Laser Sintering of Silver Nanoparticle for Flexible Electronics

We present a fine patterning method of conductive lines on polyimide (PI) and glass substrates using silver (Ag) nanoparticles based on laser scanning. Controlled laser irradiation can realize selective sintering of conductive ink without damaging the substrate. Thus, this technique easily creates fine patterns on heat-sensitive substrates such as flexible plastics. The selective laser sintering of Ag nanoparticles was managed by optimizing the conditions for the laser scan velocity (1.0-20 mm/s) and power (10-150 mW) in order to achieve a small gap size, high electrical conductivity, and fine roughness. The fabricated electrodes had a minimum channel length of $5{\mu}m$ and conductivity of $4.2{\times}10^5S/cm$ (bulk Ag has a conductivity of $6.3{\times}10^5S/cm$ ) on the PI substrate. This method was used to successfully fabricate an organic field effect transistor with a poly(3-hexylthiophene) channel.