Micro transfer printing on cellulose electro-active paper

A micro-patterning technique regarded as micro transfer printing is studied for gold electrode patterning on cellulose electro-active paper (EAPap), aiming at biodegradable and flexible MEMS fabrication. EAPap is known as a smart material due to the interesting actuation phenomenon of cellulose paper. Accordingly, EAPap can be used for sensor and actuator devices. Since EAPap is made with cellulose, a biodegradable and flexible MEMS device can be made with this material. However, since cellulose-based EAPap is hydrophilic and flexible, conventional lithography and etching techniques cannot be used for micro-patterning. This paper reports a new micro-patterning technique using the micro transfer printing (MTP) method on flexible EAPap material. The MTP technique consists of a master fabrication, a polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) stamp construction, and a micro pattern transfer. Details of the technique and key issues are addressed. To demonstrate the feasibility of the MTP technique, a gold electrode pattern for a surface acoustic wave (SAW) MEMS device and a gold micro-strip pattern for a microwave dipole rectenna are made on cellulose paper substrates.