Summary:
UCLA researchers in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering have developed an innovative metal patterning fabrication technique that produces highly conductive metallic patterns at room temperature on a broad range of substrate materials.
Background:
Photo-lithographic techniques for metal patterning have enabled incredible advancements in integrated circuits, micro electromechanical systems (MEMS), and wearable devices, but these techniques are often expensive, sensitive, and highly complex. As a result, they are not suitable for rapid prototyping facilities. While many additive manufacturing techniques have arisen in prominence for rapid prototyping, including inkjet printing and direct laser writing, many of these techniques require lengthy post-processing techniques and have limited resolution ranges. Photo-lithographic techniques and additive manufacturing also have very strict substrate requirements which is not ideal when widespread adoption is the goal. Most work in this area has focused on silver, but gold has superior chemical stability, conductivity, biocompatibility, and other desired properties. There is a need for a high-resolution metal patterning technique that is highly efficient, compatible with high-conductivity gold, and can achieve conductive patterns irrespective of the substrate of interest.
Innovation:
Professor Ximin He and her team of researchers have developed a metal patterning technique that can deposit high-resolution patterns at room temperature and does not require post-processing treatments. The technique simultaneously produces, deposits, and sinters metal in a single step in-situ¬ without highly expensive optical equipment. Furthermore, this technique can be employed on a wide variety of substrate materials including low-melting point materials due to the limited generation of heat. High-resolution metallic patterns with high conductivity can be applied to rigid, flexible, and stretchable substrates which may accelerate innovation in the flexible electronics and soft robotics fields.
Potential Applications:
• Micro electromechanical system (MEMS)
• Semiconductor manufacturing
• Flexible electronics manufacturing
• Wearable devices
• Biomedical applications
Advantages:
• High resolution
• Efficient
• Does not require expensive optical equipment
• No post-processing required
• Can deposit metal on a wide variety of substrates including low-melting point polymers
• 2D or 3D patterning capability
Development to Date:
Invention fully conceived and reduced to practice in a laboratory setting
Related Papers (from the inventors only):
Wu, D., Yao, B., Wu, S., Hingorani, H., Cui, Q., Hua, M., Frenkel, I., Du, Y., Hsiai, T. K., He, X., Room-Temperature Annealing-Free Gold Printing via Anion-Assisted Photochemical Deposition. Adv. Mater. 2022, 2201772. https://doi.org/10.1002/adma.202201772
Reference: UCLA Case No. 2022-266