Aerosol Jet Printing Nanomaterials for Micron-Scale Acoustofluidic and Thermal Applications

Abstract

Recent advancements in aerosol jet printing nanomaterial-based electronics have unlocked new possibilities: custom conductive films can be printed and immediately applied without any costly or time-consuming post-processing steps involving harsh chemicals, heating, or vacuum. Silver nanowires (AgNWs), graphene, and Poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) polystyrene sulfonate (PEDOT:PSS) were explored as potential active materials in printed devices. Surface acoustic wave (SAW) devices were printed for microfluidic applications and resistive thermal detectors (RTDs) were printed for thermal actuation and temperature sensing.Aerosol jet printing is extraordinarily versatile, with some promise for scalability, but print quality, process control, and device-to-device uniformity are major and commonly reported issues. Print parameter optimization led to printing a series of nanomaterial-based interdigitated transducers (IDTs) with sufficient resolution to achieve targeted frequencies ranging from 5-20Mhz. Six AgNW IDTs, having 100?? electrode widths, exhibited consistent SAW actuation behavior with a measured resonant frequency equivalent to 9.89 ±0.09 MHz. Furthermore, eighteen microscale resistors were fabricated for mild localized heating and precise temperature sensing, each having a resistance of 54.0 ±4.6 Ω . With continuous operation over seven days, the average temperature of the devices was maintained at over 50C and decreased by only 1.2 ±0.4 C .