Parallel laser printing of nanoparticulate silver thin film patterns for electronics

This report discusses a parallel laser printing process for fabricating metallization patterns, which utilizes a pulsed laser-induced thermoelastic force exerting on nanoparticles. Silver thin films solution deposited on a glass substrate were transferred onto diverse receiver substrates such as Si, glass, and plastics by a spatially modulated Nd:YAG pulsed laser beam (1064 nm, 6 ns pulse width). High-fidelity patterns at the sub-10 mu m scales could be printed over several cm(2) by a single pulse with 850 mJ of energy. The fabrication of organic thin film transistors is demonstrated using printed source and drain Ag electrodes. (c) 2008 American Institute of Physics.