HELSINKI -- The VTT Technical Research Centre has developed a method for the manufacture of thin-film transistors using a roll-to-roll technique. The new technique uses printing, the institute says, for the deposition of patterns on the substrate layer of film.

The development could expand the range of electronics components and products while slashing their production costs, VTT asserts. Thin-film transistors are considered to be more suitable than traditional silicon chip transistors for applications such as large-surface display screens, certain sensor applications, toys, games and smart cards.  

With the aid of a novel self-aligning technique, the method under development eliminates the challenge of aligning the patterns in the different thin-film layers accurately against each other in the roll-to-roll process. In addition, the pattern size for transistor components is pushed to the limit of minuteness possible for printing techniques; this means patterns of a few dozen micrometers at their smallest.

For transistor technology, roll-to-roll fabrication techniques have a range of advantages. These include the possibility to use large surface areas, as well as mechanical flexibility, transparency and low production start-up costs. Until now, production of thin-film transistors has typically been only partly based on roll-to-roll techniques, resulting in fairly high mass-production costs.

As the technology matures, it is predicted that the markets for thin film transistors will grow from their current value of $3 million to around $180 million over the next decade, VTT said.

The project was underwritten in part by the EU-funded POLARIC research project.

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