A review of the scalable nano-manufacturing technology for flexible devices

Abstract

Recent advances in electronic and photonic devices, such as artificial skin, wearable systems, organic and inorganic light-emitting diodes, have gained considerable commercial and scientific interest in the academe and in industries. However, low-cost and high-throughput nano-manufacturing is difficult to realize with the use of traditional photolithographic processes. In this review, we summarize the status and the limitations of current nano-patterning techniques for scalable and flexible functional devices in terms of working principle, resolution, and processing speed. Finally, several remaining unsolved problems in nano-manufacturing are discussed, and future research directions are highlighted.

Keywords

flexible nano-manufacturing / flexible devices / nanofabrication / scalability

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Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge financial support given by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 91323303, 61401292, 61405133, 61505131, and 61575135), the Jiangsu Science and Technology Department (Grant Nos. BK20140350, BK20140348, and BK20150309), the Specialized Research Fund for the Doctoral Program of Higher Education (Grant No. 20133201120027), the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (Grant No. 2015M571816), and the project of the Priority Academic Program Development (PAPD) of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions.

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