Inkjet-printed, self-aligned organic Schottky diodes on imprinted plastic substrates

Roll-to-roll printing provides an efficient way to fabricate large quantities of flexible electronic devices at low cost. However, building a single multilayered electronic device such as a diode requires precise layer-to-layer alignment, which is currently a major technical challenge for roll-to-roll printing. Here, we report a novel self-aligned strategy to fabricate fully printed organic Schottky diodes on pre-patterned plastic substrates. This strategy utilizes imprinted networks of capillary channels to guide the flow of inks delivered sequentially into adjoining ink receivers by inkjet printing, allowing self-alignment at the micrometer level. The optimized design of the capillary channels and ink receivers realized better control of ink flows and significantly improved device yield. Printed diodes exhibited outstanding rectification ratios (>10⁴) and excellent stability against repeated bending. Our work demonstrates a promising method for large-scale manufacturing of flexible and printed diodes.