Department of Electronics Engineering, Gachon University, Seongnam, 13120, Republic of Korea.
PulseForge Corporation, Seoul, 04070, Republic of Korea.
Sci Rep. 2023 Jan 19;13(1):1042. doi: 10.1038/s41598-023-27942-4.
High-throughput transparent and flexible electronics are essential technologies for next-generation displays, semiconductors, and wearable bio-medical applications. However, to manufacture a high-quality transparent and flexible electrode, conventional annealing processes generally require 5 min or more at a high temperature condition of 300 °C or higher. This high thermal budget condition is not only difficult to apply to general polymer-based flexible substrates, but also results in low-throughput. Here, we report a high-quality transparent electrode produced with an extremely low thermal budget using Xe-flash lamp rapid photonic curing. Photonic curing is an extremely short time (~ μs) process, making it possible to induce an annealing effect of over 800 °C. The photonic curing effect was optimized by selecting the appropriate power density, the irradiation energy of the Xe-flash lamp, and Ag layer thickness. Rapid photonic curing produced an ITO-Ag-ITO electrode with a low sheet resistance of 6.5 ohm/sq, with a high luminous transmittance of 92.34%. The low thermal budget characteristics of the rapid photonic curing technology make it suitable for high-quality transparent electronics and high-throughput processes such as roll-to-roll.
高通量透明柔性电子产品是下一代显示、半导体和可穿戴生物医学应用的关键技术。然而，为了制造高质量的透明和柔性电极，传统的退火工艺通常需要在 300°C 或更高的高温条件下持续 5 分钟或更长时间。这种高的热预算条件不仅难以应用于普通聚合物基柔性基底，而且还导致低产量。在这里，我们报告了一种使用 Xe 闪光灯快速光子固化技术以极低的热预算生产的高质量透明电极。光子固化是一个极短的时间（约 μs）过程，使其能够诱导超过 800°C 的退火效果。通过选择适当的功率密度、Xe 闪光灯的辐照能量和 Ag 层厚度来优化光子固化效果。快速光子固化产生了 ITO-Ag-ITO 电极，其方阻低至 6.5 欧姆/平方，光透过率高达 92.34%。快速光子固化技术的低热预算特性使其适用于高质量透明电子学和高通量工艺，如卷对卷。
