• Journal of Powder Materials
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• v.24 no.6
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• pp.464-471
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• 2017

A metal mesh TCE film is fabricated using a series of processes such as UV imprinting of a transparent trench pattern (with a width of $2-5{\mu}m$) onto a PET film, filling it with silver paste, wiping of the surface, and heat-curing the silver paste. In this work nanosized (40-50 nm) silver particles are synthesized and mixed with submicron (250-300 nm)-sized silver particles to prepare silver paste for the fabrication of metal mesh-type TCE films. The filling of these silver pastes into the patterned trench layer is examined using a specially designed filling machine and the rheological testing of the silver pastes. The wiping of the trench layer surface to remove any residual silver paste or particles is tested with various mixture solvents, and ethyl cellosolve acetate (ECA):DI water = 90:10 wt% is found to give the best result. The silver paste with 40-50 nm Ag:250-300 nm Ag in a 10:90 wt% mixture gives the highest electrical conductance. The metal mesh TCE film obtained with this silver paste in an optimized process exhibits a light transmittance of 90.4% and haze at 1.2%, which is suitable for TSP application.

• Journal of the Microelectronics and Packaging Society
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.107-112
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• 2022

In this study, a silver paste capable of UV curing without using any solvent was developed. The viscosity and viscoelasticity of the silver paste developed as a solvent-free type were measured. And after printing the pattern by screen printing, an electrode coating film was formed by UV curing. Conductivity, pencil hardness, and adhesive force of the formed electrode coating film were evaluated. Finally, the curing characteristics of the electrode coating film were evaluated by TGA and FT-IR. Summarizing these results, in terms of conductivity, adhesion, and curing characteristics, it was found that Paste (4), that is, silver paste obtained by mixing 1.2 ㎛ spherical silver powder and 50 nm silver powder at 72:8% had the best physical properties.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Heat Treatment
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.219-224
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• 2006

Silver paste with low sintered temperature has been developed in order to apply electronic parts, such as bus electrode, address electrode in PDP (Plasma Display Panel) with large screen area. In this study, nano-sized silver particles with 10-30 nm were synthesized from silver nitrate ($AgNO_3$) solution by chemical reduction method and silver paste with low sintered temperature was prepared by mixing silver nanoparticles, conventional silver powder with the particle size 1.6 um and Pb-free frit. Conductive thick film from silver paste was fabricated by screen printing on alumina substrate. After firing at $540^{\circ}C$, the cross section and surface morphology of the thick films were analyzed by FE-SEM. Also, the sheet resistivity of the fired thick films was measured using the four-point technique.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.18 no.5
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• pp.283-288
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• 2008

The effect of sintering aids and glass-frit on the densification and resistivity of silver paste was investigated in an effort to enhance the sintered density and electrical conductivity of the silver electrode. To prepare Pb-free silver paste for use at low sintering temperatures, two commercial silver powders ($0.8\;{\mu}m$ and $1.6\;{\mu}m$ in size) and 5wt.% lab-synthesized nanoparticles (30-50 nm in size) as a sintering aids were mixed with 3 wt.% or 6 wt.% of glass frit ($Bi_2O_3$-based) using a solvent and three roll mills. Thick films from the silver paste were prepared by means of screen printing on an alumina substrate followed by sintering at $450^{\circ}C$ to $550^{\circ}C$ for 15 min. Silver thick films from the paste with bimodal particles showed a high packing density, high densification during sintering and low resistivity compared to films created using monomodal particles. Silver nanoparticles as a sintering aid enhanced the densification of commercial silver powder at a low sintering temperature and induced low resistivity in the silver thick film. The glass frit also enhanced the densification of the films through liquid phase sintering; however, the optimum content of glass frit is necessary to ensure that a dense microstructure and low resistivity are obtained, as excessive glass-frit can provoke low conductivity due to the interconnection of the glass phase with the high resistivity between the silver particles.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2007.06a
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• pp.396-396
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• 2007

We investigated the liquid crystal (LC) aligning capabilities and electrooptical characteristics of semi-transparent silver paste electrodes substituting indium tin oxide (ITO) electrodes. Experimental results show that a uniform vertical LC alignment and a large pretilt angle were achieved using the semi-transparent silver paste. The vertical alignment mode based on the semi-transparent silver paste electrodes showed appropriate electro-optical characteristics and a high transparency in comparison with that based on the ITO electrodes. These results indicate that the semi-transparent silver paste electrodes of liquid crystal displays could substitute the ITO electrodes.

