Area-Selective Atomic Layer Deposition Patterned by Electrohydrodynamic Jet Printing for Additive Manufacturing of Functional Materials and Devices

• Published in: ACS nano Vol. 14; no. 12; pp. 17262 - 17272
• Main Authors: Cho, Tae H, Farjam, Nazanin, Allemang, Christopher R, Pannier, Christopher P, Kazyak, Eric, Huber, Carli, Rose, Mattison, Trejo, Orlando, Peterson, Rebecca L, Barton, Kira, Dasgupta, Neil P
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: American Chemical Society 22-12-2020
• Subjects: printable electronics; additive manufacturing; atomic layer deposition; area-selective deposition; electrohydrodynamic jet printing
• ISSN: 1936-0851; 1936-086X
• DOI: 10.1021/acsnano.0c07297

There is an increasing interest in additive nanomanufacturing processes, which enable customizable patterning of functional materials and devices on a wide range of substrates. However, there are relatively few techniques with the ability to directly 3D print patterns of functional materials with sub-micron resolution. In this study, we demonstrate the use of additive electrohydrodynamic jet (e-jet) printing with an average line width of 312 nm, which acts as an inhibitor for area-selective atomic layer deposition (AS-ALD) of a range of metal oxides. We also demonstrate subtractive e-jet printing with solvent inks that dissolve polymer inhibitor layers in specific regions, which enables localized AS-ALD within those regions. The chemical selectivity and morphology of e-jet patterned polymers towards binary and ternary oxides of ZnO, Al2O3, and SnO2 were quantified using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, atomic force microscopy, and Auger electron spectroscopy. This approach enables patterning of functional oxide semiconductors, insulators, and transparent conducting oxides with tunable composition, Å-scale control of thickness, and sub-μm resolution in the x–y plane. Using a combination of additive and subtractive e-jet printing with AS-ALD, a thin-film transistor was fabricated using zinc–tin-oxide for the semiconductor channel and aluminum-doped zinc oxide as the source and drain electrical contacts. In the future, this technique can be used to print integrated electronics with sub-micron resolution on a variety of substrates.