High Speed Roll-to-Roll Printable Transistor Enabled by a Pulsed Light Curable CNT Ink

Abstract

This paper reports the first high speed roll-to-roll printable transistor using a carbon nanotube (CNT) semiconducting layer. The transistor is made possible through the development of a pulsed light curable CNT ink compatible with typical drop on demand inkjet cartridges. This CNT ink uses a xylene based solvent with methanol, glycerin, and Triton X-100 modifiers to create an evaporable solution with appropriate absorption spectra for a mercury or xenon flash lamp with strong energy transmission in the UVB to mid visible light range, allowing the solution to absorb the energy from the flash lamp and evaporate. Transistor dimensions were defined by the capabilities of a typical roll-to-roll drop on demand cartridge. The final device demonstrated an on/off ratio of 104, representing performance similar to gravure printed devices. This represents the first CNT ink which can be used in high speed production methods without long thermal curing steps in the workflow.

Keywords

• flexible printed circuits
• carbon nanotubes
• semiconductor nanotubes
• production engineering