Digital Fabrication Using Electrophotography for Conductive Patterning

摘要

We modified an electrophotography method used in digital fabrication so that it can eventually be used in a mass production process. Our modification involved partly covering a charge roller with an insulating medium to prevent it from charging at certain points. Therefore, this charge roller can form the same latent image each time directly on a dielectric substrate without a photoreceptor or an optical unit. We demonstrated that our modification worked using a conventional charge roller that was partially wrapped with polyimide film that contained a 20-μm-width penetrating slit. The modified roller was used to charge a dielectric film. The formed latent image was developed with liquid developer of conductive toners. The obtained pattern width of the conductive toner was 20 μm, which is the same as the slit width in the polyimide film. To form an insulating medium in an arbitrary pattern on the surface of a charge roller, we choose a chemical amplification photoresist as the insulating medium. The charge roller material and the photoresist were deposited onto a flat substrate and patterned using conventional photolithography. The results showed the possibility that the photoresist is capable of forming arbitrary patterns on the charge roller material.