A field shaping printhead for high-resolution electrohydrodynamic jet printing onto non-conductive and uneven surfaces

High-resolution electrohydrodynamic jet printing is a cost effective, flexible, multi-material, high-resolution (sub 10 μm) additive manufacturing process. In this paper, we present an electric field shaping printhead capable of controlled high-resolution (sub 10 μm) e-jet printing and demonstrate printhead capabilities by creating patterns with both an optical adhesive and silver nanoparticle ink material with equivalent accuracy to state-of-the-art e-jet printing. Importantly, we demonstrate controlled printing onto non-conductive and height varying surfaces without the use of a grounded substrate at a previously unattainable length scale. This ability to print onto highly varied non-conductive substrates will enable the generalization of the 2D process to a controlled 3D printing technology at the micro-scale.