To create ultrathin sticker‐type electronic devices that can be attached to unconventional substrates, it is highly desirable to develop printable membrane‐type electronics on a handling substrate and then transfer the printing to a target surface. A facile method is presented for high‐efficiency transfer printing by controlling the interfacial adhesion between a handling substrate and an ultrathin substrate in a systematic manner under mild conditions. A water‐soluble sacrificial polymer layer is employed on a dimpled handling substrate, which enables the topological confinement of the polymer residue inside and near the dimples during the etching and drying processes to reduce the interfacial adhesion gently, creating a high yield of transfer printing in a deterministic manner. As an example of an electronic device that was created using this method, a highly flexible sticker‐type ZnO thin film transistor was successfully developed with a thickness of 13 μm including a printable ultrathin substrate, which can be attached to various substrates, such as paper, plastic, and stickers.
Introducing two-dimensional post arrays and a water-soluble sacrificial layer between an ultrathin substrate and a handling substrate provides controllability of the interfacial adhesion in a stable manner. The periodically anchored and suspended configuration after the chemical etching process facilitates the development of, for example, printable Alq3 -based OLEDs that can be attached to unconventional surfaces.
The ability to create printable ultrathin devices and transfer printing allows 'stick and play' electronics on unusual surfaces where direct device fabrication is not possible. This research describes a systematic method for using an additional handling substrate to mechanically support an ultrathin substrate and printing the final device on a target surface in a deterministic way. Introducing a sacrificial layer and a concave-convex structure with optimized depth, pitch, and shape at the interface between the two substrates provides both stability in device fabrication and high-yield transfer printing in a deterministic manner. To demonstrate the efficacy of this method, we successfully transferred various sizes and layouts of patterns onto various planar and curvilinear substrates. Finally, we demonstrate highly foldable and stretchable membrane-type electrodes that can be attached onto unusual surfaces, such as paper and elastic adhesive tape.
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