosilver ink,
2 to 3x more area can be printed with the same conductivity.
This can be exploited in 3 ways
Print thinner layers with same conductivity
Print smaller features
Maximize conductivity in one printing step
[< = >]
[< = >]
[< = >]

16. 16/31
Nano Silver ink : high conductive efficiency
Print thinner layers with the same conductivity (P77/55 ► P180/27)
200 mOhm/sq
tDFT ≈ 5 µm
40mOhm/sq@25µm
53 mOhm/sq
tDFT ≈ 1,2 µm
2,5mOhm/sq@25µm
3D SEM of flake ink layer 3D SEM of SI-P1000x ink layer
PET substrate
[< = >]

17. 17/31
Nano Silver ink : high conductive efficiency
Come to our tabletop and ask for
your printed business card demonstrator
[< = >]
ss730/13 mesh: 24500:730=34µm
34 x 0,8= 27µm 34x 2=54µm
Print Smaller futures
30µm- fine line printing
PVF-screen + emulsion
System build-up
To print 30µm lines
nano silver ink

18. 18/31
Nano Silver ink : high conductive efficiency
Maximize conductivity in one or multi printing step(s)
A wide ink deposit range possible
Conductivity [S] versus Ag-deposit [g/m²]
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180
Ag [g/m²]
Conductivity(1/SER)[S]
Theoretical (1,5µm DFT)
SI-P1000x
R&D ink
# of Layers %bulk Ag
T, oC mOhm/sq %
Teslin 1 150 4,94 48,4%
Kapton 500VN 1 150 6,60 39,7%
Kapton 500VN 1 250 3,94 66,5%
Kapton 100HN 1 150 6,29 40,7%
Kapton 100HN 1 250 3,82 67,1%
Teslin 1 150 7,73 48,6%
Kapton 500VN 1 150 9,76 40,2%
Kapton 500VN 1 250 5,82 67,4%
Teslin 2 150 3,87 49,0%
Kapton 500VN 2 150 4,87 40,6%
Kapton 500VN 2 250 2,66 74,3%
Kapton 100HN 2 150 4,73 40,7%
Kapton 100HN 2 250 2,61 73,7%
Teslin 1 150 10,15 45,9%
Kapton 500VN 1 150 12,04 40,8%
Kapton 500VN 1 250 7,46 65,9%
Teslin 2 150 4,60 50,2%
Kapton 500VN 2 150 5,72 41,0%
Kapton 500VN 2 250 3,24 72,5%
Kapton 100HN 2 150 6,07 39,5%
Kapton 100HN 2 250 3,37 71,3%
Teslin 1 150 14,39 46,2%
Kapton 500VN 1 150 16,75 41,5%
Kapton 500VN 1 250 9,84 70,6%
Teslin 2 150 6,68 48,2%
Kapton 500VN 2 150 8,36 40,5%
Kapton 500VN 2 250 4,70 72,0%
Kapton 100HN 2 150 8,08 40,5%
Kapton 100HN 2 250 4,75 69,0%
screen substrate
P32
P54
P77
Curing
M400 +
35µ film
SER
How to reach 5mOhm/sq with SI-P1000x
Coarse sceens: in 1 step
Finer screens: in 2 steps
Curing T°to 250°C on Polyimide,
will increase bulk conductivity to above 70%

19. 19/31
Nano Silver ink : Drying and Curing
Final conductivity determined by substrate and by curing temperature
Recommended sintering conditions (pre-dryed) : 150°C for minimum 2 minutes
>30% of Ag bulk conductivity on many substrates
can double to 70% at 250°C
Other sintering technologies: reduce time and/or substrate T°
NIR (Near infrared) on white porous substrates: less than 5 s sintering time possible
%bulk Ag i.f.o. Curing Temperature
0,0%
10,0%
20,0%
30,0%
40,0%
50,0%
60,0%
70,0%
80,0%
Astera PET Powercoat
XD
Teslin Dupont
500VN
Powercoat
XD
Dupont
500VN
%bulkAg(100%=max)
150°C
180°C
250°C
All trademarks property of their respective owners

20. 20/31
Agfa Orgacon™ – Thin Printable Conductors
nanosilver
Continuous Improvement
2 core technologies
[< = >]

21. 21/31
Agfa Nano Silver ink : Drying and Curing
New ink formulation with increased curing speed (hot air belt oven)
Other curing technologies
in evaluation

