Wide-width aerosol jet printing system and method for high-throughput preparation of films with extremely low aspect ratio

Abstract

The invention provides a wide aerosol jet printing system and method for high-throughput preparation of extremely low aspect ratio films. The system is composed of a high-throughput feeding module, a wide aerosol spray head, a visual module, a curing module, a motion platform and an industrial personal computer. Wherein the wide aerosol spray head adopts a flat outlet structure, limited expansion of aerosol micro-droplet cloud in the long-axis direction and focusing collimation of aerosol micro-droplet cloud in the short-axis direction are realized through coordinated regulation and control of carrier gas and sheath gas, and wide aerosol jet flow with specific width and stable collimation is generated, so that the single-channel deposition efficiency is remarkably improved. A staggered deposition strategy based on deposition section characteristics is further introduced, in-plane structure and functional anisotropy generated in the expansion manufacturing process is effectively inhibited, and a technical basis is provided for application of a high-performance thin film in the fields of flexible electronics, biosensing, energy devices and the like.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] This invention relates to the field of additive manufacturing technology, and in particular to a wide-format aerosol jet printing system and method for high-throughput fabrication of films with extremely low aspect ratios. Background Technology

[0002] Functional thin film structures have been widely used in advanced engineering systems due to their excellent mechanical compliance and adaptability to non-planar structures. Their low aspect ratio significantly improves the electrical and thermal conductivity at the interface, making them a key building block for developing next-generation lightweight, high-performance functional devices. However, achieving scalable manufacturing of uniform, high-quality thin films in different material systems remains challenging. Traditional coating technologies are relatively mature in large-area uniform deposition and are suitable for continuous, large-scale manufacturing, but they typically lack spatial selectivity and patterning capabilities. In contrast, additive manufacturing technology, with its strong patterning capabilities and wide material compatibility, still suffers from low deposition throughput and poor structural uniformity in the scalable manufacturing of low aspect ratio structures. Balancing manufacturing accuracy and efficiency has become a common challenge that urgently needs to be overcome in the field of thin film manufacturing.

[0003] Aerosol jet printing (AJP), a non-contact, digitally driven additive manufacturing technology, atomizes functional inks into droplet clouds with a diameter of 2–5 μm. These droplets are then aerodynamically focused to form an aerosol jet, enabling the controlled shaping of target functional structures. AJP exhibits several advantages in the construction of low aspect ratio functional thin films: First, its excellent vertical deposition accuracy allows for submicron-level thickness deposition (down to 100 nm), meeting the requirements for ultra-low aspect ratio film construction. Second, its independently adjustable atomization and transport mechanisms make the material deposition process highly controllable, facilitating the optimization of material spatial distribution and functional adjustment. The flight speed of aerosol microdroplets can reach up to 50 m / s, supporting high-throughput patterned manufacturing. Furthermore, AJP supports in-situ mixing of multiple functional materials within the aerosol phase, enabling multi-material synergistic deposition and compositional gradient construction. This significantly shortens the material development cycle for functional thin films, providing a highly programmable technology platform for the fabrication of low-profile, high-performance functional thin films. Currently, AJP technology mainly focuses on scaling and adjusting feature dimensions, and lacks effective control over the shape of the deposition cross section. This limitation is particularly prominent for low aspect ratio functional films: the cylindrical jet generated by the circular nozzle tends to form a linear deposition path, and micro-voids are easily generated when stacked laterally, which limits the overall structural uniformity and functional continuity of the film. Furthermore, line-by-line deposition also leads to significant structural and functional anisotropy, further affecting the functional performance of the film.

[0004] Therefore, there is an urgent need to develop a wide-format aerosol jet printing system and method for high-throughput fabrication of films with extremely low aspect ratios. Summary of the Invention

[0005] The purpose of this invention is to provide a wide-format aerosol jet printing system and method for high-throughput fabrication of films with extremely low aspect ratios, in order to solve the problems existing in the prior art.

[0006] The technical solution adopted to achieve the purpose of this invention is as follows: a wide-width aerosol jet printing system for high-throughput fabrication of films with extremely low aspect ratios, comprising a high-throughput feeding module, a wide-width aerosol nozzle, a vision module, a curing module, a motion platform, and an industrial control computer.

[0007] The high-throughput feeding module atomizes the functional ink material into aerosol microdroplets and stably delivers them to the wide-width aerosol nozzle under set flow and pressure conditions.

[0008] The wide-width aerosol nozzle has an internal aerosol jet channel. The outlet of the aerosol jet channel has a flattened cross-section. The aerosol jet channel focuses the aerosol microdroplets to generate a stable and collimated wide-width aerosol jet, which is then guided to the printing substrate.

