An Approach towards the Printing of Polymer Circuits

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Abstract
The combination of soluble polymers with printing and coating techniques enabled the fabrication of polymer field-effect transistors (PFETs) on flexible films. The devices were built in a top gate configuration, with four functional layers deposited. The electrodes were patterned by gravure offset printing, where source-drain were made from conducting polyanilin and carbon black filled conducting ink was used as gate material. The doctor blading technique was utilized for coating low viscosity solutions, where Poly(3-alkyllthiophene) served as active semiconductor material. Thus completely printed PFETs have been demonstrated. Further steps for printing integrated polymer circuits included the fabrication of inverters combined from two printed. Screen-printing could be used as an alternative to coating and has the potential to enable vertical electrical interconnects between top and bottom layer of circuits. To test the suitability insulating layers were screen-printed homogenously onto lithographically patterned electrodes made from gold. The PFETs' yield was sufficient enough to let a 7-stage ring oscillator work with a clock frequency of 4 Hz.