Electrostatic Spray Deposition Technique for Thin Film Fabrication

Electrospray deposition (ESD) technique is fast finding its applicability in the field of thin film device manufacturing processes and the ease and cost efficiency attached to ESD process with possible integration with batch manufacturing technologies is the potential future of thin film device manufacturing. As the name suggests, the deposition phenomenon should solely be a spray achieved through electrostatic forces. In fact it is an imbalance between the surface forces arising because of the surface tension of the liquid to be sprayed and Maxwell stresses which are induced because of the electric field, that pull the liquid downwards from the capillary into a stable jet which further disintegrates into smaller droplets because of coulomb forces and hence a cloud of charged, mono-dispersed and extremely diminutive (sometimes up to femtolitres) droplets is achieved. The present talk is going to be exclusively about the electrospray process concepts, generation and possible applications.