Development of Process and Equipment for Roll-to-Roll convergence printing technology

The process of manufacturing printed electronics using printing technology is attracting attention because its process cost is lower than that of the conventional semiconductor process. This technology, which offers both a lower cost and higher productivity, can be applied in the production of organic TFT (thin film transistor), solar cell, RFID(radio frequency identification) tag, printed battery, E-paper, touch screen panel, black matrix for LCD(liquid crystal display), flexible display, and so forth. In general, in order to implement printed electronics, narrow width and gap printing, registration of multi-layer printing by several printing units, and printing accuracy of under $20\;{\mu}m$ are all required. These electronic products require high precision to the degree of tens of microns - in a large area with flexible material, and mass productivity at low cost. As such, the roll-to-roll printing process is attracting attention as a mass production system for these printed electronic devices. For the commercialization of this process, two basic electronic ink technologies, such as conductive ink and polymers, and printing equipment have to be developed. Therefore, this paper addressed basis design and test to develop fine patterning equipment employing the roll-to-roll printing equipment and electronic ink.