Low‐Cost Manufacturing of Bioresorbable Conductors by Evaporation–Condensation‐Mediated Laser Printing and Sintering of Zn Nanoparticles

Abstract

Currently, bioresorbable electronic devices are predominantly fabricated by complex and expensive vacuum-based integrated circuit (IC) processes. Here, a low-cost manufacturing approach for bioresorbable conductors on bioresorbable polymer substrates by evaporation-condensation-mediated laser printing and sintering of Zn nanoparticle is reported. Laser sintering of Zn nanoparticles has been technically difficult due to the surface oxide on nanoparticles. To circumvent the surface oxide, a novel approach is discovered to print and sinter Zn nanoparticle facilitated by evaporation-condensation in confined domains. The printing process can be performed on low-temperature substrates in ambient environment allowing easy integration on a roll-to-roll platform for economical manufacturing of bioresorbable electronics. The fabricated Zn conductors show excellent electrical conductivity (≈1.124 × 10 S m ), mechanical durability, and water dissolvability. Successful demonstration of strain gauges confirms the potential application in various environmentally friendly sensors and circuits.

Room Temperature Electrochemical Sintering of Zn Microparticles and Its Use in Printable Conducting Inks for Bioresorbable Electronics

“…Specifically, metals that are attractive for such purposes, such as Mg, Zn, Fe, Mo, and W, include, under ambient conditions, insulating native oxide layers that frustrate sintering due to their high melting temperatures (e.g., ZnO: 1975 °C) and their low diffusivity for transport of the corresponding base metals . An alternative strategy of using a pulsed laser to selectively evaporate and condensate the inner metal cores of the Zn nanoparticles has recently been suggested as a possible route for construction of thin Zn conducting wires . Electroless deposition, as another alternative for low‐temperature fabrication of metal films, has not been reported with bioresorbable metals, possibly due to their strong reducing power, despite its successful demonstration with Cu or Ni .…”

Thermal barrier materials of Yb2O3-ZrO2 system synthesized by laser excitation

“…Recently, good synthetic performance and universality in materials make the laser sintering become a rapid and widely-used prototype technique. At present, laser sintering has been successfully industrialized for a pressure-less, mask-less, and scalable manufacturing route [15,16], which provides versatile material synthesis by forming three-dimensional net structure in a single operation. The ceramics materials synthesized by laser sintering have brought various applications with vast commercial values.…”

Flexible Fabrication of Flexible Electronics: A General Laser Ablation Strategy for Robust Large‐Area Copper‐Based Electronics

“…This kind of structure has several advantages: controllable microstructure design, low junction resistance, and uniform and reliable optical/electrical properties. So far, a lot of methods have been proposed for the fabrication of regular metal grid mesh films, typically including laser sintering, [20][21][22][23] various lithography techniques, [24][25][26][27][28][29] nanoimprinting, [30] laser direct synthesis, [31] contact printing, [32] jet printing, [33,34] laser printing, [35] evaporative assembly, [36] breath-figure template, [37] etc. Recently, Paeng et al adopted nanosecond laser to selectively ablate 19 nm thick copper layer coated on PEN film and obtained copper-based FTCEs with regular hole arrays.…”