Terahertz technology for quality inspection of printed electronics

用于印刷电子质量检测的太赫兹技术

• 批准号: 571263-2022
• 负责人: Blanchard, François
• 金额: $ 1.46万
• 依托单位: École de technologie supérieure
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Idea to Innovation
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2021-01-01 至 2022-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=729116
• 关键词: Terahertz; technology; quality; inspection; printed

Printed electronics (PE) is an emerging technology for manufacturing customized electronics devices, e.g., solar cells, batteries, sensors in a large volume using roll-to-roll presses. However, up to now, there is no equipment that allows in-line inspection on industrial roll-to-roll presses. Currently, to perform the characterization of printed electronics, the PE manufacturer must resort to ex-situ laboratory analysis methods, i.e., outside the production line, which requires press shutdown to extract a sample for investigation. In addition, these characterization methods are destructive and require extensive analysis and processing time. The lack of an in-line quality control tool is a major drawback: producing prints that do not meet the target performance generates significant monetary and time losses. Consequently, the amount of waste, due to the lack of in-line quality inspection, represents a potential source of contamination when recovering or discarding such e-waste, causing irreversible environmental damage. In 2019, approximately 54 megatons of e-waste were generated, with an alarming increase of 2 megatons per year. Without the rapid arrival of alternative solutions to disrupt the increase of e-waste, the acceleration of the use of printed electronics in commodities will become increasingly costly and may eventually need to be limited to luxury goods. Our product consists of an in-line detection device that monitors and informs in real-time the PE manufacturer concerning the characteristics of the print as it is being pressed. To do this, we propose to integrate printed quality control bars (QCB) analyze them using a novel approach called terahertz (THz) spectroscopy. This solution allow for continuous, non-contact quality control of printed electronics without necessitating a press shutdown and dramatically reducing e-waste.

印刷电子 (PE) 是一种新兴技术，用于使用卷对卷印刷机大批量制造定制电子设备，例如太阳能电池、电池、传感器。然而，到目前为止，还没有可以对工业卷对卷印刷机进行在线检测的设备。目前，为了对印刷电子产品进行表征，PE制造商必须采用异位实验室分析方法，即在生产线之外，这需要关闭印刷机以提取样品进行研究。此外，这些表征方法具有破坏性，需要大量的分析和处理时间。缺乏在线质量控制工具是一个主要缺点：生产不符合目标性能的印刷品会造成巨大的金钱和时间损失。因此，由于缺乏在线质量检测，废物量在回收或丢弃此类电子废物时成为潜在的污染源，造成不可逆转的环境破坏。 2019年，产生了约54兆吨电子垃圾，每年增加2兆吨，令人震惊。如果没有替代解决方案的迅速出现来阻止电子垃圾的增加，印刷电子产品在商品中的加速使用将变得越来越昂贵，并且最终可能需要仅限于奢侈品。 我们的产品由一个在线检测设备组成，该设备可实时监控 PE 制造商并通知其压制时印刷品的特性。为此，我们建议使用一种称为太赫兹 (THz) 光谱的新颖方法集成印刷质量控制条 (QCB) 对它们进行分析。该解决方案可以对印刷电子产品进行连续、非接触式的质量控制，而无需关闭印刷机，并显着减少电子废物。