Fabrication of flexible organic electronic microcircuit pattern using near-field electrohydrodynamic direct-writing method

Inorganic materials face enormous challenges in designing and processing flexible devices that can be stretchable, crimped and folded. Organic materials have attracted wide attention because of their flexible properties and advantages in manufacturing flexible electronic devices. In this study, the flexible organic microcircuit pattern of poly (3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):poly (styrenesulfonate) material was fabricated by using the near-field electrohydrodynamic direct -writing method, the experimental results show that the bending deformation of the flexible substrate with different curvatures has no effect on the conductivity of the microcircuit pattern deposited on the flexible substrate, which has no effect on the performance of the flexible microcircuit pattern. In order to improve the conductivity of the flexible organic electronic microcircuit, the multi-layer microcircuit pattern was fabricated by using the near-field electrohydrodynamic direct-writing method. With the increase of the number of the direct-writing micro-pattern layer, the conductivity of the microcircuit patterns sintered at 105 degrees C for 10 min increase from 168.32 to 313.05 S/cm. Atomic force microscope was used to observe the morphology of the direct-writing microcircuit patterns. With the increase of the layer number of the microcircuit pattern, the internal density of the microcircuit pattern increases, and the microcircuit-pattern morphology becomes smoother. The experimental results show that the multi-layer direct- writing method can effectively improve the conductivity of the flexible organic electronic microcircuit pattern. This study provides a new method to fabricate the flexible organic microcircuit pattern with high conductivity by a non-contact and low-cost mode.