Laser selective patterning of ITO on flexible PET for organic photovoltaics

Flexible organic photovoltaics have gained increasing interests during the last decades. Toward increasing the efficiency and decreasing the cost per Watt, they are on their way to the market. The approach of laser patterning technology has been expected to motivate the industrialization of organic photovoltaics. In this paper high repetition picosecond laser radiation fabricated trenches of ITO on flexible PET (Polyethylene terephthalate) substrate are presented. In order to obtain clean removal ITO layer without damaging PET substrate, 1064nm, 532nm and 355nm wavelengths with different laser fluencies and scanning strategies are applied and optimized. The results reveal the different principles for ablation of ITO layer with different wavelengths. The ITO layer is successfully and selectively removed by 1064nm laser radiation with 0.63J/cm2 fluence and 4m/s scanning speed.

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