Lasers for printed electronics – how laser processing adds the detail that printers struggle to achieve

Printed and large area electronics continue to develop, enabling: displays; touch screens; a huge range of sensors and many other devices. Printing can be very fast but is fundamentally limited in resolution. Laser processing can be used to enhance printing capabilities: either by trimming printed metal tracks to add high resolution features; by selectively sintering metallised tracks or by pre-processing the substrate before printing to control wetting of the ink and, hence, distribution on the surface. Some examples of these ideas are presented along with their application to real-world devices.