Newly developed soft blanket reverse-offset (SBR) printing technology for forming widely patterned layers on curved surfaces

Abstract

We have been employing novel printing technologies in three-dimensional printed electronics applications, to form electronic devices on curved or three-dimensional object surfaces. In this paper, we report on a newly developed printing technology named ‘soft blanket reverse-offset’ (SBR) printing, which was developed to create wide and flat patterned layers with uniform thicknesses on curved surfaces. SBR printing is an extension of conventional reverse-offset printing and uses an extremely thick and soft blanket (referred to as a “soft blanket”) as an offset roller. We also created a new thick stencil printing plate and a two-layered soft blanket construction that avoids the formation of contact-defects. In addition, we have also succeeded in printing wide and flat patterned layers onto curved surfaces using commercially available silver nanoparticle inks. The printed layers are also characterized by uniform thicknesses and low resistivities, equivalent to those of layers printed on planar substrates.