The focus of this research was to develop a process suitable for creating very high resolution conductive patterns on polymer substrates, in a way that can be scaled to high volume manufacturing. The original motivation for this work came from the problem of manufacturing electrodes on microfluidic devices (which in volume production are commonly formed from polymers), but the findings of this work also have applications in flexible electronics, optics, surface patterning, organic micromanufacturing, and photovoltaics. After an initial exploration of various micromanufacturing processes, microcontact printing (μCP) was chosen as the most promising technique for further study. By using μCP to directly pattern conductive inks, this work has demonstrated previously unachievable printing: feature sizes down to 5μm, using liquid inks on polymer substrates, with a process that can be scaled to high-volume production. An understanding of the mechanisms of direct liquid ink transfer was used to identify relevant process input and output factors, and then the process sensitivities of those factors were investigated with a careful design of experiments. From the empirical data, a process model was built with generalized variables. This model was then used to successfully predict behavior of other inks and other substrates, thus validating the model and showing that it is extendable for future work. By developing an empirically verified model of ink transfer at the micron scale, this work has enabled a process for low cost, high volume microfeature patterning over large areas on polymer substrates. Thesis Supervisor: David E. Hardt Title: Ralph E. and Eloise F. Cross Professor of Mechanical Engineering

中文翻译：

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在聚合物基材上制造导电图案：微接触印刷工艺的发展

这项研究的重点是开发一种适合在聚合物基板上创建超高分辨率导电图案的工艺，这种工艺可以扩展到大批量制造。这项工作的最初动机来自于在微流体设备（批量生产中通常由聚合物形成）上制造电极的问题，但这项工作的发现也适用于柔性电子、光学、表面图案化、有机微制造和光伏发电。在对各种微制造工艺进行初步探索后，微接触印刷 (μCP) 被选为最有前途的进一步研究技术。通过使用 μCP 直接图案化导电油墨，这项工作证明了以前无法实现的印刷：特征尺寸低至 5μm，在聚合物基材上使用液体墨水，其工艺可扩展到大批量生产。对直接液体油墨转移机制的理解被用来确定相关的过程输入和输出因素，然后通过精心设计的实验研究这些因素的过程敏感性。根据经验数据，用广义变量建立了一个过程模型。该模型随后被用于成功预测其他油墨和其他基材的行为，从而验证该模型并表明它可扩展用于未来的工作。通过开发一个经过经验验证的微米级油墨转移模型，这项工作实现了在聚合物基材上的大面积上进行低成本、高容量微特征图案化的过程。论文导师：David E. Hardt 题目：Ralph E. 和 Eloise F.