Aerosol jet printed top grids for organic optoelectronic devices

• Digitally printed silver grids with 20 μm line widths fabricated on top of inverted organic solar cells.
• Highly transparent (>90%) and low resistive (∼10 Ω/□) printed current collecting grids.
• Significantly increased PCE by 64% due to low sheet resistance.
• Ink formulation was optimized for homogeneous printing results at higher printing speeds.
• Devices with printed top electrode grids have been demonstrated with 1D, 2D, and hexagonal grid layout.

Aerosol jet deposited metallic grids are very promising as transparent electrodes for large area organic solar cells and organic light emitting diodes. However, the homogeneity and the printing speed remain a challenge. We report homogeneous and rapidly printed metallic lines based on a complex-based metal–organic silver ink using a processing temperature of 140 °C. We show that inhomogeneities, which are present in printed structures at increased printing speeds and mainly caused by drying effects, can be improved by adding high boiling point solvents. We demonstrate solution processed highly conductive and transparent hybrid electrodes on inverted organic solar cells comprising digitally printed top silver grids.

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