1. A method of patterning an electronic or photonic material on a substrate comprising:
forming a film of said electronic or photonic material on said substrate; and
using an adhesive to selectively remove regions of said electronic or photonic material from said film,
thereby leaving on said substrate said patterned electronic or photonic material.
2. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the surface of the substrate is treated to provide said surface with a pattern defining where said electronic or photonic material is to be present prior to formation of the film of electronic or photonic material.
3. A method as claimed in claim 2, wherein said film of electronic or photonic material fills said pattern, overlaps the edges of said pattern and has regions extending beyond said edges of said pattern.
4. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein said film of electronic or photonic material is continuous.
5. A method as claimed in claim 2, wherein said pattern comprises areas of higher and lower surface energy or, after said deposition of said electronic or photonic material, of higher and lower interfacial toughness.
6. A method as claimed in claim 2, wherein treating of said surface of said substrate comprises depositing a surface energy modification layer and patterning said surface energy modification layer.
7. A method as claimed claim 2, further comprising a step of depositing a sacrificial layer on said electronic or photonic material.
8. A method as claimed in claim 7, wherein said adhesive is brought into contact with said sacrificial layer.
9. A method as claimed in claim 1 comprising:
providing a patterned substrate having areas of higher and lower surface energies and having deposited thereon (i) a continuous film of electronic or photonic material and (ii) a sacrificial layer;
bringing an adhesive into contact with said sacrificial layer; and
peeling off said adhesive to selectively remove regions of said electronic or photonic material from said film.
10. A method as claimed in claim 1, comprising:
treating the surface of said substrate to define areas having higher and lower surface energies;
forming a film of said electronic or photonic material on said substrate;
depositing a sacrificial layer on said film;
bringing an adhesive into contact with said sacrificial layer; and
peeling off said adhesive to selectively remove regions of said electronic or photonic material from said film.
11. A method as claimed in claim 2, wherein said pattern is a topographical profile comprising protrusions and recesses.
12. A method as claimed in claim 2 or claim 11, wherein treating of said surface of said substrate comprises depositing a sacrificial layer on said substrate and treating said layer to define a topographical profile.
13. A method as claimed in claim 12, wherein said film of electronic or photonic material is formed on said sacrificial layer.
14. A method as claimed in claim 11, wherein said adhesive is brought into contact with the protrusions.
15. A method as claimed in claim 11 comprising:
providing a substrate having deposited thereon (i) a sacrificial layer in the form of a topographical profile comprising protrusions and recesses and (ii) a film of electronic or photonic material;
bringing an adhesive into contact with said protrusions; and
peeling off said adhesive to selectively remove regions of electronic or photonic material from said film.
16. A method as claimed in claim 15, comprising:
depositing on the surface of a substrate a sacrificial layer and treating said layer to define a topographical profile;
forming a film of said electronic or photonic material on said profile;
bringing an adhesive into contact with said protrusions; and
peeling off said adhesive to selectively remove regions of said electronic or photonic material from said film.
17. A method as claimed in claim 12, wherein a surface energy modification layer is deposited on said substrate prior to said sacrificial layer.
18. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein said electronic or photonic material is a conducting polymer, a polymer dielectric or a nanoparticulate material.
19. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein said electronic or photonic material is an organic semi conductor.
20. A method as claimed in claim 19, wherein said electronic or photonic material is a conjugated non-polymeric semi conductor.
21. A method as claimed in claim 19, wherein said electronic or photonic material is a conjugated polymeric semiconductor.
22. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein said adhesive is on a carrier.
23. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein said film of electronic or photonic material is formed by solution deposition.
24. Use of an adhesive in the preparation of a patterned electronic or photonic material on a substrate, wherein said adhesive is used to selectively remove regions of said electronic or photonic material from a film thereof, thereby leaving on said substrate said patterned electronic or photonic material.
25. A patterned electronic or photonic material on a substrate obtainable by a method as claimed in claim 1.
26. An electronic or photonic device comprising a patterned electronic or photonic material on a substrate as claimed in claim 25.
27. A device as claimed in claim 26, wherein the device is a transistor comprising said patterned electronic or photonic material as an active semi conducting layer.
28. An electronic or photonic device comprising:
a substrate; and
at least one patterned layer of electronic or photonic material;
wherein said substrate has a pattern of surface energy modification matching a pattern of at least one patterned layer of said electronic or photonic material and said layer of electronic or photonic material is formed by solution deposition.
