Recently, screen printing has been used very much in electronics and electric appliances industries. In the background, development of the functional ink is one of the biggest reasons for this situation, although improvement of the printing precision due to the progress of the printing machines and the printing materials is also one of the contributors. The “Function” of the functional ink has various electrical and chemical meanings and it is much more difficulty to make good use of the functional ink for high quality and high precision products compared with conventional screen printing. This article explains not only the present status and the future overview of the functional screen printing from the view point of plate making through printing process, but also controlling factors of screen printing necessary to handle the functional ink.

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What people imagine from “screen printing in the electronics field” may be most likely P. C. B. (Printed Circuit Board) application. Technologies in P. C. B. manufacturing and surface mounting had made a remarkable progress in 1990's and this technological progress however, generated a rapid growth in demands in the market for S. M. D. (Surface Mounting Devices) components. Consequently, high-precision screen making and printing technologies for such the ceramic S. M. D. components have therefore, started to attract people's attention. The progress in screen printing technology has supported what is called “IT” (Information Technologies) revolution that includes rapid spread of cellular phones into the market since late 1990's. Screens with stainless wire mesh have popularly used for “MLCC” (Multi-Layered Ceramic Capacitors) for the past many years, meanwhile what is called “LTCC” (Low Temperature Co-fired Ceramics) has recently grown its production very rapidly. The explosive growth in computer and cellular phones to the market has supported the electronics industry instead of the old and saturated domestic appliances and audio and videos that used to be main consumer electronics in 1980's. Demands for downsizing and high-precision have pushed the market forward and each passive components manufacturers has joined the war since to ramp up the volume production of new models earlier than others is today, one and only condition to survive. Few people know that the technological progress in the sober screen printing has supported the showy IT industries.

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The demand for the screen printing ink with specific functions has been recently increasing. This trend comes from the needs to make the finished products more value-added and more different from others. The followings are the examples of such inks that are actually used to make the printed surface decorative. The applications of these ink are also mentioned below.

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This article reports application of electrically conductive ink. The article starts with the explanations about the difference between two types of electrically conductive inks in terms of compositions, typical properties and fillers utilized. Finally the article explains electronics components that are made of the electrically conductive ink.

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A new high accuracy screen printing method (HADOP: High accuracy and dry on-demand printing) was designed and high resolution printing was achieved. HADOP printing plate and negative resist ink materials were optimized. Negative resist materials for the high resolution plate and an ink of a certain viscosity characteristic were selected, and high accuracy screen printing was obtained. The screen plate for HADOP was particularly improved by optimization of diameter and mesh angle of the wire, An ink of a high state of thixotropy was used because of great importance in flatness property of ink. As a result, the thixotropic ink could be fixed on a base side of plate after passing through the small patterning holes. The sharp imaging was performed by increasing the transferring ratio of ink. Thus, isolated lines of 40 μm levels were completed by the HADOP method. A superior color filter of good color reproduction was developed by high transparency and high transmission factor of the ink constituents.

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There are various press problems ranging from easily recognizable defects such as poor ink lay and tinting to delicate problems such as off tone reproduction. In contrast to paintings created one by one through elaborated printers' works, prints are mass produced by printing process through plate mounting, ink and water feeding on the plate and transferring images on the plate to printing paper. Therefore, changes in every process can emerge as defects of the prints. Complex combination of paper, ink and press conditions can result in press problems. To solve the problems, it is necessary to investigate possible causes step by step.

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