Abstract
Despite the great promise of printed flexible electronics from 2D crystals, and especially graphene, few scalable applications have been reported so far that can be termed roll‐to‐roll compatible. Here we combine screen printed graphene with photonic annealing to realize radio‐frequency identification devices with a reading range of up to 4 meters. Most notably our approach leads to fatigue resistant devices showing less than 1% deterioration of electrical properties after 1000 bending cycles. The bending fatigue resistance demonstrated on a variety of technologically relevant plastic and paper substrates renders the material highly suitable for various printable wearable devices, where repeatable dynamic bending stress is expected during usage. All applied printing and post‐processing methods are compatible with roll‐to‐roll manufacturing and temperature sensitive flexible substrates providing a platform for the scalable manufacturing of mechanically stable and environmentally friendly graphene printed electronics. magnified image
Highlights
1 Introduction Solution-processed conductors are key components in many large-scale applications ranging from radio frequency identification (RFID) tags [1,2,3,4,5] and printed solar cells [6,7,8] to wearable electronics [9] that are typically realized by printing techniques, using metalbased inks
We showed a dipole RFID antenna layout aiming at maximizing performance for graphene-based devices
We demonstrated the photonic annealing protocol optimized for temperature sensitive substrates (PET and paper) comprising the use of modulated light pulses to quickly reach and maintain high temperature for the duration of pulses, at the same time not damaging the substrates
Summary
Solution-processed conductors are key components in many large-scale applications ranging from radio frequency identification (RFID) tags [1,2,3,4,5] and printed solar cells [6,7,8] to wearable electronics [9] that are typically realized by printing techniques, using metalbased inks. With all the benefits of printing techniques such as relative simplicity, high production capabilities including roll-to-roll (R2R) realization, compatibility with commonly used substrates such as polyethylene terephthalate (PET), polyethylene naphthalate (PEN) and paper, the use of metal-based inks has a few downsides. The use of inexpensive Cu-based inks is limited due to the ease of oxidation leading to the deterioration of conductive properties, whereas Ag-based inks, depending on the market price of the metal, are relatively expensive
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