Large-area laser printing of Ag thick film pattern with stepwise edge morphology

We here report that Ag thick films solution deposited on transparent substrate can be printed onto such receiver substrates as glass and Si by a spatially modulated Nd:YAG pulsed laser beam incident from the backside of the source substrate. High-fidelity patterns with a minimum feature size of ∼10 μm could be fabricated over several square centimeters by a single pulse with energy 850 mJ. The printed film, followed by annealing at 450 °C, exhibited a linear voltage–current relation and the sheet resistance decreased with increasing thickness. Ag films as thick as 1.8 μm could be printed with stepwise edge morphology when they were properly dried prior to printing. A very low sheet resistance of 0.14 Ω/sq was observed for this thickness.