Laser printing and laser sintering for additive manufacturing on patterned flexible substrates

In this work, we demonstrate the application of laser induced forward transfer of metal nanoparticle inks and pastes for the additive manufacturing of linear Ag micro-electrodes on top of thermally sensitive and even multi-stack layers involving challenging surface topographies. The versatility of LIFT has been validated in three use cases: i) the fabrication of gate electrodes for flexible organic thin film transistors (OTFTs); ii) the development of metal grids in flexible organic photovoltaics (OPVs); iii) The combination of LIFT of lead-free solder paste and laser soldering for the digital assembly of optoelectronic integrated circuits (OEICs).