[0009] The vision module is used to monitor the deposition process of wide-width aerosol jets on the printed substrate and acquire deposition morphology data.

[0010] The curing module performs in-situ or stepwise curing of the deposited functional ink material to promote material densification, phase change, and interface assembly.

[0011] The motion platform is used to support the printing substrate and move according to a preset scanning trajectory.

[0012] The high-throughput feeding module, wide-width aerosol nozzle, vision module, curing module, and motion platform are all electrically connected to an industrial control computer. The industrial control computer is used to coordinate the wide-width aerosol jet printing process parameters to achieve high-throughput patterned deposition of functional thin films.

[0013] Furthermore, the aspect ratio of the aerosol jet channel is not less than 2:1. Fluid constraint is released in the length direction, while fluid focusing is maintained in the width direction, generating a wide-width aerosol jet that is laterally controllable and longitudinally collimated.

[0014] Furthermore, the outlet cross-section of the aerosol beam channel can be elliptical, rectangular, trapezoidal, straight-sided elliptical, rounded-corner rectangular, lens-shaped, pincushion-shaped, or slit-shaped. The length of the outlet cross-section is 2–10 mm, and the width is 0.2–1 mm.

[0015] Furthermore, the printing substrate includes a transferable medium or a target functional substrate. When the printing substrate is a transferable medium, a functional thin film can be prepared on the transferable medium and then assembled onto the surface of the target functional substrate by transfer or attachment. When the printing substrate is a target functional substrate, the functional thin film is formed directly on the target functional substrate by in-situ printing, achieving in-situ integration.

[0016] Furthermore, the functional ink material is a solution or dispersion system with good atomization performance. The functional ink material includes a functional material, a main solvent, and a co-solvent. The functional material is one or more of the following: metallic materials, inorganic non-metallic materials, organic polymer materials, or composite material systems.

[0017] Furthermore, the functional thin film structure is a single regular structure, a continuously varying structure, a gradient structure, or an arrayed structure with low aspect ratio characteristics.

[0018] This invention also discloses a wide-format aerosol jet printing method for high-throughput fabrication of films with extremely low aspect ratios based on the above system, comprising the following steps:

[0019] S1: Functional ink and printing substrate preparation: Configure functional ink materials with good atomization performance and perform surface pretreatment on the printing substrate.

[0020] S2: Wide-width aerosol jet formation. The flow rates of carrier gas and sheath gas are adjusted according to the preset printing focus ratio until the flow field in the system is stable. After passing through the high-throughput feeding module and the wide-width aerosol nozzle, a wide-width aerosol jet with a specific width and stable collimation is formed.

[0021] S3: Acquisition of sedimentary cross-section features. Under the set printing parameters, the visual module acquires sedimentary morphology feature data and constructs the sedimentary cross-section contour feature curve.

[0022] S4: Staggered deposition strategy, which uses a combination of inter-row and inter-layer staggered scanning path design to perform multi-channel and multi-layer deposition, reducing the anisotropy of the depositional structure.

[0023] S5: Functionalization processing, through synchronous or stepwise curing via the curing module, promotes the phase change of functional ink materials and the assembly process of heterogeneous material interfaces.

[0024] S6: Repeat steps S4 and S5 until the functional film is manufactured.

[0025] Furthermore, the printing parameters include platform movement speed, nozzle-to-substrate spacing, carrier gas flow rate, sheath gas flow rate, and curing temperature. The morphological feature data include effective printed linewidth LW, maximum printed linewidth PW, overspray width OW, and deposition cross-sectional profile feature curve.

[0026] Furthermore, the inter-row scanning spacing S of the staggered deposition strategy is preferably selected as follows: The optimal value for interlayer offset ∆ is... .

[0027] The present invention also discloses a functional thin film prepared according to the above method. The functional thin film has an aspect ratio of less than 1:1000 and exhibits high in-plane isotropy in both structure and function.

[0028] The technical effects of this invention are beyond doubt:

[0029] A. High-throughput printing capability: By introducing a wide-width aerosol jet, this invention significantly expands the coverage area of ​​a single deposition path, enabling large-area, high-throughput printing while ensuring the quality of film formation.

[0030] B. Construction of ultra-low aspect ratio structures: This invention achieves the construction of ultra-low aspect ratio structures by co-optimizing wide-width aerosol jets and printing parameters, and obtaining deposition features with submicron-level thickness and millimeter-level width in a single scan.

