Roll-to-Roll Microcontact Printing of Flexible Aluminum Substrates Using Octadecylphosphonic Acid (ODPA)

Soft-lithography, or the printing of self-assembling molecular inks at micro or sub-micron scale holds the promise of large-scale surface patterning for a variety of applications. One key to the ultimate utility of this concept is continuous roll-to-roll printing on lost-cost flexible substrates. Ac...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: AlQahtani, Hussain, Merian, Christopher, Du, Xian, Hardt, David E
Other Authors: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering
Format: Article
Language:en_US
Published: American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) 2017
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/108483
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4239-2295
Description
Summary:Soft-lithography, or the printing of self-assembling molecular inks at micro or sub-micron scale holds the promise of large-scale surface patterning for a variety of applications. One key to the ultimate utility of this concept is continuous roll-to-roll printing on lost-cost flexible substrates. Accordingly, this paper discusses the basic processes involved in roll-to-roll printing of octadecylphosphonic acid (ODPA) on aluminum-coated PET substrates using novel cylindrical stamps cast from PDMS. In addition to printing, visualization of the pattern is achieved through controlled condensation of water vapor and by a post-printing acid etch. By using a roll-to-roll configuration, along with continuous stamps and measurements that can permit real-time online quality monitoring, this method represents a significant step forward in making soft lithography a commercially viable process.