Analytical alignment for repairing micro patterns on transparent film in roll-to-roll process

Defects of micro-patterns in printed electronics can be repaired using laser ablation. However, roll-to-roll (R2R) printing continuously feeds film. Thus, an alignment algorithm should be derived without using rotational kinematics. In this study, an alignment method for the repair process in R2R printing is proposed using machine vision and template-matching (TM). The algorithm calculates misalignment and positional corrections considering geometric relations. The algorithm is iterated until deviations are minimized. The algorithm is implemented with operating software compatible with OpenCV. The results from extreme cases show that the alignment accuracy is ±6 and ±2 pixels for XY directions, respectively.