[0031] C. Uniformity of thin film structure and function: This invention proposes an interleaved deposition strategy, which significantly reduces the anisotropy of thin film structure / function caused by scanning trajectory by optimizing the in-plane deposition distribution and suppressing the accumulation of interlayer thickness errors.

[0032] D. High printing flexibility: This invention is highly adaptable to printing inks and substrates, and can print one or more materials from organic, inorganic, metallic, and nanocomposite materials. It is also suitable for flexible / rigid and planar / curved substrates, and supports two integration modes: transfer assembly and in-situ printing, meeting the needs of high-performance thin film integrated manufacturing. Attached Figure Description

[0033] Figure 1 This is a schematic diagram of a wide-format aerosol jet printing system;

[0034] Figure 2 A schematic diagram of a wide-width aerosol jet printing method for high-throughput fabrication of films with extremely low aspect ratios.

[0035] Figure 3 Image of aerosol-printed film based on a conventional circular nozzle and its microstructure.

[0036] Figure 4 Images of wide-format aerosol jet-printed thin films and their microstructures;

[0037] Figure 5 A comparison of the electrical properties of wide-format aerosol jet-printed films and aerosol jet-printed films based on conventional circular nozzles.

[0038] Figure 6Image showing the morphological features of a thin film sample printed using a wide-width aerosol jet printing process without the use of an interleaved deposition strategy;

[0039] Figure 7 Image showing the thin film sample and its morphological features printed using a wide-width aerosol jet printing process under an interleaved deposition strategy.

[0040] In the diagram: 1. High-throughput feeding module; 2. Wide-width aerosol nozzle; 3. Vision module; 4. Curing module; 5. Motion platform; 6. Industrial computer; 7. Functional ink material; 8. Wide-width aerosol jet; 9. Printing substrate; 10. Functional film; 11. Film printed by aerosol spraying with a conventional circular nozzle; 12. Film printed by high-throughput aerosol spraying; 13. Film printed without using staggered deposition strategy; 14. Film printed under staggered deposition strategy. Detailed Implementation

[0041] The present invention will be further described below with reference to embodiments, but it should not be construed that the scope of the present invention is limited to the following embodiments. Various substitutions and modifications made based on ordinary technical knowledge and common practices in the art without departing from the above-described technical concept of the present invention should be included within the scope of protection of the present invention.

[0042] Example 1:

[0043] See Figure 1 To address the scalable manufacturing challenges of functional films, this embodiment provides a wide-format aerosol jet printing system for high-throughput fabrication of films with extremely low aspect ratios. The system includes a high-throughput feeding module 1, a wide-format aerosol nozzle 2, a vision module 3, a curing module 4, a motion platform 5, and an industrial control computer 6.

[0044] The high-throughput feeding module 1 atomizes the functional ink material 7 into aerosol microdroplets and stably delivers them to the wide-width aerosol nozzle 2 under set flow and pressure conditions.

[0045] The wide-width aerosol nozzle 2 has an internal aerosol jet channel. The outlet of the aerosol jet channel has a flattened cross-section. The aerosol jet channel focuses the aerosol microdroplets to generate a stable and collimated wide-width aerosol jet 8, which is then guided to the printing substrate 9.

[0046] The vision module 3 is used to monitor the deposition process of the wide aerosol jet 8 on the printed substrate 9 and to acquire deposition morphology feature data.

[0047] The curing module 4 performs in-situ or stepwise curing treatment on the deposited functional ink material 7 to promote material densification, phase change and interface assembly.

[0048] The motion platform 5 is used to support the printing substrate 9 and move according to a preset scanning trajectory.

[0049] The high-throughput feeding module 1, wide-width aerosol nozzle 2, vision module 3, curing module 4, and motion platform 5 are all electrically connected to the industrial control computer 6. The industrial control computer 6 is used to coordinate the wide-width aerosol jet printing process parameters to achieve high-throughput patterned deposition of functional thin films.

[0050] This embodiment utilizes a wide-area aerosol jet printing process to improve thin film forming efficiency, while introducing a staggered deposition strategy to suppress structural anisotropy in the thin film, providing a technical foundation for the application of high-performance thin films in flexible electronics, biosensors, and energy devices. This embodiment achieves efficient deposition of large-area thin films while effectively reducing structural anisotropy and improving the uniformity of in-plane functions, thereby meeting the high-throughput patterned manufacturing requirements of high-performance thin films.

