Printing polymer circuits with lasers

Technology Review : Polymer circuits are desirable because they have the potential to be cheap, light, and flexible. However, their manufacture usually involves polymers in their liquid form and corrosive solvents, each of which can cause problems. A new technique avoids both problems by using a laser to transfer a solid polymer onto a substrate. Maria Kandyla of the National Technical University of Athens, Greece, and her colleagues spread a layer of solid, conducting polymer on a thin sheet of glass, through which a laser is fired. When the laser passes through the glass, it knocks the polymer off the surface and forces it onto a substrate placed a few micrometers away. By moving the glass sheet and the substrate, Kandyla’s team can trace a circuit made of the conducting polymer onto the surface of the substrate. So far the researchers have tested the technique with two different polymers, but they still have to determine whether the ablation process alters the chemical properties of the polymers and the quality of the resulting circuits.