Direct Printing of Organic Electronic Devices Using Additive Contact Cold Welding

(left) Schematic of the additive process, (right) scanning electron micrograph showing a high resolution transferred pattern with line widths ~100nm and line resolution ~10nm.

IRG 3: C. Kim and S. R. Forrest

Forrest and coworkers have developed a new process for cold welding based on adding the cathode material to the organic thin film layers comprising the organic electronic devices. This is in marked contrast to previous work where the process was only subtractive. Additive processes are considerably more practical as they are independent of the metal film thickness which no longer needs to be fractured during the printing process. This also results in a considerable reduction in the pressure needed to form the patterns. Pattern resolutions ~10nm have been demonstrated with this process. Furthermore, organic light emitting devices, organic photovoltaic cells and organic thin film transistors have all been demonstrated by additive contact cold welding.

Related publication:
C. Kim and S.R. Forrest, “Fabrication of Organic Light-Emitting Devices by Low-Pressure Cold Welding”, Adv. Mater. 15, 541 (2003).