Fabrication of conductive metal lines by plate-to-roll pattern transfer utilizing edge dewetting and flexographic printing

We present a simple flexographic printing method mediated by edge dewetting for potential applications to roll-to-roll or plate-to-roll pattern transfer. By controlling dewetting of a thin, conductive ink material under conformal contact with a patterned elastomeric mold (e.g., polydimethylsiloxane, PDMS), the liquid ink layer is broken and then selectively wets the protruding part of the mold with high fidelity. Subsequently, a thin photoresist layer that is coated on 300 mm-diameter aluminum cylinder is brought in contact with the ink-coated PDMS mold, resulting in a plate-to-roll pattern transfer without collapse or merging of neighboring features. Using this method, conductive silver lines are fabricated on the cylindrical surface with the resolution of ∼20 μm and the sheet resistance less than ∼4.3 Ω after 10 repeated transfer cycles.