Laser Sweeping Lithography: Parallel Bottom-up Growth Sintering of a Nanoseed-Organometallic Hybrid Suspension for Ecofriendly Mass Production of Electronics

Abstract

We present a novel laser sweeping lithography (LSL) process, revolving around an ecofriendly mass production method, to fabricate conductive patterns in parallel with no restriction on the type of substrate. Particle-free organometallic solution is reformulated in process into a nanoseed-organometallic hybrid suspension, via an incomplete thermal decomposition using radiative heating. The growth sintering undergoing a series of ion precipitation, clustering, growing, and agglomeration procedures is then initiated by irradiating a line modulated diode laser of a near-infrared wavelength through a thermally enforced laser mask on the hybrid suspension. This leads to the concurrent parallel production of silver conductors with a high-conductivity (2.9 mu Omega.cm), durability, and resolution of 5 mu m on the corresponding to mask openings, without the need of any additional steps and corrosive chemicals. This method is highly effective for large-area fabrication of high-density electronics, as the production time proportionally decreases with increased pattern density and area, compared to conventional laser fabrication methods based on a single laser spot. Therefore, the LSL process is suitable for ecofriendly mass production of various electronic devices in industrial environments.