Adaptive Fabrication of a Flexible Electrode by Optically Self‐Selected Interfacial Adhesion and Its Application to Highly Transparent and Conductive Film

Abstract

A novel adaptive electrode fabrication method using optically self-selected interfacial adhesion between a laser-processed metal layer and polymer film is introduced to fabricate cost-effectively a high-resolution arbitrary electrode with high conductivity. The quality is close to that from vacuum deposition on a highly heat sensitive polymer film, with active response to various design requirements. A highly conductive metal film (resistivity: 3.6 μΩ cm) below a 5 μm line width with a uniform stepwise profile and mirror surface quality (R(rms) : 5-6 nm) is fabricated on a cheap polymer film with a heat resistance limit of below 100 °C. Severe durability tests are successfully completed without using any adhesion promoters. Finally, a highly transparent and conductive electrode with a transparency above 95% and sheet resistance of less than 10 Ω sq⁻¹ is fabricated on a polymer film and on glass by using this method. These results can help realize a potential high-throughput, low-cost, solution-processable replacement for transparent conductive oxides.

Transparent conductors composed of nanomaterials

“…For example, a top-down approach to obtain a transparent conductive grid (TCG) by selective laser sintering was recently reported. 47,48 In this process (Fig. 3), the heat generated by the laser causes sintering of the particles within predetermined narrow lines with required shapes.…”

Intrinsically conductive polymer binders for electrochemical capacitor application

“…Since Q-PANIs are solution-processable and require no thermal annealing process, it is expected that they will be suitable for emerging all-organic exible or wearable devices aer optimization. 34,35…”

Laser-assisted fabrication of single-layer flexible touch sensor

“…These attempts do not come up with a definite answer because of the fundamental limitations represented by the limited conductivity and transparency of conducting polymers, the high junction resistance and weak adhesion of carbon nanotubes (CNT), challenging processibility of graphene, excessive haziness and low clarity of metallic nanowires, and process complexity of hybrid structures. Fundamentally, since these approaches have a conflicting relationship between conductivity and transparency, also depending on material thickness, it is considered that concurrently improving them is almost impossible 16 17 .…”

“…Metal-meshed transparent conductors, another approach adopted when using metals, consist of two dimensionally tangled metal traces of invisibly narrow width. This method provides outstanding advantages in device performance, structural simplicity, and manufacturing availability 16 17 18 . First, outstanding transparency and clarity are achievable without sacrificing its conductivity, since the transmittance is almost independent from a variation of structure thickness 17 .…”