Patent Application
20210084770
Many electronic circuits and devices have conductors and other exposed metal components formed with printed metal inks. The exposed metal may include circuit traces, conductive paths, radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags, antennas, etc. The exposed metal often has a relatively large surface area that is susceptible to oxidation and corrosion, which is detrimental to electrical performance and longevity. Additionally, exposed metal formed by nanoparticle inks are often exposed to corrosive liquids and gases, which can further deteriorate the components.
The background discussion is intended to provide information related to the present invention which is not necessarily prior art.
The present invention solves the above-described problems and other problems and provides a distinct advance in the art of nanoparticle printing. More particularly, embodiments of the present invention provide methods for precise coating of conductive material formed with nanoparticle ink.
A method of forming an electronic circuit component according to an embodiment of the present invention broadly comprises (a) depositing nanoparticle ink comprising conductive material on a substrate; (b) curing the nanoparticle ink to form cured nanoparticle ink; (c) subjecting the cured nanoparticle ink to a first precursor gas to form a first layer of precursor material on the cured nanoparticle ink; and (d) subjecting the first layer of precursor material to a second precursor gas so that the first layer of precursor material reacts with the second precursor gas to form an oxide layer on the cured nanoparticle ink.
In some embodiments, the method may further comprise repeating steps (c) and (d) with the same precursor gases or different precursor gases until the one or more oxide layers is at a desired thickness to protect the nanoparticle ink. This allows small structures formed with nanoparticle ink to be completely protected in a precise manner and without any pin holes.
This summary is provided to introduce a selection of concepts in a simplified form that are further described below in the detailed description. This summary is not intended to identify key features or essential features of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intended to be used to limit the scope of the claimed subject matter. Other aspects and advantages of the present invention will be apparent from the following detailed description of the embodiments and the accompanying drawing figures.
Embodiments of the present invention are described in detail below with reference to the attached drawing figures, wherein:
The drawing figures do not limit the present invention to the specific embodiments disclosed and described herein. The drawings are not necessarily to scale, emphasis instead being placed upon clearly illustrating the principles of the invention.
The following detailed description of the invention references the accompanying drawings that illustrate specific embodiments in which the invention can be practiced. The embodiments are intended to describe aspects of the invention in sufficient detail to enable those skilled in the art to practice the invention. Other embodiments can be utilized and changes can be made without departing from the scope of the present invention. The following detailed description is, therefore, not to be taken in a limiting sense. The scope of the present invention is defined only by the appended claims, along with the full scope of equivalents to which such claims are entitled.
In this description, references to “one embodiment”, “an embodiment”, or “embodiments” mean that the feature or features being referred to are included in at least one embodiment of the technology. Separate references to “one embodiment”, “an embodiment”, or “embodiments” in this description do not necessarily refer to the same embodiment and are also not mutually exclusive unless so stated and/or except as will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art from the description. For example, a feature, structure, act, etc. described in one embodiment may also be included in other embodiments, but is not necessarily included. Thus, the present technology can include a variety of combinations and/or integrations of the embodiments described herein.
Embodiments of the present invention comprise methods of forming coated circuit components 10A, 10B comprising conductive material 12A, 12B formed with nanoparticle ink. As depicted in
Exposed nanoparticle ink is prone to corrosion and oxidation, which can be detrimental to the performance of the circuit components 10A, 10B. Because many applications using nanoparticle ink involve precise and relatively small structures, current solutions for protecting circuit components 10A, 10B from corrosion and oxidation are limited.
Turning to
The chamber 18 is configured to facilitate the ALD process therein. The platform 20 is operable to support the circuit component 10A in the chamber 18. The gas sources 22, 24, 26 may store different gases used in the ALD process. For example, one of the gas sources 22 may store a first precursor gas, one of the gas sources 26 may store a second precursor gas, and one of the gas sources 24 may store a carrier gas. The precursor gases vary depending on the desired oxide to be formed on the conductive material 12A of the circuit component 10A. For example, to form Al2O3, the first precursor gas may comprise trimethyl aluminum and the second precursor gas may comprise water. The carrier gas may comprise an inert gas, such as argon, nitrogen, etc.
The system 16 may be configured to direct the first precursor gas into the chamber 18 to subject the conductive material 12A to the first precursor gas and form a first layer of precursor gas material on the conductive material 12A. The carrier gas may then be directed into the chamber 18 to purge the chamber 18 of remaining first precursor gas. The second precursor gas may then be directed into the chamber 18 to subject the first layer of precursor gas material to the second precursor gas. The first layer of precursor gas material may react with the second precursor gas to form a first layer of oxide material 28, as depicted in
The system 16 may be configured to repeat this process one or more times forming multiple layers of oxide 30, 32, 34, as depicted in
Turning to
The method 100 is described below, for ease of reference, as being executed by exemplary devices and components introduced with the embodiments illustrated in
Referring to step 101, nanoparticle ink is deposited on a substrate to form a circuit component. The nanoparticle ink may comprise copper, silver, gold, platinum, and/or other conductive material and may be deposited via an extrusion needle or the like. The substrate may comprise dielectric layer, glass-reinforced epoxy, plastic, and/or other materials. The nanoparticle ink may be deposited to form an antenna, a circuit trace, a bus, a radio frequency identification tag, a portion of a conductive pad for a surface mounted device, a portion of a via pad, or the like. This step 101 may include curing the nanoparticle ink.
