Fabrication of inkjet printed flexible electronics by low temperature subtractive laser processing

Abstract

The low temperature fabrication of passive electrical components (resistor, capacitor) on flexible substrates is presented in this paper. A drop-on-demand (DOD) ink-jetting system was used to print passive electrical components from gold nano-particles suspended in Alpha-Terpineol solution on a flexible polymer substrate. PVP (poly-4-vinylphenol) in PGMEA (propylene glycol monomethyl ether acetate) solvent was inkjet-printed as dielectric layer for capacitor. A pulsed laser beam was irradiated to produce finer electrical components, thereby overcoming the inherent limitation of inkjet processing. A continuous Ar laser beam was irradiated locally to evaporate carrier solvent as well as to cure the gold nano-particles in order to improve the electrical resistivity. Conductor lines and capacitors were fabricated on polymer substrate and their performance was analyzed.