Complementary transfer-assisted patterning of high-resolution heterogeneous elements on plastic substrates for flexible electronics

We developed a versatile platform to construct heterogeneous organic and metallic elements with micrometer features on a plastic substrate in a complementary transfer-assisted patterning (CTAP) scheme. The underlying concept relies on a high-resolution transfer-printing process of a sacrificial layer, producing complementary patterns of the elements, in combination with a lift-off technique for removing the sacrificial layer to leave only active patterns on a variety of substrates. No detrimental errors in sequentially defining patterns of both an organic material and a metal are involved during lifting-off the sacrificial layers in multilayer architecture. We demonstrated the generic principle of the CTAP in the fabrication of short-channel organic thin film transistors on glass substrates and organic inverters on plastic substrates for flexible electronics.