Glossary: Microcontact printing

Microcontact Printing ìCP the most important representative out of the group of novel patterning techniques that includes soft lithography and is capable of very fine definition. In ìCP, as in many conventional printing techniques, a patterned stamp is brought into contact with a substrate to transfer an ink to and thus create an image of the stamp pattern on the substrate surface as a Self Assembled Monolayer SAM. In the next processing step, this image may be transferred into the substrate material by, for instance, an etching or a material deposition process. In the case of etching, the pattern formed by the ink on the substrate surface can be utilized as an etch resist, whereas in the latter deposition process it may serve as a template for further material growth.

The stamp is usually made from an elastomeric polymer, such as poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS). This material allows for conformal contact with the substrate combined with advantageous chemical and physical properties important for the ink transfer behaviour. Stamps are fabricated by casting a pre-polymers on a master with a negative of the desired pattern, curing it, and peeling the cured stamp off the master.

 

See the IDTechEx report Introduction to Printed Electronics