High Throughput Electrohydrodynamic-Jet Printing System

This paper discusses the design and implementation of a multi-nozzle printhead for simultaneous Electrohydrodynamic jet (E-jet) printing for high resolution devices. The E-jet process combines high resolution printing with a large variety of printing materials, making E-jet suitable for applications ranging from flexible electronics to high resolution biosensors. Throughput improvement is critical to fully realize the potential of this emerging manufacturing process. This paper addresses this need by introducing a high resolution multi-nozzle printhead. In this work, an initial characterization of the electrostatic interference introduced in the multi-nozzle design is performed and a significant decrease in printing time is demonstrated. This research shows that a 2 micron nozzle can be placed within 80 microns of another nozzle without eliciting an electrostatic interference during printing. Additionally, the use of a 3 nozzle printhead resulted in a corresponding 3 times reduction in printing time for a single device without loss of part fidelity. This work demonstrates that arrays of E-jet printheads have the potential to radically improve the throughput of the process, which will lead to new applications and improved performance for this promising technology.