Photonic curing
Photonic Curing
Photonic Curing is the high-temperature thermal processing of a thin film using pulsed light from a flashlamp. When this transient processing is done on a low temperature substrate such as plastic or paper, it is possible to attain a significantly higher temperature than the substrate can ordinarily withstand under an equilibrium heating source such as an oven.[1] Since the rate of most thermal curing processes (drying, sintering, reacting, annealing, etc.) generally increase exponentially with temperature (i.e. they obey the Arrhenius equation)[2], this process allows materials to be cured much more rapidly (in about 1 millisecond) than with an oven which can take minutes[3].
Photonic curing is used as a thermal processing technique in the manufacturing of printed electronics as it allows the substitution of glass or ceramics with inexpensive and flexible substrate materials such as polymers or paper[4] The processing and pulse rate can be fast enough to allow curing on the fly for roll-to-roll processing beyond 100 m/min.[1]
Photonic curing can be demonstrated with a simple flash from a camera strobe. Industrial photonic curing systems are typically water cooled and pulse very rapidly.[5] They have controls and features similar to industrial lasers. Material processing rates can exceed 1m2/sec.[6]
Photonic curing is similar to Pulse Thermal Processing in which a plasma arc lamp is used. In the case of photonic curing, the radiant power is higher and the pulse lengths are shorter. The total radiant exposure per pulse is less with photonic curing, but the pulse rate is much faster.
Photonic Curing was developed by Nanotechnologies, Inc. (now NovaCentrix) and is incorporated into their PulseForge® tools.[7] Xenon Corporation markets photonic curing tools under the brand name Sinteron™.[8] Dresden Thin Film has also marketed capabilities based on the same physics.[9] The term “Photonic Curing” was coined at the 2006 NSTI conference by Kurt Schroder and is sometimes referred to as “photosintering” since he initially sintered nanosilver and nanocopper inks to form conductive traces on plastic and paper.[1]
References
- ^ a b c K. A. Schroder, S. C. McCool, W. R. Furlan, Technical Proceedings of the 2006 NSTI Nanotechnology Conference and Trade Show, 3, 198-201, 2006.
- ^ Arrhenius needs a reference.
- ^ Oven needs a reference.
- ^ J. West, M. Carter, S. Smith, and J. Sears, Technical Proceedings of the 2010 NSTI Nanotechnology Conference and Expo, 2, 210-213, 2010.
- ^ US Pat. #7,820,097.
- ^ http://www.ms.ornl.gov/mpg/pdf/researchthrusts/AP_PTPposterv2.pdf.
- ^ http://www.novacentrix.com/product/pulseforge.php
- ^ http://www.xenoncorp.com/print_mkt.html
- ^ http://www.thin-film.de/fileadmin/medien/Website/Dokumente/Download_Center/Technische_Informationen/No2_FLA.pdf