Conductive inks
Conductive inks
(OP)
Afternoon all,
Would anyone have any information with regards to conductive inks or any other process that could potentially replace the standard FR4 material ?
Regards,
Vincent.
Would anyone have any information with regards to conductive inks or any other process that could potentially replace the standard FR4 material ?
Regards,
Vincent.





RE: Conductive inks
RE: Conductive inks
We are working in the automotive industry and we are developping inductive sensors that require TX and RX antenna.
I was wondering whether conductive ink is already used in the industry. Also what sort of conductivity do we get out of it. Is it as good as copper ? And what are the techniques to jet conductive ink on material ? I know inkjet industry is getting slowly, but is not quite there yet. (Xaar, Specctra...).
And lastly, who are the "conductive ink" people ? I have one name or two in the UK, but maybe you guys could enlight me..
Cheers,
V.
RE: Conductive inks
I hate to be a pest, but a search on Google for "conductive ink" got over 4000 hits. Dow Corning makes conductive inks. Also, you could use some of the metal systems for hybrids, but I can't imagine either approach being cheaper than standard copper on FR-4.
Conductive inks require either a dispenser system, which is slow, which impacts cost, or silk screen. This has to be followed by a cure, which is slow, which impacts cost.
Most conductive pastes and inks cannot tolerate standard reflow soldering, which means you have to use low-temp solder paste, which is slow, requires a longer cure cycle, which impacts cost.
TTFN
RE: Conductive inks
Copper is a metal and therefore conducts well. Carbon loaded inks are not very conductive and would be useless for power tracks. Silver loaded inks are conductive, but more expensive than copper. Bear in mind the ease of soldering to copper which may not occur with any other sort of conductive ink material. The other problem is cracking due to mechanical flexure and temperature cycling.
If the manufacturer you chose (or your own plant) decide to go this route, expect months if not years of process tuning to get the process reliable.
RE: Conductive inks
If you're looking for TX/RX antennas, consider pre-made coils of thin copper wire glued to an FR2 board. It "may" be cheaper than etching the antennas on FR4, and won't be as subject to shrinkage/expansion as if you etched directly to FR2.
RE: Conductive inks
There is a spray also, I used it to make a 4" square patch antenna and measured very different results in an ohmic measurement across the diagonals, 0.5 to 4 ohm.
What are your antenna spec's if you don't mind me asking (I understand completely if you can't answer, but being an antenna type, I'm curious if I could come up with a cheap alternative antenna solution)
kch
RE: Conductive inks
RE: Conductive inks
You might luck-out and find a newer ink that will work. However, you indicate you are building an inductive sensor which leads me to thin you are putting the sensor in a more hostile suspension of the susupension or engine.