Inkjet printing of magnetic materials with aligned anisotropy

Abstract

3-D printing processes, which use drop-on-demand inkjet printheads, have great potential in designing and prototyping magnetic materials. Unlike conventional deposition and lithography, magnetic particles in the printing ink can be aligned by an external magnetic field to achieve both high permeability and low hysteresis losses, enabling prototyping and development of novel magnetic composite materials and components, e.g., for inductor and antennae applications. In this work, we report an inkjet printing technique with magnetic alignment capability. Magnetic films with and without particle alignment are printed, and their magnetic properties are compared. In the alignment-induced hard axis direction, an increase in high frequency permeability and a decrease in hysteresis losses are observed. Our results suggest that unique magnetic structures with arbitrary controllable anisotropy, not feasible otherwise, may be fabricated via inkjet printing.