Assessment of Elastic–Plastic and Electrical Properties of Printed Silver-Based Interconnects for Flexible Electronics

In this work, the elastic–plastic properties of the printed interconnects on a glass substrate with Ag-filled polymer-conductor ink are evaluated through a theoretical framework based on finite element (FE) modeling of instrumented sharp indentation, experimental indentation, the concept of the representative strain, and dimensional analysis. Besides, the influences of the ink-solvent content and temperature on the elastic–plastic and electrical properties of the printed Ag-based interconnects are also addressed. First of all, parametric FE indentation analyses are carried out over a wide range of elastic–plastic material parameters. These parametric results together with the concept of the representative strain are used via dimensional analysis to constitute a number of dimensionless functions, and further the forward/reverse algorithms. The forward algorithm is used for describing the indentation load–depth relationship and the reverse for predicting the elastic–plastic parameters of the printed Ag-based interconnects. The proposed algorithms are validated through the correct predictions of the plastic properties of three known metals. At last, their surface morphology, microstructure, and elemental composition are experimentally characterized. Results show that the elastic–plastic properties and electrical sheet resistance of the printed Ag-based interconnects increase with the ink-solvent content, mainly due to the increase of carbon element as a result of the increased ink-solvent residue, whereas their elastic–plastic properties and electrical performance decreases with the temperature.