[0051] Example 2:

[0052] The main content of this embodiment is the same as that of Embodiment 1, wherein the aspect ratio of the aerosol jet channel is not less than 2:1. By combining the coordinated control of the flow field of the sheath gas and the carrier gas, the fluid constraint is partially released in the length direction, while the fluid is kept focused in the width direction, thereby generating a wide aerosol jet 8 that is laterally controllable and longitudinally collimated, achieving single-channel thin film deposition with extremely low aspect ratio characteristics.

[0053] Example 3:

[0054] The main content of this embodiment is the same as that of Embodiment 1 or 2, wherein the outlet cross-section of the aerosol beam channel is selected as elliptical, rectangular, trapezoidal, straight-sided elliptical, rounded rectangle, lens-shaped, pincushion-shaped, or slit-shaped. The length of the outlet cross-section is 2 to 10 mm, and the width is 0.2 to 1 mm.

[0055] Example 4:

[0056] The main content of this embodiment is the same as any one of embodiments 1 to 3, wherein the printing substrate 9 includes a transferable medium or a target functional substrate. When the printing substrate 9 is a transferable medium, a functional thin film 10 can be prepared on the transferable medium and then assembled onto the surface of the target functional substrate by transfer or attachment. When the printing substrate 9 is a target functional substrate, the functional thin film 10 is formed by in-situ printing directly on the target functional substrate, achieving in-situ integration.

[0057] Example 5:

[0058] The main content of this embodiment is the same as any one of embodiments 1 to 4, wherein the functional ink material 7 is a solution or dispersion system with good atomization performance. The functional ink material 7 includes a functional material, a main solvent, and a co-solvent. The functional material is one or more of the following: metallic materials, inorganic non-metallic materials, organic polymer materials, or composite material systems.

[0059] Example 6:

[0060] The main content of this embodiment is the same as any one of embodiments 1 to 5, wherein the structure of the functional thin film 10 is a single regular structure, a continuously varying structure, a gradient structure, or an arrayed structure with low aspect ratio characteristics.

[0061] Example 7:

[0062] This embodiment provides a wide-format aerosol jet printing method for high-throughput fabrication of films with extremely low aspect ratios according to any one of embodiments 1 to 6, comprising the following steps:

[0063] S1: Functional ink and printing substrate preparation, configuring functional ink material 7 with good atomization performance, and performing surface pretreatment on printing substrate 9.

[0064] S2: Wide-width aerosol jet formation. The flow rates of carrier gas and sheath gas are adjusted according to the preset printing focus ratio until the flow field in the system is stable. After passing through the high-throughput feeding module 1 and the wide-width aerosol nozzle 2, a wide-width aerosol jet 8 with a specific width and stable collimation is formed.

[0065] S3: Acquisition of sedimentary cross-section features. Under the set printing parameters, the visual module 3 is used to acquire sedimentary morphology feature data and construct the sedimentary cross-section contour feature curve.

[0066] S4: Staggered deposition strategy, which uses a combination of inter-row and inter-layer staggered scanning path design to perform multi-channel and multi-layer deposition, reducing the anisotropy of the depositional structure.

[0067] S5: Functionalization process, which is carried out by synchronous or stepwise curing through curing module 4 to promote the phase change of functional ink material 7 and the assembly process of heterogeneous material interfaces.

[0068] S6: Repeat steps S4 and S5 until the functional film 10 is manufactured.

[0069] Example 8:

[0070] The main content of this embodiment is the same as that of Embodiment 8. The printing parameters include: platform movement speed, nozzle-to-substrate spacing, carrier gas flow rate, sheath gas flow rate, and curing temperature. The morphological feature data includes: the continuous deposition width L obtained at n sampling positions along the printing direction. i With the maximum deposition range width L max,i Based on this definition, the effective print line width Maximum print line width Overspray width ; and the thickness distribution and corresponding deposition cross-sectional profile feature curves acquired on the cross-section orthogonal to the printing direction.

[0071] The interlaced scanning spacing S is associated with the maximum printed line width PW and the overspray width OW, and is preferably... This is to reduce the impact of overspraying on structural continuity and uniformity.

[0072] The value of the interlayer offset ∆ is associated with the feature curve of the deposition cross-section, preferably... This allows the peaks and troughs of adjacent layers to be stacked alternately. When printing multiple layers, an implementation method of alternating offset of odd and even layers or periodic equidistant offset can be used to reduce the anisotropy of the formed structure and performance.

[0073] Example 9:

[0074] This embodiment provides a functional thin film prepared according to the method described in Embodiment 7 or 8. The functional thin film 10 has an aspect ratio of less than 1:1000 and exhibits high in-plane isotropy in both structure and function.

