Electro-mechanical evaluation of Ag trace patterns by ink-jet printing

Ink-jet printing is a novel method to promote electrical circuit by printing metal nanoparticles onto flexible substrates. This novel method allows to develop sensor that can be used to measure deformation, and also to measure the life cycle of a material. The conductive ink printed directly onto flexible surface allows to evaluate the behaviour of the substrate material under mechanical solicitation. The present work aims to evaluate electro-mechanically the conductive trace obtained by silver nano-particles. The trace consists of a line of 25 mm equivalent to one grid of a printed strain gauge. The amount of layer and the width of the trace was evaluated in order to selected the best set-up, in which is the sample that have low level of roughness and satisfactory reproducibility of the electrical resistance. Cyclic bending fatigue test were carried out on selected samples with two different displacement applied. Ag printed trace submitted to 4 of mm displacement presented life cycle 50% less than displacement of 2 mm.