Printed circuits on shrink film

Abstract

Methods of creating fine featured circuits by printing a circuit trace onto polymer shrink films or other biaxially-oriented polymer films are disclosed. The shrink films are heated and shrunk after printing, annealing the circuit trace to form conductive features. Compositions suitable for printing onto the films and articles made using the method and composition are also disclosed.

1 . A method of forming a conductive trace, the method comprising: 
 providing a shrinkable polymeric film;    depositing a substantially non-conductive coating on a portion of the polymeric film; and    elevating the temperature of the shrinkable polymeric film and the substantially non-conductive coating such that the projected surface area of the polymeric film shrinks by at least 50 percent and the non-conductive coating becomes at least 100 percent more conductive.    
   
   
       2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the substantially non-conductive coating is digitally deposited onto the shrinkable polymeric film.  
   
   
       3 . The method of forming a conductive trace of  claim 2 , wherein the substantially non-conductive coating is digitally deposited by inkjet printing.  
   
   
       4 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the shrinkable polymeric film is flexible.  
   
   
       5 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the shrinkable polymeric film comprises polyethylene.  
   
   
       6 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the projected surface area of the polymeric film shrinks to less than 25 percent of its original projected surface area.  
   
   
       7 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the projected surface area of the polymeric film shrinks to less than 10 percent of its original projected surface area.  
   
   
       8 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the projected surface area of the polymeric film shrinks to less than 5 percent of its original projected surface area.  
   
   
       9 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the non-conductive coating comprises metal nanoparticles.  
   
   
       10 . The method of  claim 9 , wherein the nanoparticles comprise silver.  
   
   
       11 . The method of  claim 9 , wherein the nanoparticles have an average size of less than or equal to 100 nm.  
   
   
       12 . The method of  claim 9 , wherein the printable composition contains less than 50 weight percent metal particles.  
   
   
       13 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the non-conductive coating comprises conducting organic polymer.  
   
   
       14 . An article comprising the polymeric film and conductive traces of  claim 1 .  
   
   
       15 . A method of forming a conductive trace, the method comprising: 
 providing a shrinkable polymeric film;    depositing a coating on a portion of the polymeric film; and    elevating the temperature of the shrinkable polymeric film such that the projected surface area of the film shrinks by at least 80 percent such that the coating forms a conductive trace.    
   
   
       16 . The method of forming a conductive trace according to  claim 15 , wherein the coating deposited onto the polymeric film becomes at least 50 percent more conductive after elevating the temperature of the shrinkable polymeric film and the projected surface area of the film shrinks by at least 80 percent.  
   
   
       17 . The method of forming a conductive trace according to  claim 15 , wherein the coating is digitally deposited onto the shrinkable polymeric film.  
   
   
       18 . The method of forming a conductive trace according to  claim 15 , wherein the projected surface area of the film shrinks by at least 90 percent.  
   
   
       19 . The method of forming a conductive trace according to  claim 15 , wherein the coating comprises metal nanoparticles.