[0075] Example 10:

[0076] See Figure 1 To address the scalable manufacturing challenges of functional films, this embodiment provides a wide-format aerosol jet printing system, comprising a high-throughput feeding module 1, a wide-format aerosol nozzle 2, a vision module 3, a curing module 4, a motion platform 5, and an industrial control computer 6.

[0077] The high-throughput feeding module 1 atomizes the functional ink material 7 into aerosol microdroplets and stably delivers them to the wide-width aerosol nozzle 2 under set flow and pressure conditions. The wide-width aerosol nozzle 2 focuses and guides the aerosol microdroplet cloud within the flow channel, causing it to generate a stable and collimated wide-width aerosol jet 8 along a set channel shape and guide it to the printing substrate 9. The vision module 3 is used to locate and monitor the printing process. The curing module 4 is used to accelerate the functionalization process of the deposited material or promote the assembly of functional structures. The motion platform 5 is used to drive the printing substrate to move along a preset trajectory. The industrial control computer 6 is used to coordinate and control the collaborative operation of each module to achieve a high-throughput patterned deposition process of the functional thin film 10.

[0078] The functional ink material 7 is a solution or dispersion system with good atomization performance, including one or more functional materials, a main solvent and a co-solvent. The functional material is one or more of the following: metallic materials, inorganic non-metallic materials, organic polymer materials or composite material systems.

[0079] The wide-width aerosol nozzle 2 adopts a flattened outlet section design with distinct long and short axes, preferably with a ratio of long to short axis of not less than 2:1. This allows for coordinated control of the flow field of sheath gas and carrier gas, quantitatively releasing fluid constraint in the long axis direction and maintaining fluid focus in the short axis direction, thereby generating a wide-width aerosol jet 8 that is laterally controllable and longitudinally collimated, achieving single-channel thin film deposition with low aspect ratio characteristics.

[0080] The specific implementation of the curing module 4 includes, but is not limited to, in-situ substrate heating, laser sintering, ultraviolet curing, and near-infrared sintering, in order to meet the functional requirements of different ink materials such as densification, phase change, and interface assembly.

[0081] The printing substrate 9 includes a transferable medium or a target functional substrate. The functional film 10 can be prepared on the transferable medium and then assembled onto the surface of the target substrate by transfer or attachment. Alternatively, it can be directly printed on the target functional substrate in situ to achieve in-situ integration of the functional film and the substrate.

[0082] The functional thin film 10 has a structure that is a single regular structure, a continuously varying structure, a gradient structure, or an array structure with a low aspect ratio.

[0083] Example 11:

[0084] See Figure 2 This embodiment provides a wide-format aerosol jet printing method according to the system of Embodiment 1, including the following steps:

[0085] S1: Functional ink and printing substrate preparation. Based on the physicochemical properties of the selected functional materials, construct a solution or dispersion system, optimize the distribution ratio of each component and the dispersion process, and prepare a functional ink with uniform dispersion and good atomization performance. Perform surface pretreatment on the printing substrate to reduce surface energy and avoid agglomeration and local accumulation of aerosol microdroplets during the deposition process.

[0086] S2: Wide-width aerosol jet formation. The flow rates of carrier gas and sheath gas are adjusted according to the preset printing focus ratio until the flow field in the system is stable. The high-throughput feeding module delivers the atomized functional ink to the wide-width aerosol nozzle. After being focused by the gas flow, a wide-width aerosol jet with a specific width and stable collimation is formed.

[0087] S3: Deposition section characteristics acquisition. Wide-width aerosol jets are deposited on the printing substrate under set printing parameters, and in-situ morphology monitoring is performed through a vision module, or external high-resolution scanning imaging devices are used to collect morphology characteristic data of the deposited structure. Based on the measurement results under different process parameter conditions, a deposition section distribution characteristic curve is established.

[0088] The printing parameters include: platform movement speed, nozzle-to-substrate spacing, carrier gas flow rate, sheath gas flow rate, and curing temperature. The morphological feature data includes: the continuous deposition width L obtained at n sampling locations along the printing direction. i With the maximum deposition range width L max,i Based on this definition, the effective print line width Maximum print line width Overspray width ; and the thickness distribution and corresponding deposition cross-sectional profile feature curves acquired on the cross-section orthogonal to the printing direction.

[0089] S4: The staggered deposition strategy employs a scanning path design that combines inter-row staggering and inter-layer staggering for multi-pass and multi-layer deposition. Inter-row staggering adjusts the spacing between adjacent scanning passes to ensure a balanced thickness distribution in the overlapping areas between passes. Inter-layer staggering introduces lateral offset between adjacent layers to allow the high-thickness areas of the upper layer to compensate for the low-thickness areas of the lower layer, thereby effectively reducing periodic thickness fluctuations and improving the in-plane thickness uniformity and performance consistency of the film.