Referring to step 102, a first oxide layer is formed on an exposed portion of the deposited nanoparticle ink via ALD. The oxide layer may have a thickness of 10 nm up to 100 nm, or greater, and may include Al2O3, TiO2, HfO, and/or HfO2. The oxide layer formed via ALD provides a coating that is conformal to the exposed portion of the nanoparticle ink and maintains electrical performance of the component even after long periods of time and under adverse environmental conditions. This step may include directing a first precursor gas into a chamber, or otherwise at the substrate, to subject the nanoparticle ink to the first precursor gas and form a first layer of precursor gas material on the nanoparticle ink. A carrier gas may be directed into the chamber to purge the chamber of remaining first precursor gas. A second precursor gas may be directed into the chamber, or otherwise at the substrate, to subject the first layer of precursor gas material to the second precursor gas. The first layer of precursor gas material may react with the second precursor gas to form a first layer of oxide material. The carrier gas may be directed into the chamber to purge remaining second precursor gas.
The method 100 may include additional, less, or alternate steps and/or device(s), including those discussed elsewhere herein. For example, the method 100 may further include repeating step 102 one or more times to form multiple layers of oxide until the oxide on the nanoparticle ink is at a desired thickness. This may include directing one or more different types of precursor gases into the chamber, or otherwise at the substrate, for forming different types of oxides on the nanoparticle ink. For example, each layer of oxide may comprise a different type of oxide. In some embodiments, each layer of oxide may be the same type of oxide. Each layer may have a thickness of about 10 nm.
In this description, references to “one embodiment”, “an embodiment”, or “embodiments” mean that the feature or features being referred to are included in at least one embodiment of the technology. Separate references to “one embodiment”, “an embodiment”, or “embodiments” in this description do not necessarily refer to the same embodiment and are also not mutually exclusive unless so stated and/or except as will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art from the description. For example, a feature, structure, act, etc. described in one embodiment may also be included in other embodiments, but is not necessarily included. Thus, the current technology can include a variety of combinations and/or integrations of the embodiments described herein.
Although the present application sets forth a detailed description of numerous different embodiments, it should be understood that the legal scope of the description is defined by the words of the claims set forth at the end of this patent and equivalents. The detailed description is to be construed as exemplary only and does not describe every possible embodiment since describing every possible embodiment would be impractical. Numerous alternative embodiments may be implemented, using either current technology or technology developed after the filing date of this patent, which would still fall within the scope of the claims.
Throughout this specification, plural instances may implement components, operations, or structures described as a single instance. Although individual operations of one or more methods are illustrated and described as separate operations, one or more of the individual operations may be performed concurrently, and nothing requires that the operations be performed in the order illustrated. Structures and functionality presented as separate components in example configurations may be implemented as a combined structure or component. Similarly, structures and functionality presented as a single component may be implemented as separate components. These and other variations, modifications, additions, and improvements fall within the scope of the subject matter herein.
The various operations of example methods described herein may be performed, at least partially, by one or more processing elements that are temporarily configured (e.g., by software) or permanently configured to perform the relevant operations. Whether temporarily or permanently configured, such processing elements may constitute processing element-implemented modules that operate to perform one or more operations or functions. The modules referred to herein may, in some example embodiments, comprise processing element-implemented modules.
Similarly, the methods or routines described herein may be at least partially processing element-implemented. For example, at least some of the operations of a method may be performed by one or more processing elements or processing element-implemented hardware modules. The performance of certain of the operations may be distributed among the one or more processing elements, not only residing within a single machine, but deployed across a number of machines. In some example embodiments, the processing elements may be located in a single location (e.g., within a home environment, an office environment or as a server farm), while in other embodiments the processing elements may be distributed across a number of locations.
As used herein, the terms “comprises,” “comprising,” “includes,” “including,” “has,” “having” or any other variation thereof, are intended to cover a non-exclusive inclusion. For example, a process, method, article, or apparatus that comprises a list of elements is not necessarily limited to only those elements but may include other elements not expressly listed or inherent to such process, method, article, or apparatus.
Although the invention has been described with reference to the embodiments illustrated in the attached drawing figures, it is noted that equivalents may be employed and substitutions made herein without departing from the scope of the invention as recited in the claims.
This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 62/899,857, filed Sep. 13, 2019, entitled CONFORMAL COATING FOR ELECTRONIC DEVICES AND METHODS OF COATING, the entire disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference herein.
This invention was made with Government support under Contract No.: DE-NA-0002839 awarded by the United States Department of Energy/National Nuclear Security Administration. The Government has certain rights in the invention.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 62899857 | Sep 2019 | US |