• New & Renewable Energy
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.18-23
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• 2012

The screen printing has been widely used to form silver electrodes in solar cell device due to their simplicity of process. However, the wavy and irregular surface which is believed to be originated from a screen mask mesh and thixotropic characteristics of paste on screen printing process is well-known to give a negative effect on solar cell efficiency. The dispensing method that the silver paste is extruded through micro nozzle under a moderate pressure and coated on substrate can form the silver electrode without any wavy surface. In this study, we optimize the composition of silver paste and develop paste blending condition based on the thixotropic behavior of paste. The optimized paste shows a large thixotropic loop area which is related to an aspect ratio of electrode line and has the viscosity of 40 $Pa{\cdot}s$ at 40 s-1. The electrode line we finally obtainis 67.2 ${\mu}m$ in width and has an aspect ratio of 0.277.

• Progress in Superconductivity and Cryogenics
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.1-4
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• 2009

Mechanical and electrical properties of silver stabilizer layer of coated conductor, which as prepared with nano silver paste as starting materials, have been investigated, Nano silver paste was coated on a YBCO film by dip coating process at a diping speed of 20m/min. Coated film was dried in air and heat treated at $400{\sim}700^{\circ}C$ in an oxygen atmosphere. Adhesion strength between YBCO and silver layer was measured by a tape est(ASTM D 3359). Hardness and electrical conductivity of the samples were measured by pencil hardness test (ASTM D 3363) and volume resistance test by LORESTA-GP (MITSHUBISHD, respectively. The sample heat-treated at $500^{\circ}C$ showed poor adhesion 1B, but samples heat treated at higher than $600^{\circ}C$ showed enhanced adhesion of 5B. The silver layer heat-treated at $700^{\circ}C$ showed the high hardness value larger than 9 H, low volume resistance, surface resistance value as well as superior current carrying capacity compared to sputtered silver. SEM observations showed that a dense silver layer was formed with a thickness of about $2{\mu}m$. Dip coated silver layer prepared by using nano silver paste showed superior electrical and mechanical characteristics.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2010.11a
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• pp.53.2-53.2
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• 2010

In this study, we focused on our specialized electrode process for Si back-contact crystalline solar cell. It is different from other well-known back-contact cell process for thermal aspect and specialized process. In general, aluminum makes ohmic contact to the Si wafer and acts as a back surface reflector. And, silver is used for low series resistance metal grid lines. Aluminum was sputtered onto back side of wafer. Next, silver is directly patterned on the wafer by screen printing. The sputtered aluminum was removed by wet etching process after rear silver electrode was formed. In this process, the silver paste must have good printability, electrical property and adhesion strength, before and after the aluminum etching process. Silver paste also needs low temperature firing characteristics to reduce the thermal budget. So it was seriously collected by the products of several company of regarding low temperature firing (below $250^{\circ}C$) and aluminum etching endurance. First of all, silver pastes for etching selectivity were selected to evaluate as low temperature firing condition, electrical properties and adhesive strength. Using the nano- and micron-sized silver paste, so called hybrid type, made low temperature firing. So we could minimize the thermal budget in metallization process. Also the adhesion property greatly depended on the composition of paste, especially added resin and inorganic additives. In this paper, we will show that the metallization process of back-contact solar cell was realized as optimized nano-paste characteristics.

• Korean Journal of Metals and Materials
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• v.46 no.8
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• pp.516-523
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• 2008

The effect of glass-frit size on microstructural evolution and electrical resistance of conductive silver paste was investigated. Silver paste was prepared by mixing 70 wt% commercial silver powder with $1.6{\mu}m$, 3 wt% Bi based glass-frit and 27 wt% organic vehicle. Two different sizes of glass-frit were obtained by ball-milling of commercial glass-frit ($3{\mu}m$) for 3 and 5 days, which had an average particle size of 1.0 and $0.5{\mu}m$. The smaller glass-frit was melt at low sintered temperature and rapidly spread between the silver particles, which is induced the dense networking among silver particles and strong adhesiveness to $Al_2O_3$ substrate. The silver film with smaller glass-frit sintered at $500^{\circ}C$ showed the small pore size and low porosity resulting in low electrical resistivity of $4{\mu}{\Omega}cm$.

• Macromolecular Research
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.391-398
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• 2004

Thick-film photolithography is a new technology that combines lithography processes, such as exposure and development, with the conventional thick-film process applied to screen-printing. In this study, we developed a low-temperature cofireable silver paste applicable for thick-film processing to form fine lines using photolitho-graphic technologies. The optimum paste composition for forming fine lines was investigated. The effect of processing parameters, such as the exposing dose, had on the fine-line resolution was also investigated. As the result, we found that the type of polymer and monomer, the silver powder loading, and the amount of photoinitiator were the main factors affecting the resolution of the fine lines. The developed photoimageable silver paste was printed on a low-temperature cofireable green sheet, dried, exposed, developed in an aqueous process, laminated, and then fired. Our results demonstrate that thick-film fine lines having widths < 20 $\mu\textrm{m}$ can be obtained after cofiring.