[0090] The interlaced scanning spacing S is associated with the maximum printed line width PW and the overspray width OW, and is preferably... This is to reduce the impact of overspraying on structural continuity and uniformity.

[0091] The value of the interlayer offset ∆ is associated with the feature curve of the deposition cross-section, preferably... This allows the peaks and troughs of adjacent layers to be stacked alternately. When printing multiple layers, an implementation method of alternating offset of odd and even layers or periodic equidistant offset can be used to reduce the anisotropy of the formed structure and performance.

[0092] S5: Functionalization treatment, which involves in-situ synchronous curing or regional stepwise curing of the deposited material to promote the phase change of functional materials and the assembly process of heterogeneous material interfaces, so that the printed film has excellent structural and functional uniformity.

[0093] S6: Test the structural uniformity and functional consistency of the prepared thin film, and repeat steps S4 and S5 until the target functional thin film is manufactured.

[0094] Example 12:

[0095] See Figures 3 to 5This embodiment compares the differences in functional thin film deposition morphology and electrical properties between conventional circular nozzle aerosol printing and the wide-width aerosol jet printing provided by this invention, to verify the gain effect of this invention in terms of deposition efficiency and thin film functionality. More specifically, PEDOT:PSS is selected as the functional ink material, which is ultrasonically atomized to form aerosol microdroplets, and transported to the nozzle outlet under the combined action of carrier gas and sheath gas to form an aerosol jet of a specific width; a single crystal silicon wafer is selected as the printing substrate, and the in-situ substrate temperature is maintained at 40°C during the deposition process to promote solvent evaporation and orderly assembly of PEDOT:PSS molecular chains; the printed PEDOT:PSS thin film size is set to 1×1 cm, and the film thickness is less than 5 μm; the functional thin film deposition process is a multi-pass continuous deposition and overlapping process along the planar direction.

[0096] Furthermore, the electrical properties include resistance values ​​in two directions within the film plane, preferably measured using a four-probe method, including the in-plane parallel printing direction resistance R. ∥ In-plane perpendicular printing direction resistor R ⊥ Wherein, the printing scanning direction refers to the direction in which the aerosol jet extends along the deposition trajectory on the surface of the printing substrate during the printing process, and the in-plane parallel printing direction resistance R ∥ The in-plane resistance R perpendicular to the printing direction reflects the continuity of the conductive path along the deposition trajectory. ⊥ It reflects the degree of interfacial coupling and electron transport impedance between adjacent depositional trajectories.

[0097] See Figure 3 The conventional circular nozzle aerosol printing process uses a nozzle diameter of 300 μm. Specifically, the carrier gas flow rate is controlled within the range of 50 sccm to 200 sccm, and the sheath gas flow rate is controlled within the range of 50 sccm to 300 sccm. Under these process conditions, the effective printing linewidth is in the hundreds of micrometers (~65 μm). To achieve the target size of the PEDOT:PSS film, approximately 150 lateral scans are required for stacking. The deposited film exhibits a clear linear stacking structure, with gaps and defects between adjacent scan trajectories.

[0098] See Figure 4The high-throughput aerosol printing system provided by this invention uses a flat nozzle outlet cross-section. Specifically, the nozzle outlet has a rectangular structure with a major axis of 4 mm and a minor axis of 1 mm. The internal flow channel of the nozzle and the nozzle outlet are integrated and optimized to minimize turbulence and pressure loss during the deposition process. The carrier gas flow rate is controlled within the range of 200 sccm to 2000 sccm, and the sheath gas flow rate is also controlled within the range of 200 sccm to 2000 sccm. Under these process conditions, the effective printing linewidth is in the millimeter range (~2 mm). To achieve the target size of the PEDOT:PSS film, approximately 5 lateral scan stacking operations are required. While significantly improving the deposition efficiency, the continuity and uniformity of the lateral overlap of the scan trajectory are also effectively improved.

