Laser ablation on coated metal gravures for roll-to-roll printed electronics

Ultrafast laser micromachining plays an important role in the manufacturing of electronics. Especially, rotogravure processing produces high-resolution patterns for roll-to-roll printed electronic circuits. However, this technique still poses some limitations. This study introduces a new technique for coating gravures on a “soft” metal to improve the precision of rotogravure processing for manufacturing roll-to-roll electronics. The coating is termed “soft” because it has a lower ablation threshold fluence than the metal gravure core. The resulting U-shaped grooves offer several advantages over the V-shaped grooves typically formed through laser ablation on a single-layer material. Conductive ink transfers more completely from the U-shaped grooves, offering increased precision with respect to the resulting parts and saving ink. •A new method to coat gravures for manufacturing roll-to-roll electronics is presented.•The coating enables the design of adequate ablation conditions for precise and selective engraving.•The method contributes to significantly improving the quality and aesthetics of printed circuits.