Printing is certainly one of, if not the fastest, least expensive, and highest volume manufacturing technique. Its use for the deposition of functional materials offers enormous advantages for the preparation of devices over large areas, on virtually any substrate, and potentially inexpensively. Although printing processes have existed for thousands of years, it has only been relatively recently that the materials have become available for printing functional, particularly electronic devices.rnA wide variety of different printing processes can be used for printed electronics. Digital Fabrication of electronic devices can incorporate either high volume printing processes - those that use a physical master (printing plate or cylinder), archaically known as "analog" printing, or techniques that don't use a physical master (also known as "digital" printing processes). Impact as well as non-impact printing processes are important. For device fabrication, the printing process flow depends on many factors, some of which are dictated by material properties, others are determined by printing related factors such as resolution, registration, and economic considerations.rnThis article will focus on the printing processes used for printed electronics, giving specific examples, as well as trends, challenges, needs, and future opportunities.
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