Characteristics and evaluation criteria of substrate-based manufacturing. Is roll-to-roll the best solution for printed electronics?

The vast majority of publications covering the manufacturing of printed electronics employ a web-fed roll-to-roll process. However, other principles of substrate transport are well established in printing science and industry. The focus on roll-to-roll in the scientific community therefore remains ambiguous. In an attempt to structure the discussion about upscaling organic electronics production, we extend existing classifications of substrate-based manufacturing, which is not limited to the field of printed electronics. Production processes can be classified by five key components: manufacturing technology, contact topology, substrate transport, substrate velocity, substrate feed and the degree of integration. This paper reviews four different substrate transport principles: roll-to-roll, sheet-to-sheet, sheets-on-shuttle and hybrid forms like roll-to-sheet. Besides basic working principles, both chances and limitations are discussed. Due to their individual complexity, a sound comparison ought not be reduced to a few key figures. In fact, the selection of the substrate transport requires an in-depth analysis of the individual production process. To aid decision-making, we introduce a hierarchy of 19 attributes covering aspects of production flexibility, quality, reliability, productivity and operations.