Water-Mediated Al Metal Transfer Printing with Contact Inking for Fabrication of Thin-Film Transistors

Abstract

A study was conducted to develop a new metal transfer printing (mTP) method that was based on the transfer of an Al metal thin film from a stamp to a substrate through a water-mediated surface reaction using an Al thin film deposited on a flat glass inkpad. An Al thin film on a glass pad was used as a solid ink that was transferred from the glass inkpad to the PDMS stamp directly through the interfaces between the pad and the stamp in contact. The Al thin film on the patterned PDMS stamp was transferred onto a substrate through a water-mediated surface reaction. The PDMS stamp in the method was used repeatedly without any treatment. The elastomeric properties of the PDMS stamp allowed it to recover its original shape after undergoing many cycles of pattern transfer. The study also demonstrated that the contact inking mTP method can be adopted in automated printing machines that are used to generate Al patterns with a wide range of feature sizes.