22. 22/31
Advances in adhesion – SI-P1000x vs. R&D ink
SI-P1000x
ink
R&D
ink
Nanosilver sintering precludes the use of large amounts of binder to promote adhesion
Trade-off with conductivity
SI-P1000x has good adhesion to mainly print-treated substrates
R&D ink has excellent adhesion, even on difficult substrates, e.g.untreated PET, ITO, PI
with even better bulk conducitivity vs. SI-P1000x
Agfa PET
COVEME PET
MTSL DY AW PowerCoat ITO PET
Kaneka PI
Apical100NP
DuPont PET
Melinex S
All trademarks property of their respective owners
0
0 0 0 0
0
00
0 5 55
Adhesion tested acc. to DIN EN ISO 2409 (ASTM D3359)
0 = perfect (no material removed); 5 = bad (everything removed)

23. 23/31
Advances in adhesion – SI-P1000x vs. R&D ink
Creasing test: OK
All trademarks property of their respective owners
• Material: PI
• Creased 1 time in, 1 time out
• Roll weight: 1750g
• ∆R/R : <4%

24. 24/31
Agfa Nano Silver ink : Environmental Stability
Stability under stringent operating conditions needed for a lot of applications
(e.g. automotive)
Agfa Nano Silver ink was evaluated on different substrates and for different conditions
Print-treated PET: Agfa, Coveme
Paper and synthetic paper: teslin, Arjowiggins PowerCoat™
Polyimide: DuPont Kapton™
85C/85%RH, 500h
60C/95%RH, 500h
-30
-20
-10
0
10
20
30
0 120 240 360 480 600
PET - Agfa Astera
PET - Coveme MTSL DY
Teslin
Paper - PowerCoat XD125
PI- Kapton 500VN
-30
-20
-10
0
10
20
30
0 120 240 360 480 600
PET - Agfa Astera
PET - Coveme MTSL DY
Teslin
Paper - Pow erCoat XD125
PI- Kapton 500VN
Relative change in resistance, 85°C/85%RH Relative change in resistance, 60°C/95%RH
Relative change ∆R/R0 < 10%
All trademarks property of their respective owners

25. 25/31
Agfa Nano Silver inkjet ink
To unlock the potential of inkjet for Printed Electronics,
Agfa Specialty Products and Ceradrop (MGI Digital Technology company), have joined forces
The aim is developing an inkjet metallization solution for Printed Electronics
that brings inkjet technology from R&D to the manufacturing floor
Parties combine their respective know-how on a exclusive basis
Agfa: nanosilver and inkjet ink development
Ceradrop: digital fabrication technology
+
A strategic cooperation for inkjet

26. 26/31
Applications of nanosilver inks: antenna and FPCB
Printed Ag cannot compete with other metals only on cost…
smart card inlays – Cu wired antenna inlays
RFID labels – Al or Cu stamped or etched
Printing has advantages from TCO* point of view
no complicated, time-consuming etching or plating baths
no additional integration steps with adhesive layers
support for variable data / variable deposit (inkjet)
Typical specifications
down to 5 mOhm/sq in 1 printing step (~10 µm DFT)
200 µm printing resolution (for chip mounting)
*Total Cost of Ownership

27. 27/31
Applications of nanosilver inks: antenna and capacitive sensors
Quad Industries – NXP – Enfucell
www.quad-ind.com
Capacitive sensor
www.effegibi.it/en
Capacitive sensor
www.whirlpool.co.uk/8kg--6th--sense--supreme--care--washing--machine--with--
quietest--direct--drive--motor--fscr--80424-%5BFSCR--80424%5D/859205315010/

28. 28/31
Application of combination
Agfa nano-silver ink & transparent conductive polymer ink
Touch sensors for automotive/white goods
PET with
Conductive circuitry
Orgacon™ PEDOT:PSS transparent keys
EMI shielding
With nanosilver ink, total ink deposit can be
lowered while keeping resistance target
esp. for EMI part
Due to low DFT of nanosilver layer, high
reliability interconnection with printed Orgacon
layers is obtained
Mitsubishi EK Wagon
Transparent Capacitive Switches for HVAC Controls
(courtesy Multek)

29. 29/31
Conclusions
Orgacon products expand possibilities for Printed Electronics
Conductive polymer based inks offer transparency and conductivity, plus
direct patterning methods
compatibility with flexible/formed substrates
Nanosilver based ink offer a high silver efficiency, plus
easy processing with conventional screen printing
excellent stability
support for high conductivity and/or high resolution circuitry
[< = >]

30. 30/31
Thank you !
talk2Agfa @ tabletop 5