The E-Jet Toolbit Team reports the following:

• Controlled pre-jet intermittent emission achieved
• Controlled ‘dot-matrix’ printing and continuous line writing with various ‘inks’ and polymers (e.g., silver and gold nanoparticles, SWCNT, PEDOT and PSS) down to 0.7 micron resolution achieved
• Basic devices prototyped
• Simple two- and three-nozzle in-parallel writing demonstrated (see figure)
• Printed spot size controlled by electric field, flow rate, surface wetting, etc.

Current Challenges:

• Current nozzle size is 2 microns. Attempts are underway to go further down to sub-micron nozzles to achieve further reduction in printed dot dimensions.
• Multi-nozzle toolbits with integrated microfluidics are currently being fabricated.
• Writing with arrays of individually addressable nozzles and different inks is being attempted.
• Research exploring the use of secondary electrodes to control the process is underway.
• Wedge compensation and stand-off height servos are being designed to control the relationship between the toolbit and the substrate.
• Attempts to reduce the printed drop diameter to 250nm by using different process controls are underway.
• Computational models for understanding and predicting the process behavior are being developed.