The demand for printed electronics, especially sensors, is constantly growing over the last few years. Standard printing techniques like screen or inkjet printing are widely used with great success. Most of the substrates are two dimensional like foils printed in a either roll to roll or sheet to sheet process.
Often these substrates have to be connected with the actual surface whe-re the function is needed for instance via an extra gluing or laminating process. In contrast, the binder innovation and technology center is using an alternative approach. For three dimensional or structured substrates, pad printing is used. The function is directly printed on the substrate wi-thout any additional process. During the printing process, the paste is transferred from a printing form (cliché) via a silicon pad directly on the substrate.
In order to achieve a reproducible and stable functional layer special needs of the printing pastes in terms of viscosity and homogenous preparation are required. Typical line widths are 80 - 100 µm and a layer thickness of 8-15 µm. Applications range from force and touch sensors as well as heating devices or bioelectrodes.