Laser-driven high-resolution patterning of indium tin oxide thin film for electronic device

✍ Scribed by Hyunkwon Shin; Boyeon Sim; Myeongkyu Lee

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 2010
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 975 KB
• Volume: 48
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0143-8166
• DOI: 10.1016/j.optlaseng.2010.02.008

✦ Synopsis

We here introduce a laser-driven process to pattern transparent thin films on transparent substrates. This method utilizes a pre-patterned metal film as the dynamic release layer and the transparent thin film is selectively removed by a thermo-elastic force laser-induced in the underlying metal layer. Highfidelity indium tin oxide (ITO) thin film patterns were fabricated on plastic and glass substrates using a pulsed Nd:YAG laser. Tens of square centimeters could be patterned with several pulse shots. We fabricated a pentacene thin film transistor with ITO source and drain electrodes and observed a very low off-current level. This tells that the channel area between ITO electrodes was completely etched out by this laser-driven process. Combined with the absence of photoresist and chemical etching steps, this method provides a simple high-resolution route to pattern transparent thin films over large areas at low temperatures.