Fabrication of conductive metal lines by plate-to-roll pattern transfer utilizing edge dewetting and flexographic printing

We present a simple flexographic printing method mediated by edge dewetting for potential applications to roll-to-roll or plate-to-roll pattern transfer. By controlling dewetting of a thin, conductive ink material under conformal contact with a patterned elastomeric mold (e.g., polydimethylsiloxane, PDMS), the liquid ink layer is broken and then selectively wets the protruding part of the mold with high fidelity. Subsequently, a thin photoresist layer that is coated on 300 mm-diameter aluminum cylinder is brought in contact with the ink-coated PDMS mold, resulting in a plate-to-roll pattern transfer without collapse or merging of neighboring features. Using this method, conductive silver lines are fabricated on the cylindrical surface with the resolution of approximately 20 microm and the sheet resistance less than approximately 4.3 ohms after 10 repeated transfer cycles.