Laser patterning of highly conductive flexible circuits

Abstract

There has been considerable attention paid to highly conductive flexible adhesive (CFA) materials as electrodes and interconnectors for future flexible electronic devices. However, the patterning technology still needs to be developed to construct micro-scale electrodes and circuits. Here we developed the selective laser sintering technology where the pattering and curing were accomplished simultaneously without making additional masks. The CFA was composed of micro-scale Ag flakes, multiwalled carbon nanotubes decorated with Ag nanoparticles, and a nitrile–butadiene–rubber matrix. The Teflon-coated polyethylene terephthalate film was used as a flexible substrate. The width of lines (50–500 μm) and circuit patterns were controlled by the programmable scanning of a focused laser beam (power = 50 mW, scanning speed = 1 mm s−1). The laser irradiation removed solvent and induced effective coalescence among fillers providing a conductivity as high as 25 012 S cm−1. The conductivity stability was excellent under the ambient air and humid environments. The normalized resistance change of the pattern was smaller than 1.2 at the bending radius of 5 mm. The cyclability and adhesion of the laser-sintered line pattern on the substrate was excellent. A flexible circuit was fabricated sequentially for operating light emitting diodes during the bending motion, demonstrating excellent feasibility for practical applications in flexible electronics.