Microstructuring of Polymer Films by Inkjet Etching

The inkjet printing (IJP) technique is generally used as tool for positioning small quantities of a liquid material on a target substrate. An interesting application of IJP is inkjet etching that consists of the deposition of drops of solvent or solvent mixtures onto a soluble polymer layer. This technique allows one to structure the polymer film and to change the shape, from concave to convex, by varying the mixing ratio of the solvents. In this work, the structuring of some polymeric layers (polyimide and polystyrene) by solvents [N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone (NMP) and toluene (TOL)] and a solvent mixture (TOL-NMP) at different mixing ratios were studied, and the effect of the printing parameters on the microstructural profile was investigated. Some applications in optoelectronic devices are described. (C) 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 122: 3637-3643, 2011