On-demand direct printing of tin microdots by a piezoelectric microjet: design, simulation, and experimental evaluation

Metal microdot precision printing is widely applied in flexible circuit manufacturing, ball grid array and additive manufacturing, etc. Compared with indirect metal microdot printing, direct printing can realize high efficiency printing by directly ejecting hot-melt metal droplets. While, due to the compressibility of the driving gas, uniform printed microdots are hardly to be obtained by using the existing direct printing method. In this work, a piezoelectric microjet, which can print tin microdots directly by the drive of piezoelectric actuator without complex pneumatic system, is designed. Optimization analyses of the displacement amplifier are carried out to obtain high amplification efficiency for realizing hot-melt droplet ejection and effective heat insulation. The forming, spreading, and solidification processes of the ejected hot-melt tin droplets are discussed, and the printing mechanism is revealed. Based on experimental research, the influences of the excitation parameters and the target surface characteristics on the morphology and size of the printed tin microdots are studied, and the methods to meet different printing requirements are proposed. Tin microdot diameter of 340 μm can be printed on the surface with temperature of 120 °C when voltage pulse with amplitude of only 16 V is applied on the designed piezoelectric microjet with the nozzle diameter of 200 μm. The feasibility and controllability of the tin microdot printing methods are verified by two-dimensional printing and three-dimensional deposition printing test. This work can provide important reference for on-demand printing of metal microdots.