• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.28 no.10
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• pp.1131-1140
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• 2011

A new rotary gravure-offset printing unit is constructed by paralleling a gravure plate cylinder, a blanket cylinder and a impression roller. A Muti-Unit Gravure-Offset Printing Press(MUGOP) equipped with a series of the 3 printing units is utilized for roll-to-roll fine printing. Its core technology is precise over-piling printing of fine patterns. The severe problems of 'slurring' and 'doubling' in typical offset printing are unavoidable, which can be eliminated by applying a soft pad-type blanket cylinder and the unique 'true rolling' technique. Nip pressure between the blanket cylinder and the plate cylinder is measured by the constant pressure control system which equipped with load cells attached on the cylinders' axes. The running circumference of the blanket cylinder is increased to reach the same circumference of the plate cylinder as the pressure increasing, so that the specifications of the blanket cylinder is determined by the relationships of its shore hardness, diameter and nip pressure. When a softer blanket is used, a blanket cylinder of smaller diameter could give higher nip pressure. Realization of the true rolling technique on the MUGOP makes multilayer printing possible as well as fine printing in printed electronics.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2009.06a
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• pp.353-354
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• 2009

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2006.05a
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• pp.583-584
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• 2006

Printing technology has begun to get into the spotlight in many ways due to the low cost effectiveness to existent semi-conductor process. It also has very useful application areas, not only paper printing but also patterning for LCD color tilter, Photovoltaic patterning, RFID antenna, OLED, and so on. In this study, an apparatus of gravure offset printing was developed for fine line width printing. The pattern was composed of $20{\mu}m$ size of continuous lines of which pitch size was $40{\mu}m$. The printed pattern shows that it is possible to make around $20{\mu}m$ line-width printing pattern. The roll-to-roll printing system for fine line-width printing based on primary experiment is presented. For testing of multi-layer printing, the system was designed to be capable of printing two different materials from each printing unit using gravure-offset printing method and have a function of alignment of two printed materials.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2010.11a
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• pp.81-82
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• 2010

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2008.06a
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• pp.961-962
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• 2008

• 한국태양에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2011.04a
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• pp.293-298
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• 2011

The most widely used method to form an electrode in industrial solar cells are screen printing. Screen printing is characterized by a relatively simple and well-known production sequence with high throughput rates. However the method is difficult to implement a fine line width of high-efficiency solar cells can not be made. The open circuit voltage(Voc) and the short circuit current density(Jsc) and fill factor(FF) need to be further improved to increase the efficiency of silicon solar cells. In this study, gravure offset printing method using the multicrystalline-silicon solar cells were fabricated. Gravure off-set printing method which can print the fine line width of finger electrode can have the ability reduce the shaded area and increase the Jsc. Moreover it can make a high aspect ratio thereby series resistance is reduced and FF is increased. Approximately $50{\mu}m$ line width with $35{\mu}m$ height was achieved. The efficiency of gravure off set was 0.7% higher compare to that of scree printing method.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.26 no.6
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• pp.462-467
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• 2013

In this paper, we analyzed the effects of doctoring process on the patterns of Ag ink in gravure off-set printing. The parameters of doctoring process were the angle and the pressure, which was represented by the depth of blade movement to the gravure roll, of doctor blade to the surface of gravure roll, and the angle of patterns engraved on the gravure roll to the doctor blade moving direction. The proper parameters were extracted for the fine patterns and they were 15 mm for the pressure, $60^{\circ}$ for the blade angle. And the angle of patterns with respect to the blade movement should be less than $40^{\circ}$ for the best results. The gravure off-set printing with the above parameters was carried out to print gate electrodes and scan bus lines of OTFT-backplane for e-paper. The line width of $50{\mu}m$ was successfully obtained. The thickness of electrodes was $2.5{\mu}m$ and the surface roughness was $0.65{\mu}m$ and the sheet resistance was $15.8{\Omega}/{\Box}$.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.28 no.10
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• pp.1146-1152
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• 2011

Ink transfer process is very important to determine quality of printed pattern, therefore its mechanism should be understood to control printing quality. Although there have been many attempts to understand ink transfer mechanism by numerical simulation and experimental studies, their model was too much simple to model realistic printing process and our understanding is not enough yet. In this paper we designed ink transfer visualization system to present flow visualization of ink transfer process for gravure offset printing. We considered rotational effect of blanket roll which is related with printing speed and used non-Newtonian fluid as working fluid such as Ag paste. For printing unit, cantilever-type blanket roll is used for convenient visualization of ink transfer. Serial images were captured continuously by using high-speed CMOS camera and long range microscope. We investigated the effects of various design parameters such as printing speed and pattern angle on the ink transfer process. We found more stretched ink filament for non-Newtonian fluid than Newtonian fluid. As increasing printing speed, length of stretched ink filament and height of break-up point are also increased. We also compared ink transfer process between CD and MD pattern and its relationship with ink transfer mechanism.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2010.11a
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• pp.71-72
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• 2010

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.22 no.9
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• pp.476-481
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• 2012

Among the various roll-to-roll printing technologies such as gravure, gravure-offset, and reverse offset printing, reverse offset printing has the advantage of fine patterning, with less than 5 ${\mu}m$ line width. However, it involves complex processes, consisting of 1) the coating process, 2) the off process, 3) the patterning process, and 4) the set process of the ink. Each process demands various ink properties, including viscosity, surface tension, stickiness, and adhesion with substrate or clich$\acute{e}$; these properties are critical factors for the printing quality of fine patterning. In this study, Ag nano ink was developed for reverse offset printing and the effect of polyvinylpyrrolidone(PVP), used as a capping agent of Ag nano particles, on the printing quality was investigated. Ag nano particles with a diameter of ~60 nm were synthesized using the conventional polyol synthesis process. Ethanol and ethylene glycol monopropyl ether(EGPE) were used together as the main solvent in order to control the drying and absorption of the solvents during the printing process. The rheological behavior, especially ink adhesion and stickiness, was controlled with washing processes that have an effect on the offset process and that played a critical role in the fine patterning. The electrical and thermal behaviors were analyzed according to the content of PVP in the Ag ink. Finally, an Ag mesh pattern with a line width of 10 ${\mu}m$ was printed using reverse offset printing; this printing showed an electrical resistivity of 36 ${\mu}{\Omega}{\cdot}cm$ after sintering at $200^{\circ}C$.