Interconnecting Nanomaterials for Flexible Substrate and Direct Writing Process

Direct write technologies provide flexible and economic means to manufacture low-cost large-area electronics. In this regard inkjet printing has frequently been used for the fabrication of electronic devices. Full advantage of this method, which is capable of reliable direct patterning with line and space dimensions in the 10 to 100 um regime, is only made with all-solution based processing. Among these printable electronic materials, silver and copper nanoparticles have been used as interconnecting materials. Specially, solutions of organic-encapsulated silver and copper nanoparticles may be printed and subsequently annealed to form low-resistance conductor patterns. In this talk, we describe novel processes for forming silver nanoplates and copper ion complex which have unique properties, and discuss the optimization of the printing/annealing processes to demonstrate plastic-compatible low-resistance conductors. By optimizing both the interconnecting materials and the surface treatments of substrate, it is possible to produce particles that anneal at low-temperatures (< $200^{\circ}C$) to form continuous films having low resistivity and appropriate work function for formation of rectifying contacts.