Abstract
This study demonstrates carbon nanotube (CNT) reinforced conductors
for flexible electronics. The supreme mechanical strength of the CNT is toughened
by the structure of the metal conductor. Conventional metal lines, fabricated
using a screen printing technique on flexible substrates, usually suffer a
great deal of stress when bending plastic substrates. These stress-strain
educed micro-fractures in the metal line reduce the reliability of the electronic
system. We fabricated a durable conductor, integrating CNTs into the conventional
metallization process. It was found that the CNT–silver composite can
be screen-printed on flexible substrates and the durability of the resulting
conduction was enhanced. Compared to CNT-polymer-based materials, the CNT–silver
composite exhibited higher conductivities of $10 ^{4} ~{\hbox{S}}/{\hbox{cm}}$. These
results show that such an approach offers a promising of enhancing the reliability
of flexible electronic systems by utilizing reinforced CNTs in the metallization
process.
© 2009 IEEE
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