Contact patterning by laser printing for flexible electronics on paper

摘要

The desire for cost-effective strategies for producing organic electronic devices has led to many new methods for the organic semiconductor layer deposition; however, manufacturing contacts remains an expensive technique due to the high cost of both the materials used and the processing necessary for their patterning. In this work, we present a method for contact deposition and patterning, which overcomes these limitations and allows fabrication of all-printed organic thin-film transistors on paper. The method relies on depositing contacts using aerosol spray and patterning them with a digitally printed mask from an office laser printer, at ambient temperature and pressure. This technique, which we have denoted aerosol spray laser lithography, is cost-effective and extremely versatile in terms of material choice and electrode geometry. As the processing temperature does not exceed 155C, it is compatible with a variety of substrates, including plastic or paper. The success of this method marks an opportunity for a rapid, scalable, and low-cost alternative to current electrode-manufacturing techniques for development of flexible, large-area, electronic applications.