BIA-Brukerstyrt innovasjonsarena

Thin Film Electronics ASA (Thinfilm) is recognized as one of the world's leading companies within the printed electronics industry. Thinfilm was the first company to successfully demonstrate mass production of fully printed memories. Printed electronics manufactured in high-volume roll-to-roll production lines is ideal for low-cost systems such as smart labels containing sensors, logic, memory and displays integrated in consumer goods, packaging, and other disposable items which are manufactured in ultra-high volumes. Thinfilm has together with Baldur Coatings and Institute for Energy Technology (IFE) developed new or improved fabrication techniques that are compatible with roll-to-roll (R2R) manufacturing and Thinfilm?s existing production methods. The project has focused on the fabrication techniques of three main components, organic thin-film transistors (OTFTs), resistors and capacitors. Transistors, capacitors and resistors are used in a large amount of electronic circuits and devices, and all improvements in the production, or performance, of such devices manufactured in R2R lines will aid Thinfilm in maintaining its leading role in the printed electronics industry. IFE has expertise in advanced patterning methods and Baldur Coatings are specialists in various types of coating techniques. The combined expertise of Baldur Coatings, IFE and Thinfilm has resulted in a project where know-how and new fabrication techniques were developed. All these fabrication techniques are also compatible with high-volume roll-to-roll manufacturing and printing. The resistors were fabricated by screen printing carbon-based inks as rectangles and then laser pattern these to obtain wanted resistance. The laser-patterned resistors show good correlation between simulations and actual measurements. This makes it possible to R2R manufacture resistors with a large range of resistances and with a high accuracy. The OTFTs were made with commercial inks that are used to print OTFTs. In many applications, it is advantageous to have a large channel width-to-length (W/L) ratio so the OTFTs can deliver the needed current. The transistors also should be small, which means the best option is to reduce the channel length. Moreover, reducing the channel length increases the cutoff frequency of the OTFT, which allows for making faster circuits. The OTFT focus in this project was to reduce the channel length and at the same time reduce the variation in channel length compared to what often can be achieved with printing techniques. Instead of printing individual source (S) and drain (D) electrodes, separated by the transistor channel, a single electrode was printed as a rectangle and then the channel was laser ablated to separate the S/D electrodes. Channel lengths of 5 um or less could be produced with high accuracy. This proved quite challenging, but by developing new sintering techniques of the printed silver S/D electrodes and by optimising the laser parameters, short and accurate channels could be laser ablated. Fabricating flexible thin-film capacitors having high capacitances and small enough area so the capacitors do not consume too much area of a printed circuit is a major challenge. In this project, capacitors were fabricated by atomic layer deposition (ALD) to apply dielectric layers on printed silver electrodes. Many different precursor materials were tested for the ALD coating of these dielectrics and some of these were found to give high capacitance. In addition to investigating various precursor materials, it was also investigated how these different ALD materials could be combined in stacks with alternating material types. Capacitors giving relatively high capacitance per area were fabricated, although challenges with electrical leakage was observed. The project has created significant know-how as well as improved or new fabrication techniques that are compatible with high volume R2R manufacturing. Some of these techniques have already been used for optimizing one of Thinfilm?s other printed components and some of the know-how has been useful in setting up Thinfilm?s new R2R production line currently being built.

Thin Film Electronics ASA is recognized as one of the leading companies within the printed electronics industry in the world. Thinfilm was the first company in the world to successfully demonstrate mass production of fully printed memories (2009). Printed electronics manufactured in high-volume roll-to-roll production lines is ideal for low-cost systems such as smart labels containing sensors, logic, memory and displays integrated in consumer goods, packaging, and other disposable items which are manufac tured in ultra-high volumes. Current and future development entails smart labels that combine a range of active and passive electronic components. In order to achieve this, there is a need for low-cost production of high quality electric components, such as capacitors, resistors, and transistors to realize logic systems and power units. In order to enable the fabrication of new components currently not possible and also reduce time-to-market for several advanced printed electronics products, it will be necessary to investigate the implementation of advanced deposition and shaping methods in combination with established printing techniques. Thinfilm will work together with Institute for Energy Technology (IFE) and Baldur Coatings to develop these new tec hniques. Baldur Coatings is a specialist in various coating techniques while IFE has expertise on advanced patterning methods. The combined know-how of Baldur Coatings, IFE and Thinfilm will increase the possibility of a successful project. The techniques developed in the project are also expected to lead to increased performance, quality, and reduction of feature sizes of printed electronic systems. Not only will the project focus on the development of each technique, but also put the pieces together and manufacture demonstration devices.