Gravure-printed electronics: recent progress in tooling development, understanding of printing physics, and realization of printed devices

Abstract

Printed electronics promises the realization of low-cost electronic systems on flexible substrates over large areas. In order to achieve this, high quality patterns need to be printed at high speeds. Gravure printing is a particularly promising technique that is both scalable and offers micron-scale resolution. Here, we review the tremendous progress that has recently been made to push gravure printing beyond its traditional limitations in the graphic arts. Rolls with far greater precision than traditional rolls and with sub-5 mu m resolution can be fabricated utilizing techniques leveraging the precision of silicon microfabrication. Physical understanding of the sub-processes that constitute the gravure process is required to fully utilize the potential of gravure. We review the state-of-the-art of this understanding both for single cells and patterns of multiple cells to print high-resolution features as well as highly-uniform layers. Finally, we review recent progress on gravure printed transistors as an important technology driver. Fully high-speed printed transistors with sub-5 mu m channel length and sub-5 V operation can be printed with gravure.