Design and Optimization of Inkjet-Printed Electrodes for Flexible Thin-Film Transistors

Inkjet printing (IJP) technology is now facing increasing demand of sophisticated designs and high-yield fabrication. This study proposes an advanced IJP process using commercially available electronic device automation (EDA) tools and 2.4 pL volume droplets. The parameters of inkjet-printed metal tracks are optimized after investigation of ink properties and printability. The optimization comes up with the minimum feature size that is directly related to design rules for thin-film transistors (TFTs). Based on the design rules, a layout is drawn with the EDA tools and converted to an IJP input file. Through the developed IJP process, a 5 x 5 array of TFTs is fabricated to show the feasibility of the process.