Patterned Metal/Polymer Composite Film with Good Mechanical Stability and Repeatability for Flexible Electronic Devices Using Nanoimprint Technology.

Xu Zheng,Yao Li,Jinjin Luan,Ning Wang,Qing Wang

doi:10.3390/mi10100651

Abstract

Mechanical stability and repeatability are significant factors for the application of metal film flexible electronic devices. In this work, patterned metal/polymer composite films with good mechanical stability and repeatability were fabricated through nanoimprint technology. The mechanical properties characteristic of metal/polymer composite films were exhibited by resistance change (ΔR/R0) after cyclic tension and bending loading. It was found that the ΔR/R0 and error line of patterned metal/polymer composite film was far lower than the other control groups for repeated experiments, which indicates that patterned metal film has excellent mechanical properties and repeatability. The double cantilever beam method was employed to measure the interfacial adhesion properties of composite films. The average interfacial adhesion of patterned metal/polymer composite films is shown to be over 2.9 and 2.2 times higher than that of metal film deposited on bare polymer and metal nanowire-treated polymer substrates, respectively.

Highlights

The application of metal/polymer composite films in a flexible strain sensor [1,2], human motion sensor [3,4], microelectronics [5] and film solar cells [6,7] has attracted the attention of researchers
The results show that the stability of these three samples cannot be guaranteed, and it is difficult to apply them as precision samples to industrial production
The metal thin film deposited on patterned flexible polymer substrate is developed to improve the repeatability and mechanical stability of composite film material through Nanoimprint lithography (NIL)

Summary

Introduction

The application of metal/polymer composite films in a flexible strain sensor [1,2], human motion sensor [3,4], microelectronics [5] and film solar cells [6,7] has attracted the attention of researchers. Metal thin films [8,9], metal nanowires [10,11], and graphene [12,13] fabricated on flexible polymers are being generally applied to electronic devices. Delamination and cracks in metal/polymer composite films can emerge under cyclic loading because of interfacial bonding failure [16]. This leads to a loss of durability, stability and sensitivity for the device. The performance of an electronic device obtained by the existing metal film preparation method is unstable under load due to the randomness of crack propagation. Enhancing the mechanical stability and repeatability of metal/polymer composite films is urgent in order to improve flexible and stretchable electronic devices

Objectives

Results

Conclusion