Electrothermal application of novolac-derived carbon micropatterns prepared by proton beam lithography and carbonization

Abstract

High performance electric heaters based on carbon micropatterns (CMs), which were fabricated from a novolac resin by proton beam lithography (PBL) and carbonization, have been explored in this study. For the purpose, well-defined negative-type novolac micropatterns with crosslinked network structures were fabricated by PBL at the optimized fluence of 5 × 1015 ions cm−2 and then carbonized to form CMs. The fabricated 60–nm–thick CMs were characterized to have a high electrical conductivity of 2.12 × 102 S cm−1 and a high optical transmittance of 78%. In an application as electric heaters, the 60–nm–thick CMs showed a high maximum temperature of 141.7 °C at 60 V with an excellent heating rate of 16.06 °C s−1. Therefore, the prepared transparent electric heaters can be used in window defrosting/defogging, display, gas sensing, and medical equipment.