[0099] See Figure 5 The electrical property test results show that the thin film 11 printed by aerosol spraying through a conventional circular nozzle exhibits obvious electrical anisotropy. Specifically, its in-plane parallel printing direction resistance R ∥ The resistance R in the in-plane perpendicular printing direction is 1.61 Ω. ⊥ The resistance is 7.5 Ω, and the resistance difference between the two directions reaches 5.89 Ω. The film 12 printed by the high-throughput aerosol spraying provided by this invention exhibits a more uniform morphology and overall electrical properties. Specifically, its in-plane parallel printing direction resistance R is 7.5 Ω, and the resistance difference between the two directions reaches 5.89 Ω. ∥ The resistance R in the in-plane perpendicular printing direction is 1.9 Ω. ⊥ The resistance was reduced to 2.4 Ω, and the resistance difference between the two directions was reduced to 0.5 Ω, which significantly improved the functional uniformity of the PEDOT:PSS film and enhanced the overall conductivity. This effectively demonstrates the outstanding advantages of the high-throughput aerosol printing system and method provided by this invention in the field of functional film preparation.

[0100] Example 13:

[0101] See Figures 6 to 7 This embodiment compares the film morphology characteristics of the wide-width aerosol jet printing process provided by the present invention under direct deposition and staggered deposition strategies to verify the gain effect of the staggered deposition strategy on the microstructure and functional isotropy of the printed film. More specifically, PEDOT:PSS is selected as the functional ink material, which is ultrasonically atomized to form aerosol microdroplets, and transported to the wide-width aerosol nozzle 2 under the combined action of carrier gas and sheath gas to form a wide-width aerosol jet 8; a single crystal silicon wafer is selected as the printing substrate, and the in-situ substrate temperature is maintained at 40°C during the deposition process to promote solvent evaporation and orderly assembly of PEDOT:PSS molecular chains; the size of the printed PEDOT:PSS film is set to 1×1 cm, the film thickness is less than 4 μm, the single scan deposition thickness is less than 2 μm, and the PEDOT:PSS film is formed by the superposition of Layer 1 and Layer 2.

[0102] Furthermore, the outlet of the wide-width aerosol nozzle 2 is a rounded rectangular structure with a major axis of 4 mm and a minor axis of 1 mm. The internal flow channel of the nozzle and the nozzle outlet have been integrated and optimized to minimize turbulence and pressure loss during the deposition process.

[0103] Furthermore, the platform movement speed is 20 mm / min, the nozzle-to-base distance is 1 mm, the carrier gas flow rate is 600 sccm, the sheath gas flow rate is 300 sccm, and the maximum printed line width is 3.18 ± 0.28 mm. Considering the Gaussian distribution characteristics, in order to reduce the error in the lateral direction, the scanning distance S is set to 2 mm.

[0104] See Figure 6 Layer 1 and Layer 2 were stacked and deposited using a direct alignment method to obtain a thin film 13 printed without using an interleaved deposition strategy. White light interferometry was performed on the thin film sample along the white dashed line. The obtained cross-sectional feature information includes an average film thickness of 2.41 μm, a film thickness standard deviation of 385 nm, and a film thickness fluctuation range of 1.57 μm, showing obvious undulation characteristics. Furthermore, the three-dimensional morphology image of the film cross-section clearly shows peak and trough features, and wrinkles were also observed on the peaks, which is also detrimental to the uniformity of the film.

[0105] See Figure 7 To address the issue of uneven material deposition, the offset ∆ between Layer 1 and Layer 2 was set to 1 mm. Specifically, the offset ∆ was set to half the scanning spacing S. A thin film 14 was obtained printed using the staggered deposition strategy. White light interferometry was performed on the film sample along the white dashed line. The obtained cross-sectional characteristic information included an average film thickness of 1.98 μm, a standard deviation of film thickness of 174 nm, a thickness fluctuation range of 0.76 μm, and staggered filling of peaks and troughs in Layer 1 and Layer 2. The staggered printing strategy significantly improved the uniformity of the printed film, reduced interlayer cumulative error, and optimized the morphology of the deposited film surface and edges, effectively demonstrating the effectiveness of the staggered deposition strategy provided by this invention.

Claims

1. A wide-format aerosol jet printing system for high-throughput fabrication of films with extremely low aspect ratios, characterized in that: It includes a high-throughput feeding module (1), a wide-width aerosol nozzle (2), a vision module (3), a curing module (4), a motion platform (5), and an industrial computer (6); The high-throughput feeding module (1) atomizes the functional ink material (7) into aerosol microdroplets and stably delivers it to the wide-width aerosol nozzle (2) under set flow rate and pressure conditions. The wide-width aerosol nozzle (2) has an aerosol jet channel inside; the outlet of the aerosol jet channel has a flat cross section; the aerosol jet channel focuses the aerosol microdroplets to generate a wide-width aerosol jet (8) with stable collimation and guides it to the printing substrate (9). The vision module (3) is used to monitor the deposition process of the wide aerosol jet (8) on the printed substrate (9) and to acquire deposition morphology data; The curing module (4) performs in-situ or stepwise curing treatment on the deposited functional ink material (7) to promote material densification, phase change and interface assembly. The motion platform (5) is used to support the printing substrate (9) and move according to a preset scanning trajectory; The high-throughput feeding module (1), wide-width aerosol nozzle (2), vision module (3), curing module (4) and motion platform (5) are all electrically connected to the industrial computer (6); the industrial computer (6) is used to coordinate the process parameters of wide-width aerosol jet printing to achieve high-throughput patterned deposition of functional films.

