Technology | PragmatIC Printing

Much of the printed electronics industry has been focused on large area applications, such as displays and lighting. For transistor-based printed electronic logic, one of the key challenges is to achieve suitably small feature sizes – just as with silicon chips, smaller features translate directly into higher performance and lower cost. Most printing processes developed for comparatively large visual features (greater than 10μm, and more typically greater than 100μm) do not scale well to the smaller features required for printed logic. Imprint, however, is not only the oldest printing technology, but is also well established in industrial use at the micron scale, and has been demonstrated to reliably replicate features smaller than 10nm. PragmatIC’s imprint process combines the benefits of a simple roll-to-roll compatible printing method with a proven ability to achieve both micron & sub-micron scale features with high yield – ideal for printed logic.

Even when small features can be printed there is a further problem: thin film transistors are complex 3D structures, and require accurate registration and alignment between successive patterning steps. This is difficult enough in a silicon fab, but becomes even more challenging when dealing with flexible (and transparent) materials on plastic substrates. PragmatIC has therefore developed and patented a range of planar and self-aligned device architectures that dramatically simplify manufacturing by reducing the number of process steps and eliminating or minimising registration requirements.

Ultra thin, flexible, transparent, nano-scale electronic devices