Automation of soft lithography

Abstract

This dissertation is a final documentation of the project whose goal is demonstrating manufacturability of soft lithography. Specifically, our target is creating micron scale patterns of resists on a 3 square inch, relatively large area in case of soft lithography, flexible substrate using microcontact printing in order to forming electronic circuit patterns for flexible displays. At first, the general principles and characteristics of soft lithography are reviewed in order to provide the snapshot of soft lithography technologies, and the key factors that affect the productivity and quality of microcontact printing are discussed because such factors should be understood in advanced to develop current lab-based microcontact printing science into plant manufacturing technology. We proposed a prototype for automated of microcontact printing process adopting a continuous reel-to-reel design, ideal for mass production, as well as printing-side-up design in order to minimize the distortion of relief features of PDMS stamp. The machine we created not only demonstrated the manufacturability of microcontact printing, our initial project goal, but also high scalability for mass production. The machine can print micron scale patterns on a 7 square inch plastic sheet, four times bigger than initial target area, at once.