Direct writing of anodic oxides for plastic electronics

Abstract

Flexible circuits: anodization makes them all! A simple concept of scanning head-guided anodization is shown to be highly expandable to fabricate various electronic components. A team led by Professor Siegfried Bauer from Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria develops a universal and patternable printing protocol of anodic oxides for a full range of circuit components for flexible devices. The researchers employ a scanning droplet cell microscope to anodize the pre-deposited thin metal films to form dielectric layers with good control in both lateral dimension and vertical thickness. They demonstrate the versatility of the on-site anodization methods by fabricating oxides-based resistors, diodes, transistors and memristors, and multilayer capacitors with a record-high areal capacity of 4 µF cm−2. The approach is cheap, adaptable, and thus ideal for rapid-prototyping of metal oxides circuits for various applications.