Glossary: Transfer printing

A printing method by which the pattern is printed onto an intermediate medium such as plastic film or paper and then applied to the final product to be printed by pressure and/or heat or other treatment that makes the pattern leave the transfer medium and deposit permanently on the product to be printed. T Traditionally, the transfer of a design onto fabric using a specially coated paper printed by an inkjet printer or colour copier. The design is applied to the fabric with a hot iron or a heat press. However, in printed electronics, one meets it as a possibility for printing down thin films that are strictly not printed when they are formed, examples being RF sputtered NiCoFe electromagnetic patterns for Electronic Article Surveillance and RFID smart labels. For instance, Seiko Epson and Kovio are researching hot deposition of thin silicon films for TFTCs that are then transferred to a low cost low temperature substrate used in packaging and labels etc such as polyester. Flying Null offers transfer printing of its RFID ribbon called EMID.

 

See the IDTechEx report Introduction to Printed Electronics