Simple Isopropanol-Assisted Direct Soft Imprint Lithography for Residue-Free Microstructure Patterning.
Qi Zhou, Linfeng Lan, Yaping Li, Baozhong Chen, Bo Huang, Huimin Su, Jintao Xu, Shuai Yang, Junbiao Peng
Author Information
Qi Zhou: Guangdong Basic Research Center of Excellence for Energy & Information Polymer Materials, State Key Laboratory of Luminescent Materials and Devices, South China University of Technology, Wushan Road 381, Guangzhou 510640, P. R. China.
Linfeng Lan: Guangdong Basic Research Center of Excellence for Energy & Information Polymer Materials, State Key Laboratory of Luminescent Materials and Devices, South China University of Technology, Wushan Road 381, Guangzhou 510640, P. R. China. ORCID
Yaping Li: Guangdong Basic Research Center of Excellence for Energy & Information Polymer Materials, State Key Laboratory of Luminescent Materials and Devices, South China University of Technology, Wushan Road 381, Guangzhou 510640, P. R. China.
Baozhong Chen: Guangdong Basic Research Center of Excellence for Energy & Information Polymer Materials, State Key Laboratory of Luminescent Materials and Devices, South China University of Technology, Wushan Road 381, Guangzhou 510640, P. R. China.
Bo Huang: Guangdong Basic Research Center of Excellence for Energy & Information Polymer Materials, State Key Laboratory of Luminescent Materials and Devices, South China University of Technology, Wushan Road 381, Guangzhou 510640, P. R. China.
Huimin Su: Guangdong Basic Research Center of Excellence for Energy & Information Polymer Materials, State Key Laboratory of Luminescent Materials and Devices, South China University of Technology, Wushan Road 381, Guangzhou 510640, P. R. China.
Jintao Xu: Guangdong Basic Research Center of Excellence for Energy & Information Polymer Materials, State Key Laboratory of Luminescent Materials and Devices, South China University of Technology, Wushan Road 381, Guangzhou 510640, P. R. China.
Shuai Yang: Guangdong Basic Research Center of Excellence for Energy & Information Polymer Materials, State Key Laboratory of Luminescent Materials and Devices, South China University of Technology, Wushan Road 381, Guangzhou 510640, P. R. China.
Junbiao Peng: Guangdong Basic Research Center of Excellence for Energy & Information Polymer Materials, State Key Laboratory of Luminescent Materials and Devices, South China University of Technology, Wushan Road 381, Guangzhou 510640, P. R. China. ORCID
A direct soft imprint lithography was proposed to realize the direct fabrication of residue-free, well-shaped functional patterns through a single step. This imprint method requires only a simply prepared isopropanol-treated polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) stamp without any additional resists. Residue-free Ag patterns were successfully fabricated on different substrates by directly imprinting the Ag ink with the isopropanol-treated PDMS stamp. Furthermore, the coffee-ring effect of the imprinting Ag patterns can be eliminated by optimizing the imprinting time, isopropanol-treating time, and imprinting temperatures. Studies show that the residual Ag ink in the contact region can be absorbed by the isopropanol-treated PDMS stamp due to the "like dissolves like" principle. Finally, this method was employed to fabricate the Ag electrodes for the thin-film transistors, attaining a mobility of ∼8 cm V s, which is comparable to those with vacuum-processed electrodes. This process provides a simple, low-cost, residue-free, coffee-ring-free, and fast patterning method in the field of microelectronics.
