Use of microcutting for high throughput electrode patterning on a flexible substrate

The use of printing technologies is promising for low-cost manufacturing of flexible, light-weight and large-area electronics, such as electronic paper or solar cells. Here, we demonstrate a microcutting technique and methods to fabricate cutting blades for the patterning of metal structure on a polymer substrate. Microcutting is done using a hot embossing and nanoimprinting techniques. The metallic fine patterns obtained by using stamps fabricated using different techniques are compared. Combination of microcutting and our recently proposed dielectric alignment opens up a novel platform for a variety of applications, such as the fabrication of metal crossover or organic field effect transistors as well as contact resistance measurement of metal–semiconductor junctions. (paper)