Purpose: – This paper aims to find an optimal surface treatment of commonly used polymeric substrates for achieve the high adhesion of printed structures. For this reason, the investigation of substrates surfaces from different perspectives is presented in this paper. Design/methodology/approach: – The contact angle measurements as well as the roughness measurements were realised for the analysis of surface properties of investigated substrates. The impact of applied chemical agents for surface treatment onto the wettability is analysed for polyimide, polyethylene terephthalate and polyethylene naphthalene substrates. Findings: – The results prove the correlation among wettability, surface energy and work of adhesion with respect to the theoretical background. The surface treatment of polymeric substrates by chemical agents, such as acetone, toluene, ethanol, isopropyl and fluor silane polymer, has a significant impact onto the wettability of substrates which affects the final deposition process of nanoinks. Originality/value: – The main benefit of the surfaces’ investigation presented in this paper lays in surface modification by readily available chemical agents for optimising the deposition process nanoinks used in inkjet printing technology.

The design, simulation, realization, and measurement of an ultra-wideband (UWB) antenna on a polymeric substrate have been realized. The UWB antenna was prepared using conventional technology, such as copper etching; inkjet printing, which is regarded as a modern and progressive nano-technology; and polymer thick-film technology in the context of screen-printing technology. The thick-film technology-based UWB antenna has a bandwidth of 3.8 GHz, with a central frequency of 9 GHz, and a frequency range of 6.6 to 10.4 GHz. In addition to a comparison of the technologies described, the results show that the mesh of the screens has a significant impact on the quality of the UWB antenna when utilizing polymeric screen-printing pastes. Last but not least, the eco-friendly combination of polyimide substrate and graphene-based screen-printing paste is thoroughly detailed. From 5 to 9.42 GHz, the graphene-based UWB antenna achieved a bandwidth of 4.42 GHz. The designed and realized UWB antenna well exceeds the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) standards for UWB antenna definition. The modification of the energy surface of the polyimide substrate by plasma treatment is also explained in this paper, in addition to the many types of screen-printing pastes and technologies. According to the findings, plasma treatment improved the bandwidth of UWB antennas to 5.45 GHz, and the combination of plasma treatment with graphene provides a suitable replacement for traditional etching technologies. The characteristics of graphene-based pastes can also be altered by plasma treatment in terms of their usability on flexible substrates.

Purpose: This paper aims to find the optimal deposition conditions for achieving the homogenous structure of the silver layers onto three types of polymeric substrates as well as on the rigid substrates. For this reason, the detailed investigation of the silver-based layers deposited at different technological conditions by microscopic methods is presented in this paper. Design/methodology/approach: The special test pattern has been designed and deposited at different substrate temperatures by using two types of generally available silver-based nano-inks. Cross-sections and 3D profiles of the deposited silver layers have been profoundly analysed by using the optical profiler Sensofar S Neox on the generally used polymeric (PI, PET and PEN) and rigid substrates (951 and 9K7 LTCC, glass and alumina). Findings: The results prove the strong correlation between the substrate temperature during the deposition process and the final shape of the created structure which has the a direct impact on the layers’ homogeneity. The results also prove the theory of the coffee ring effect creation in the inkjet printing technology. Originality/value: The main benefit of this paper lies in the possibility of the homogeneity achievement of the deposited silver-based layers on the several polymeric and rigid substrates by managing the temperature during the deposition. The paper also offers the comparative study of nano-inks’ behaviour on several polymeric and rigid substrates.

The aim of this paper is describing a design, realization and measurement of ultra wide band (UWB) antenna by inkjet printing technology on polyimide substrate DuPont™ Kapton ^® HN 50.8 μm. For this purpose we used conductive silver based nano-ink AX JP-6n by Amepox Microelectronics LTD with particle size range between 3 - 7 nm in diameter. The realized antenna was designed and simulated in Ansoft HFSS™ 13.0. The frequency bandwidth of this UWB antenna is between 5.5 to 11.7 GHz that is according to decision of Federal Communications Commission. The impedance matching was realized by length of feeding element to 50 Ω. Paper includes the theoretical background of inkjet printing technology applied within UWB antenna realization.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to find optimal sintering conditions of silver-based nano-inks for achieving the high electrical conductivity of the deposited layers applied on polyimide foils as well as the influence of ageing on the electrical conductivity. Therefore, the investigation in the field of silver layers deposited by inkjet printing technology is presented in this paper. Design/methodology/approach: The four-point resistance measurements were realized for a detailed and precise analysis of the resistance of two different silver layers under different sintering conditions depending on the type of nano-ink varied about the recommended values. Highly accelerated stress tests (HASTs) were also applied as an ageing method for confirmation of the high electrical stability of the silver layers. Findings: The results prove the strong influence of the temperature and the time of the sintering process on the sheet resistance of the investigated silver-based layers deposited by inkjet printing technology on polyimide foils. The HASTs caused significant changes in the electrical conductivity for both nano-inks presented in this paper. The existence of noticeable dependence among the resistivity, thermal treatment and ageing was proved. Originality/value: The main benefit lays in the optimization of sintering conditions to improve the electrical conductivity of the silver layers. The paper also presents a new approach for a stability analysis of the silver layers by HASTs.

Nowadays classification of textures is very actual. Classification means separation of textures into classes. The main task of the classification is to find such a descriptor which is unique for the given class. This article deals with the classification based on energies distributed into DWT subimages. Description vectors are created on the base of subimages energies. The classification is done by comparison of the Euclidian or the Mahalnobis distance between the description vector of the input texture and the description vectors of classes. The efficiency of the classification is evaluated with regard to level of DWT as well. For purposes of experimental verification of this classification method a database is created. This database consist of 21 classes and each class has at least three textures.