ROLL-TO-ROLL-COMPATIBLE UV IMPRINTING AND IPL SINTERING PROCESS FOR FLEXIBLE TRANSPARENT CONDUCTIVE ELECTRODES
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Abstract
Flexible transparent conductive electrodes are key components in next-generation optoelectronic devices, such as touch panels, displays, solar cells, transparent heaters, and wearable electronics. However, conventional indium tin oxide electrodes are limited by brittleness, high cost, and poor compatibility with flexible substrates. In this study, a roll-to-roll-compatible fabrication method for flexible transparent conductive electrodes is proposed using UV imprint lithography, silver nanoparticle paste filling, hot-plate heating, and intense pulsed light (IPL) sintering. A silicon wafer with microchannel patterns was used as the master mold to fabricate a pillar-patterned PET soft mold, which was subsequently used to replicate microchannels on another PET film. Silver nanoparticle paste was filled into the imprinted microchannels by blade coating, followed by hot-plate heating and IPL sintering to form conductive silver microstructures. The fabricated microchannels were approximately 6–7 µm wide and 10 µm deep. Increasing the number of filling cycles from one to three increased the silver thickness from 4.70 to 6.75 µm and reduced the sheet resistance from 7.0 to 3.5 Ω/sq. The electrodes maintained an optical transmittance of approximately 94%, with haze values ranging from 4.0% to 4.3%. SEM observations confirmed the formation of continuous conductive silver pathways, although some shrinkage gaps were observed near the channel walls. These results demonstrate the potential of PET-based soft molds, repeated silver-paste filling, and rapid IPL sintering for the low-cost and scalable fabrication of flexible metal-mesh transparent conductive electrodes.
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