• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.27 no.9
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• pp.7-10
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• 2010

Recently, roll-to-roll printers are being developed actively by various research teams such as research institutes, universities and companies for the application of printed electronics. The printing methods that are widely used in the roll-to-roll printing equipments are gravure, gravure and flexo, which depend on the inks used and electronic devices produced. In general, a single printing unit of roll-to-roll printing equipment adopts only one printing method and this method is not changeable, which limits the application fields of the developed printing equipments. In this paper, the roll-to-roll printer, in which the printing unit has the novel design concept, is described.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.28 no.10
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• pp.1141-1145
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• 2011

Recently, there are many issues about R2R printing technique for mass production of electronic devices. Among the various Roll-to-roll based printing techniques such as gravure, off-set, flexo and so on, "Gravure off-set printing technique" has an advantage of higher printing resolution. The printing unit of gravure off-set printing technique usually consists of plate roll, blanket roll and impressure roll whose. Linear velocities should be synchronized each other for fine pattern printing. However, roller's manufacturing error and printing variations such as pringting pressure, printing speed, roll stroke and so on actually affected their synchronization anf thus the quality of fine fattern. In this paper, we analyzed the effective of synchronization error on printing quality. Also, this paper reviews the relative motion with each roll. And, this paper studys the synchronization error about its generation problem.

• Proceedings of the Materials Research Society of Korea Conference
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• 2011.05a
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• pp.2.2-2.2
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• 2011

In this talk, the general concept of roll-to-roll printing technologies will be introduced with basic fundamentals of ink formulations for printing electronic devices as the first part of the talk. As the second part, based on the R2R printing process, key factors for printing TFTs, IC, PV and display would be presented using the information from the case study of R2R gravure and offset.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2006.05a
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• pp.583-584
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• 2006

Printing technology has begun to get into the spotlight in many ways due to the low cost effectiveness to existent semi-conductor process. It also has very useful application areas, not only paper printing but also patterning for LCD color tilter, Photovoltaic patterning, RFID antenna, OLED, and so on. In this study, an apparatus of gravure offset printing was developed for fine line width printing. The pattern was composed of $20{\mu}m$ size of continuous lines of which pitch size was $40{\mu}m$. The printed pattern shows that it is possible to make around $20{\mu}m$ line-width printing pattern. The roll-to-roll printing system for fine line-width printing based on primary experiment is presented. For testing of multi-layer printing, the system was designed to be capable of printing two different materials from each printing unit using gravure-offset printing method and have a function of alignment of two printed materials.

• Laser Solutions
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.17-23
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• 2013

The research for the development of roll-to-roll printing process is actively underway on behalf of the existing semiconductor process. The roll-to-roll printing system can make the electronic devices to low-cost mass production. This study is performed for developing the manufacturing technology of the printing roll used in the printing process of electronic devices. The indirect laser engraving technology is used to create printable roll and the printable roll is made out of the chrome coated roll after coating copper and polymer on the surface of steel roll, ablating the polymer on the surface of roll and etching the roll. The 3 dimensional laser scanner and roll rotating systems are constructed and the system control program is developed. We have used the fiber laser of 100 W grade, the 3 dimensional laser scanner and the 3 axes moving stage system with a rotating axis. We have found the optimal conditions by performing the laser patterning experiments and can make the minimum line width of $24{\mu}m$ by using the developed 3 dimensional laser scanner system.

• Journal of the Semiconductor & Display Technology
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.55-60
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• 2010

Ink transfer process from the printing roll to the moving web was investigated using a CFD technique for the application in R2R printed electronics. In line with the requirement that the web handling speed needs to be increased further for the cost competitiveness, the effects of web moving velocity with relatively complex roll patterns were analyzed. To make the present analysis more realistic, the numerical geometry and the ink properties were selected to match those of the real printing production system. Our numerical results showed that both web handling speed and complex printing-roll patterns influenced the shape of the transferred ink. As the web moving speed approaches towards 30mpm, a significant distortion of the shape of the transferred ink occurred. In the range of pattern width smaller than 100 microns, a phase distortion was also found to occur in all the printing-roll patterns considered in the present work but the ratio of the phase distortion to the line width gets smaller as the width becomes smaller. Thus, the web handling speed and the shape of printing-roll pattern will be important elements for the better printing quality under 100 micron line width range.

• Proceedings of the Materials Research Society of Korea Conference
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• 2010.05a
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• pp.19.1-19.1
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• 2010

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.

• Laser Solutions
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.6-9
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• 2010

In printed electronics, printing rolls are used to transfer electronic ink onto a flexible substrate. Generally printing rolls are being made by the indirect laser method which is based on the etch process, thus not environment-friendly and not suitable for making a large printing roll. For the pursuit of making a large printing roll for mass printing of electronic devices, we have directly engraved micro-patterns into a Zn plated printing roll using a 30W pulse-modulated fiber laser. We have successfully engraved line patterns ranging from about 15-30${\mu}m$ in width.

• Proceedings of the Materials Research Society of Korea Conference
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• 2009.05a
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• pp.15.2-15.2
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• 2009

Manufacturing of printed electronics using printing technology has begun to get into the hot issue in many ways due to the low cost effectiveness to existing semi-conductor process. This technology with both low cost and high productivity, can be applied in the production of organic thin film transistor (OTFT), solar cell, radio frequency identification (RFID) tag, printed battery, E-paper, touch screen panel, black matrix for liquid crystal display (LCD), flexible display, and so forth. The emerging technology to manufacture the products in mass production is roll-to-roll printing technology which is a manufacturing method by printings of multi-layered patterns composed of semi-conductive, dielectric and conductive layers. In contrary to the conventional printing machines in which printing precision is about $50~100{\mu}m$, the printing machines for printed electronics should have a precision under $30{\mu}m$. In general, in order to implement printed electronics, narrow width and gap printing, register of multi-layer printing by several printing units, and printing accuracy of under $30{\mu}m$ are all required. We developed the roll-to-roll printing equipment used for printed electronics, which is composed of un-winder, re-winder, tension measurement system, feeding units, dancer systems, guide unit, printing unit, vision system, dryer units, and various auxiliary devices. The equipment is designed based on cantilever type in which all rollers except printing ones have cantilever types, which could give more accurate machine precision as well as convenience for changing rollers and observing the process.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2010.06a
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• pp.84.1-84.1
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• 2010

Currently, new and renewable energy come into the spotlight, such as solar energy, wind power, fuel cell, hybrid car etc., due to the energy resource is being depleted. Especially, in order to solve like this problem, the study of solar cell manufacturing systems are being extensively researched such as vacuum process. But the major fault of the vacuum process are its expensive production price. On the order hand, Roll-to-roll printing system, the new technology of solar cell manufacturing, has low production price compare with the vacuum process. Also roll-to-roll printing system can decrease the 95% of waste water and 99.9% of harmful gasses than the vacuum process. So we addressed the roll to roll printing system for the flexible solar cell by using printing technology. This roll-to-roll printing system is comprised of various modules, such as web handling module, fine pattern printing module, dry/curing module, uniform coating module and laminating module etc.