Flexographic Printing Contributions in Transistors Fabrication

Abstract

Transistors are one of the major components of everyday consumer electronics. With the huge demand for low‐cost and flexible consumer electronics, modern industrially‐compatible transistor‐fabrication techniques such as roll‐to‐roll printing techniques must be given due consideration with a view to replacing conventional complex lithography techniques which make use of toxic chemicals. Such traditional methods are not only time‐consuming but also pose a threat to human health. This review article is concerned with offering insights into the deployment of flexographic printing which has been widely used for food packaging and newspaper production, as a cost‐effective technique for the production of transistors. More specifically, it discusses in detail both advantages of the printing technique and its contributions to fabrication of different vital transistor components such as gate, source, drain, semiconductor, and dielectric layers. It also attends to prepatterning of surfaces for the formation of transistor electrodes using the printing technique. Finally, it addresses the challenges associated with implementing such a technique in industry.

A Review of Carbon-Based Conductive Inks and Their Printing Technologies for Integrated Circuits

“…Moreover, the etching process consumes a lot of raw materials and requires the use of a large amount of acidic and corrosive liquids, which seriously pollute the environment. Electronic printing technology, without harsh environmental requirements and sophisticated manufacturing processes including photolithography, etching, and thin film deposition, is a newly emerging research direction within the field of integrated circuits [55]. Compared with photolithography and etching processing methods, electronic printing technologies not only greatly reduce the processing costs for integrated circuits but also are environmentally friendly.…”

High-Resolution Printing of Various Electronic Materials by Electrophotography

“…Printed electronics are accomplished using various printing methods, such as gravure printing [16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27], screen printing [28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42], inkjet printing , flexography [75][76][77][78][79][80][81][82][83], and electrophotography. Gravure and screen printing are advantageous for high-throughput mass production; however, the preparation of printing plates is necessary before performing these processes.…”

Study of Large-area Flexible Transistor Array Fabrication

“…At the same time, to make products with miniaturization and highperformance features, the number of transistor integration needs to be more intensive, and to achieve these features, we also need to consider the problem of the reduction of transistor life due to the huge power consumption. Therefore, in summary, the development of a device with ultra-low power consumption and ultra-low-cost will be a hot topic for exploration in the future Screen printing is a simple, versatile, and economical method, which is a process in which various inks or viscous liquids are placed evenly on a substrate that can be permeated with a porous material as a stencil, and then pushed through the stencil and deposited on the substrate [6][7][8] . Screen printing meshes are usually made of nylon fabric with different meshes and then framed by an aluminum or wooden frame, and the higher the meshes, the higher the fineness of the ink required.…”