Inkjet printing of functional materials activated by ms-range flash lamp annealing

Currently, we observe a continuous need for innovative flexible optoelectronics that are present in smart homes, smart healthcare products and different sensors like gas or temperature sensors. All those applications require a fast and cheap fabrication process. In the last two decades, flash lamp annealing (FLA or photonic curing) has extended its scope of applications from traditional microelectronics to many other areas where thin film coatings are in use. The layer deposition by inkjet printing followed by FLA, preferably on flexible substrates, features a couple of advantages such as material savings, no need for lithographic structuring processes, a fast adaption to changing design requirements and easy possibility for up-scaling. In the case of nanoparticle-based inks, FLA has not only the task to evaporate remnants of the solvent, the binder and other additives, and to sinter the nanoparticles, but has advantageous in terms of energy and process time saving [1]. Currently, we are putting a roll-to-roll (R2R) tool combining inkjet printing and FLA into operation, and first successful tests to print nanoparticle inks containing transparent conductive oxides for optoelectronic applications (TCOs) like zinc oxide (ZnO), aluminum doped zinc oxide (AZO) and also metal inks like copper oxide/copper (CuO/Cu) followed by ex-situ FLA have been done.
In this poster, we will report some of these first results and discuss the corresponding application cases. In addition, the extension of the palette of available materials will address further application, as we will discuss in the case of Si, which e.g. is of high interest as anode material for LIBs and electronic devices in the area of low-cost or printed electronics.