Method of forming an electronic device

• US 6,503,831 B2
• Filed: 02/06/2002
• Issued: 01/07/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 10/14/1997
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Patterning Technologies Limited
• Original Assignee: Patterning Technologies Limited
• Inventors: Speakman, Stuart
• Primary Examiner(s): Niebling, John F.
• Assistant Examiner(s): LINDSAY JR, WALTER LEE
• Application Number:
  US10/068,453
• Publication Number:
  US 20020105080A1
• Time in Patent Office: 335 Days
• Field of Search: 438/674, 438/30, 438/31, 438/32, 438/29, 347/107, 400/120.03
• US Class Current: 438/674
• CPC Class Codes: B33Y 10/00 Processes of additive manufacturing
• CPC Class Codes: B33Y 40/00 Auxiliary operations or equipment, e.g. for material handling
• CPC Class Codes: B33Y 40/10 Pre-treatment
• CPC Class Codes: B33Y 80/00 Products made by additive manufacturing
• CPC Class Codes: B41J 2/01 Ink jet
• CPC Class Codes: B41J 2/14233 of film type, deformed by bending and disposed on a diaphragm
• CPC Class Codes: B41J 3/407 for marking on special material
• CPC Class Codes: B41J 3/4073 Printing on three-dimensional objects not being in sheet or web form, e.g. spherical or cubic objects B41J3/283, B41J3/286 take precedence; building up a 3D object using individual droplets from jetting heads B29C64/112
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 29/4908 for thin film semiconductor, e.g. gate of TFT
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 2924/00 Indexing scheme for arrangements or methods for connecting or disconnecting semiconductor or solid-state bodies as covered by H01L24/00
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 2924/0002 Not covered by any one of groups H01L24/00, H01L24/00 and H01L2224/00
• CPC Class Codes: H01M 10/052 Li-accumulators
• CPC Class Codes: H01M 10/0565 Polymeric materials, e.g. gel-type or solid-type
• CPC Class Codes: H01M 6/188 Processes of manufacture
• CPC Class Codes: H01M 6/40 Printed batteries , e.g. thin film batteries
• CPC Class Codes: H05K 3/102 by bonding of conductive powder, i.e. metallic powder H05K3/12 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H05K 3/125 by ink-jet printing
• CPC Class Codes: H10K 10/20 Organic diodes
• CPC Class Codes: H10K 10/46 Field-effect transistors, e.g. organic thin-film transistors [OTFT] H10K10/43 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H10K 2102/103 comprising indium oxides, e.g. ITO
• CPC Class Codes: H10K 30/00 : Organic devices sensitive to infrared radiation, light, electromagnetic radiation of shorter wavelength or corpuscular radiation integrated devices or assemblies of multiple devices H10K39/00, H10K65/00; electrolytic light-sensitive devices H01G9/20
• CPC Class Codes: H10K 30/10 : comprising heterojunctions between organic semiconductors and inorganic semiconductors
• CPC Class Codes: H10K 30/20 : comprising organic-organic junctions, e.g. donor-acceptor junctions
• CPC Class Codes: H10K 30/30 : comprising bulk heterojunctions, e.g. interpenetrating networks of donor and acceptor material domains
• CPC Class Codes: H10K 30/50 : Photovoltaic [PV] devices
• CPC Class Codes: H10K 50/11 : characterised by the electroluminescent [EL] layers
• CPC Class Codes: H10K 50/85 : Arrangements for extracting light from the devices
• CPC Class Codes: H10K 59/00 : Integrated devices, or assemblies of multiple devices, comprising at least one organic light-emitting element covered by group H10K50/00
• CPC Class Codes: H10K 59/10 : OLED displays
• CPC Class Codes: H10K 71/13 : using printing techniques, e.g. ink-jet printing or screen printing
• CPC Class Codes: H10K 71/135 : using ink-jet printing
• CPC Class Codes: H10K 71/40 : Thermal treatment, e.g. annealing in the presence of a solvent vapour
• CPC Class Codes: H10N 10/01 : Manufacture or treatment
• CPC Class Codes: Y02E 10/549 : Organic PV cells
• CPC Class Codes: Y02E 60/10 : Energy storage using batteries
• CPC Class Codes: Y02P 70/50 : Manufacturing or production processes characterised by the final manufactured product

Abstract

A method of forming an electronic device using the technique of drop on demand printing to deposit droplets of deposition material, said method comprising depositing a plurality of droplets on a surface to form a patterned electronic device comprising multiple discrete portions.

Claims

1. A method of forming a patterned circuit element on a surface using the technique of drop on demand printing to deposit droplets of deposition material, said method comprising depositing a plurality of droplets of transparent electrically conductive material on said surface to form at least part of a transparent electrically conductive element comprising multiple discrete portions.

2. A method according to claim 1, wherein said transparent electrically conductive material comprises tin oxide.

3. A method according to claim 2, wherein said tin oxide comprises indium tin oxide.

4. A method according to claim 3, further comprising annealing the deposited droplets of electrically conductive material to solidify the deposited droplets.

5. A method according to claim 1, wherein said transparent electrically conductive material comprises a conductive polymeric material.

6. A method according to claim 5, wherein the conductive polymeric material comprises polyaniline.

7. A method according to claim 1, wherein said transparent electrically conductive material comprises an organically modified ceramic.

8. A method according to claim 1, wherein said transparent electrically conductive material comprises an organically modified silicate.

9. A method according to claim 1, wherein said transparent electrically conductive material comprises a sol-gel.

10. A method according to claim 1, wherein said element comprises part of an opto-electronic device.

11. A method according to claim 1, wherein said element comprises part of a display device.

12. A method according to claim 11, wherein said display device comprises a base contact layer.

13. A method according to claim 12, wherein said base contact layer comprises one of copper and aluminium.

14. A method according to claim 11, further comprising depositing an electrically active display pixel of said display device on said contact layer.

15. A method according to claim 14, further comprising depositing a transistor switching array of said display device on said surface adjacent to said pixel.

16. A method according to claim 11, further comprising depositing an anti-reflection coating over said display device.

17. A method according to claim 1, wherein said surface comprises a flexible substrate.

18. A transparent electrically conductive element formed on a surface using the technique of drop on demand printing to deposit multiple droplets of transparent electrically conductive material to form at least part of said element, said element comprising multiple discrete portions, formed of said droplets.

19. An element according to claim 18, wherein said transparent electrically conductive material comprises tin oxide.

20. An element according to claim 18, wherein said transparent electrically conductive material comprises a conductive polymeric material.

21. An element according to claim 18, comprising part of an opto-electronic device.

22. An element according to claim 18, comprising part of a display device.

23. A display device comprising a transparent electrically conductive element formed on a surface using the technique of drop on demand printing to deposit multiple droplets of transparent electrically conductive material to form at least part of said element, said element comprising multiple discrete portions.