High Resolution Micro-patterning of Stretchable Polymer Electrodes through Directed Wetting Localization

Sujie Kang,Bo-Yeon Lee,Sin-Hyung Lee,Sin-Doo Lee

doi:10.1038/s41598-019-49322-7

Sujie Kang, Bo-Yeon Lee + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-49322-7

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Journal: Scientific Reports	Publication Date: Sep 10, 2019
Citations: 13	License type: open-access

Affiliation: Seoul National University

Abstract

A microarray of conducting polymer electrodes with high resolution and high pattern-fidelity is developed on a stretchable substrate through the directed wetting localization (DWL) by the differential hydrophobicity. The large difference in the surface energy between the wetting and dewetting regions serves as the major determinant of the pattern resolution and the pattern-fidelity, yielding the full surface coverage in the stretchable electrode array (SEA) with 30 μm in width. The electrical characteristics of the SEA are well preserved under different types of elastic deformations. All-solution-processed polymer light-emitting diodes (except for the cathode) based on our patterned stretchable electrodes show no appreciable degradation of the performance under stretching. The DWL provides a simple and effective way of building up diverse stretchable electrical and optoelectronic devices in advanced wearable and bio-integrated electronics.

Highlights

Stretchable electronics have drawn much attention for a wide range of applications from wearable devices to medical systems[1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9]
Let us first examine the differential hydrophobicity of the ultraviolet/ozone (UVO) treated regions in the super-hydrophobic polymer (SHP) and the PDMS
We presented the concept of the directed wetting localization (DWL) based on the differential hydrophobicity to construct the stretchable electrode microarray (SEA) with high resolution and high pattern-fidelity

Summary

Introduction

Stretchable electronics have drawn much attention for a wide range of applications from wearable devices to medical systems[1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9]. Due to the intrinsically stronger hydrophobic nature of the stretchable substrate[33,34,35,36] than typical rigid and flexible substrate[37,38], the resolution of the CP patterns is quite limited to hundreds of micrometers in width[29], not sufficient for stretchable electronic applications. Due to its hydrophobic nature, the PDMS shows a relatively small difference in the surface energy (SE) between the wetting and dewetting regions compared to the conventional substrates such as glass or plastic substrates. The light emission from the S-PLED showed no appreciable degradation under the uniaxial strain of 20%

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Conclusion