29. An electronic or photonic device as claimed in claim 28, wherein said pattern of surface energy modification comprises a pattern in or on one or more layers of surface energy modification material.
30. An electronic or photonic device comprising:
a substrate; and
at least one patterned layer of electronic or photonic material;
wherein the thickness of said layer of electronic or photonic material at a distance 2 microns away from the edge of the pattern is within 10% of the average thickness of the layer of electronic or photonic material.
31. A method of making an electronic or photonic device on a substrate comprising:
preparing a patterned electronic or photonic material on a substrate as claimed in claim 1; and
using said substrate bearing said pattern in the manufacture of a device.
32. A method of fabricating an electronic or photonic device on a substrate
using solution or vacuum deposition of an electronic or photonic material, the method comprising:
providing said substrate;
treating a surface of said substrate to provide said substrate with a pattern defining where said electronic or photonic material is to be present on said fabricated device;
depositing said electronic or photonic material from solution or vacuum over said pattern on said substrate such that the deposited material overlaps the edges of said pattern and has regions extending beyond said edges of said pattern;
applying a carrier bearing an adhesive over said deposited electronic or photonic material on said substrate;
removing said adhesive bearing carrier together with said regions of said deposited material extending beyond said edges of said pattern to leave said deposited material in situ in said pattern; and
using said substrate bearing said pattern of deposited material to fabricate said electronic or photonic device.
33. A method as claimed in claim 32, wherein said electronic or photonic device comprises an electronic device, wherein said electronic or photonic material comprises a semi-conducting material, and wherein said substrate includes one or more electrodes optimally provided with an energy level matching material to match an energy level of said electrode to an energy level of said semi-conducting material.
The claims below are in addition to those above.
All refrences to claim(s) which appear below refer to the numbering after this setence.
1. A box for receiving an electrostatic fabric, comprising:
a top cover having a hole, two guides, two stoppers, a plurality of positioning pins, and a third notch and a fourth notch;
a sliding member having a fixing portion mounting with an electrostatic fabric, a tongue having a through opening adjacent to the fixing portion, two sliders extending from a top surface of the tongue, which are received and slidable in the two guides of the top cover, two resilient arms extending from the fixing portion toward the through opening of the tongue and having two sliding blocks provided at free ends thereof, in which the two sliding blocks and the two stoppers of the top cover cooperate with each other to selectively control the sliding member at a lock state and a release state, two hooks provided at each side of the tongue;
a bottom cover having a guiding post corresponding to the hole of the top cover, a plurality of positioning holes corresponding to the plurality of positioning pins, and a third notch and a fourth notch;
a button having a flange and coupled to an end of a helical spring sleeved on the guiding post of the bottom cover, in which the button is biased by the helical spring against the hole of the top cover and the flange is between the hole of the top cover and the two resilient arms of the sliding member, two springs connecting the two hooks and two fixing post of the bottom cover, whereby when the top cover and the bottom cover are assembled, the first notch and the third notch forms a first opening at one end of the box, and the second notch and the fourth notch forms a second opening at the other end thereof, so that the electrostatic fabric can selectively extend outside the box through the first opening, while the tongue of the sliding member selectively retracts in the box through the second opening thereof.
2. The box as claimed in claim 1, wherein the two sliding blocks each have an inclined plane and a vertical plane, and the two stoppers each have an inclined plane and a vertical plane corresponding to the inclined plane and the vertical plane of the two sliding blocks, respectively.
3. The box as claimed in claim 1, wherein top surfaces of the two resilient arms at free ends thereof are located above the tongue of the sliding member.
4. The box as claimed in claim 1, wherein the flange of the button has a diameter larger than a distance between the two resilient arms and a diameter of the hole of the top cover.
5. The box as claimed in claim 1, wherein the two sliders each have an inclined plane for easily sliding in each guide of the top cover.
6. The box as claimed in claim 1, wherein two of the plurality of positioning holes are formed on the two fixing posts, respectively.
7. The box as claimed in claim 1, wherein the top cover further has two ribs projecting from an inner surface thereof and abutting against a top surface of the fixing portion of the sliding member, and the bottom cover further has two ribs projecting from an inner surface thereof and abutting against a bottom surface of the fixing portion of the sliding member.