Solution-Processed Fabrication And
Transfer Patterning
Lithography-Electrodeposition-Imprint-Transfer (LEIT) Processing
InterLitho adopts a patented cost-effective and scalable vacuum-free LEIT process, developed by our founding team, to fabricate micro- and nanoscale metallic structures for electronic and optical applications on both rigid and flexible substrates. The LEIT method combines lithography, electrodeposition, imprint, and transfer processes. The solution-processed method exhibits advantages of high efficiency and low cost in fabrication, especially in mass production, when compared with conventional vacuum deposition methods, such as electron beam or thermal evaporation.
Micro- and nanoscale patterns are firstly created in the resist layer on a conductive substrate, serving as a mask for depositing patterned metallic structures in a subsequent electrodeposition process. The electrodeposited metallic structures can then be transferred to target substrates, such as PET, COC or UV-curable media through hot-embossing or UV-curing, for functional device applications. Reusable electroplating templates are also designed and used to further reduce the cost in mass production.
LEIT process also enables the fabrication of ultrathin and ultrafine metal stencil masks with microscale features, which are particularly beneficial to R&D of advanced materials and devices, such as perovskite, OLED, neuromorphic devices, etc.
Nanotransfer Printing
Many emerging applications such as flexible wearable electronics often involve flexible or non-planar substrates, where direct lithographic fabrication is difficult. The most adopted approach is to transfer pre-fabricated structures from a conventional substrate. InterLitho employs a water-soluble polymer as the transfer media to achieve a high-fidelity and clean nanotransfer that enables sub-50-nm spacing with a high transfer yield. Such transfer can be achieved on arbitrary substrates with rigid, flexible, planar, or curved surfaces.