2. The wide-format aerosol jet printing system for high-throughput fabrication of ultra-low aspect ratio thin films according to claim 1, characterized in that: The aspect ratio of the aerosol jet channel is not less than 2:1; the fluid constraint is released in the length direction and the fluid is kept focused in the width direction to generate a wide aerosol jet that is controllably extended laterally and collimated in the longitudinal direction (8).

3. The wide-format aerosol jet printing system for high-throughput fabrication of ultra-low aspect ratio thin films according to claim 2, characterized in that: The outlet cross-section of the aerosol beam channel can be elliptical, rectangular, trapezoidal, straight-sided elliptical, rounded rectangle, lens-shaped, pillow-shaped, or slit-shaped; the length of the outlet cross-section is 2 to 10 mm, and the width is 0.2 to 1 mm.

4. The wide-format aerosol jet printing system for high-throughput fabrication of ultra-low aspect ratio thin films according to claim 1, characterized in that: The printing substrate (9) includes a transferable medium or a target functional substrate; when the printing substrate (9) is a transferable medium, a functional film (10) is prepared on the transferable medium, and the functional film (10) is transferred or attached to the surface of the target functional substrate; when the printing substrate (9) is a target functional substrate, the functional film (10) is formed by in-situ printing directly on the target functional substrate to achieve in-situ integration.

5. The wide-format aerosol jet printing system for high-throughput fabrication of ultra-low aspect ratio thin films according to claim 1, characterized in that: The functional ink material (7) is a solution or dispersion system; the functional ink material (7) includes a functional material, a main solvent and a co-solvent; the functional material is one or more of the following: a metallic material, an inorganic non-metallic material, an organic polymer material or a composite material system.

6. The wide-format aerosol jet printing system for high-throughput fabrication of ultra-low aspect ratio thin films according to claims 1-4, characterized in that: The structure of the functional thin film (10) is a single regular structure, a continuously varying structure, a gradient structure, or an array structure with low aspect ratio characteristics.

7. A wide-format aerosol jet printing method for high-throughput fabrication of films with extremely low aspect ratios according to any one of claims 1 to 6, characterized in that, Includes the following steps: S1: Functional ink and printing substrate preparation, configuring functional ink material (7) with good atomization performance, and performing surface pretreatment on the printing substrate (9); S2: Wide aerosol jet formation. The flow rates of carrier gas and sheath gas are adjusted according to the preset printing focus ratio until the flow field in the system is stable. After passing through the high-throughput feeding module (1) and the wide aerosol nozzle (2), a wide aerosol jet with a specific width and stable collimation (8) is formed. S3: Acquisition of sedimentary cross-section features. Under the set printing parameters, the sedimentary morphology feature data is acquired through the vision module (3), and the sedimentary cross-section contour feature curve is constructed. S4: Staggered deposition strategy, which uses a combination of inter-row staggered and inter-layer staggered scanning path design to perform multi-pass and multi-layer deposition, reducing the anisotropy of the depositional structure; S5: Functionalization process, through the curing module (4) for synchronous or stepwise curing, promotes the phase change of functional ink material (7) and the assembly process of heterogeneous material interface; S6: Repeat steps S4 and S5 until the functional film (10) is manufactured.

8. The wide-width aerosol jet printing method for high-throughput fabrication of ultra-low aspect ratio thin films according to claim 7, characterized in that: The printing parameters include platform movement speed, nozzle-to-substrate spacing, carrier gas flow rate, sheath gas flow rate, and curing temperature; the morphological feature data include effective printing linewidth LW, maximum printing linewidth PW, overspray width OW, and deposition cross-sectional profile feature curve.

9. The wide-width aerosol jet printing method for high-throughput fabrication of ultra-low aspect ratio thin films according to claim 7 or 8, characterized in that: The optimal value of the inter-row scan spacing S in the staggered deposition strategy is... The optimal value for interlayer offset ∆ is... .

10. A functional thin film prepared according to the method of claim 7 or 8, characterized in that: The functional thin film (10) has an aspect ratio of less than 1:1000 and exhibits high in-plane isotropy in both structure and function.

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