Improved Inkjet Printing of Polydimethylsiloxane Droplets

Inkjet printing polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) has received wide interest in the field of additive manufacturing for printing flexible wearable electronics. Before depositing the PDMS on the target substrate with desired pattern, the PDMS ink must be ejected in a stable manner. One of the problems that affects the jetting quality is the satellite droplet coming with the dominate droplet during the printing process, which is known as the satellite effect. In this paper, we investigated the possibility of stable jetting of PDMS ink without the satellite effect. The cartridges with 10pl (FUJI Dimatix DMP-2850) were used to jet PDMS ink. The solvent for the preparation of PDMS ink was decane combined with toluene as a co-solvent for adjusting the physical properties of the PDMS ink. The generation of stable PDMS ink droplets was achieved by optimizing the mixture solvent of PDMS ink and the adjustment of the printing voltage waveform, which indicated the inkjet printing of PDMS is a promising method for fabricating flexible wearable electronics.