IEC 62899-302-6:2025
(Main)Printed electronics - Part 302-6: Equipment - Inkjet - First drop measurement
Printed electronics - Part 302-6: Equipment - Inkjet - First drop measurement
IEC 62899-302-6:2025 specifies the method for determining inkjet first drop behaviour based on either visualized droplet images or printed dots on standard substrate. The exact behaviour that is referenced in this document is as follows: jetting speed variation according to the drop numbers, including non-jetting and low jetting speed. This measurement standardization is limited to drop-on-demand type of inkjet including piezo and thermal types and is not applicable to continuous inkjet. This document includes the test equipment, printing procedures, and analysis of drop behaviour. This document is limited to printed electronics application and is not suitable for graphic or other applications.
General Information
Standards Content (Sample)
IEC 62899-302-6 ®
Edition 1.0 2025-05
INTERNATIONAL
STANDARD
Printed electronics –
Part 302-6: Equipment – Inkjet – First drop measurement
ICS 19.080; 37.100.10 ISBN 978-2-8327-0414-1
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CONTENTS
FOREWORD . 3
INTRODUCTION . 5
1 Scope . 7
2 Normative references . 7
3 Terms, definitions and abbreviated terms . 7
3.1 Terms and definitions . 7
3.2 Abbreviated terms. 8
4 Inkjet first drop measurement . 8
4.1 General . 8
4.2 Process for printing-based method . 8
4.3 Process for high speed camera imaging-based method . 9
4.4 Process for single flash imaging based method . 10
5 Recorded operating parameters for drop speed measurements . 11
Annex A (normative) Key considerations for inkjet first drop measurement . 12
A.1 Printing measurement . 12
A.2 High speed camera based measurement . 15
A.2.1 General. 15
A.2.2 Measurement steps using high speed camera . 16
A.2.3 Analysis method of acquired images . 18
A.2.4 Jetting speed measurement for first drop analysis . 20
A.3 First drop measurement using imaging device (CCD camera) with flash light
source . 22
Bibliography . 24
Figure A.1 – Typical first drop effect . 12
Figure A.2 – Jetting speed effects on drop placement . 13
Figure A.3 – Patterns for first drop evaluation . 14
Figure A.4 – Practical guidelines to obtain acceptable printing accuracy . 15
Figure A.5 – Vision measurement based on high speed camera . 16
Figure A.6 – Trigger based image acquisition and jetting for first drop measurement. . 17
Figure A.7 – Non-jetting pause time effects on the first drop jetting speed . 18
Figure A.8 – Sorted drop images (ink type A) . 19
Figure A.9 – Sorted drop images (ink type B) . 19
Figure A.10 – Two jetting images of a droplet, to calculate jetting speed . 20
Figure A.11 – Jetting speed calculation from the droplet locations at two timings . 21
Figure A.12 – Jetting speed behaviour according to non-jetting time . 21
Figure A.13 – Timing chart for CCD camera based measurement . 23
INTERNATIONAL ELECTROTECHNICAL COMMISSION
____________
PRINTED ELECTRONICS –
Part 3026: Equipment – Inkjet – First drop measurement
FOREWORD
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IEC 62899-302-6 has been prepared by IEC technical committee 119: Printed Electronics. It is
an International Standard.
The text of this International Standard is based on the following documents:
Draft Report on voting
119/534/FDIS 119/543/RVD
Full information on the voting for its approval can be found in the report on voting indicated in
the above table.
The language used for the development of this International Standard is English.
– 4 – IEC 62899-302-6:2025 © IEC 2025
This document was drafted in accordance with ISO/IEC Directives, Part 2, and developed in
accordance with ISO/IEC Directives, Part 1 and ISO/IEC Directives, IEC Supplement, available
at www.iec.ch/members_experts/refdocs. The main document types developed by IEC are
described in greater detail at www.iec.ch/publications.
A list of all parts in the IEC 62899 series, published under the general title Printed electronics,
can be found on the IEC website.
The committee has decided that the contents of this document will remain unchanged until the
stability date indicated on the IEC website under webstore.iec.ch in the data related to the
specific document. At this date, the document will be
• reconfirmed,
• withdrawn, or
• revised.
INTRODUCTION
Drop-on-demand inkjet printing has been used as a manufacturing tool for printed electronics.
The use of inkjet has many advantages since an exact amount of droplets can be deposited on
target locations without wasting excessive amount of materials. To position the inkjet head on
the printing location, jetting from the inkjet head should be paused for a while. As a result, it
has been well known that the initial first few drops, after the non-jetting pause time, can be
different from that of the steady state jetting. The abnormal behaviours of the first few drops
can cause serious printing quality problems. Also, it could produce poor yield when used in
manufacturing process. So, the proper evaluation of first-drop failures has been important steps
for inkjet process development.
Moreover, substrates can be unloaded and loaded for printing, especially in printed electronics
applications. By using a fiducial camera to view the substrate, the printing target position in the
substrate is identified via alignment marks on substrates. Also, the substrate should be aligned
with respect to motion stage axes prior to printing. It can take considerable time and the jetting
should not occur during the preparation for printing. Due to the non-jetting period, ink on the
nozzle surface can dry, and consequently the jetting behaviours of the first few drops are likely
to differ from those of steady-state jetting. If the abnormal jetting behaviour is significant,
printing quality can be affected accordingly. As a result, a proper measurement method should
be developed to evaluate the jetting failure.
The main cause of the first drop behaviour including low jetting speed and non-jetting status
can be from the ink drying on nozzle substrates. However, apart from the ink solidification on
substrate, it can be affected by jetting frequency. The piezo type inkjet head uses pressure
waves generated inside of the head. The first drop is not affected by the residual pressure
waves from the previous drops. However, from the second drops, the jetting can be affected by
residual pressure waves from the previous jetting. Also, pressure wave amplification is different
according to jet frequency due to residual pressure. Thus, the first drop behaviour might be
affected. This document provides the measurement and analysis method for first drop
dissimilarity but does not provide the method to decide the cause of the non-similarity of first
drops. Nonetheless, by engineering judgement, the causes of first drop dissimilarity can easily
be determined.
In order to measure inkjet behaviour, the methods using drop visualization systems based on a
light emitting diode (LED) have been standardized. The methods are useful because real-time
monitoring is possible by using a c
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