Fabricating transparent electrodes by combined electric-field-driven fusion direct printing and the liquid bridge transfer method

Transparent conductive electrodes (TCEs) are widely used in applications ranging from display devices to thin-film solar cells. It remains a challenge, however, for industry and academia to implement mass production of large-area TCEs at low cost and at high volumes. It is also difficult to fabricate TCEs with good electrical properties and high light transmittance levels. In this study, a novel large-area and high-performance TCE manufacturing method is demonstrated that combines the electric-field-driven fusion direct printing technique and the liquid bridge transfer method. The master molds of the TCEs are fabricated by the electric-field-driven fusion direct printing technology, then soft lithography and the liquid bridge transfer processes are used to form the TCEs on different substrates. The relationships between process parameters, and their effects on the fabrication of the TCEs are explored through experiments, and the optimal process parameters are established. Using these methods, grid and stripe TCEs on the glass substrates with an area of 50 mm × 50 mm, an average line width of 4 µm, a spacing of 200 µm, a transmittance effectiveness of 88.94% and 88.15% which was nearly same as the bare glass, and a sheet resistance of 12 Ω sq−1 were successfully manufactured. These results illustrate the feasibility of mass producing large-area TCEs with high performances and at low cost.