Analysis of the capabilities of continuous high-speed microcontact printing

Abstract

Microcontact printing uses elastomeric stamps to transfer ink onto a substrate by the process of self-assembly. It has the capability to print features as small as 200nm over large areas. Because of this it has many potential industrial applications in areas such as the manufacture of flexible displays and electronics. Roll to roll is the best model for the commercialization of microcontact printing since it offers advantages such as high throughput, convenient material handling and conformal contact propagation. We have designed and built a tool to study the behavior of microcontact printing in a roll to roll paradigm, with the three fold objective of printing at high speeds, over large areas and obtaining good quality. This thesis emphasizes the experimental part of our project. We have obtained results as low as 28 microns over areas of 5.8"x5" and tight dimensional distributions within 1 micron. According to our results, there is no evidence that the printing load and printing speed have any effect on the printing quality. We have been able to print at speeds as high as 400 fpm with contact times of 7 ms, over 8"x 8", albeit with defects such as air trapping at very high speeds. We have also built a prototype to demonstrate continuous etching as an accompanying process.