Fabrication of multilayer passive and active electric components on polymer using inkjet printing and low temperature laser processing

The low temperature fabrication of passive (conductor, capacitor) and active (field effect transistor) electrical components on flexible polymer substrate is presented in this paper. A drop-on-demand (DOD) ink-jetting system was used to print gold nano-particles suspended in Alpha-Terpineol solvent, PVP (poly-4-vinylphenol) in PGMEA (propylene glycol monomethyl ether acetate) solvent, semiconductor polymer (modified polythiophene) in chloroform solution to fabricate passive and active electrical components on flexible polymer substrates. Short pulsed laser ablation enabled finer electrical components to overcome the resolution limitation of inkjet deposition. Continuous argon ion laser was irradiated locally to evaporate the carrier solvent as well as sinter gold nano-particles. In addition, selective ablation of multilayered gold nanoparticle film was demonstrated using the novel SPLA-DAT (selective pulsed laser ablation by different ablation threshold) scheme for sintered and non-sintered gold nanoparticles. Finally, selective ablation of multilayered film was used to define narrow FET (field effect transistor) channel. Semiconductor polymer solution was deposited on top of channel to complete OFET (organic field effect transistor) fabrication. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.