Electroless Deposition of NiB on 15 Inch Glass Substrates for the Fabrication of Transistor Gates for Liquid Crystal Displays

The thin-film transistor (TFT) array of liquid-crystal displays (LCDs) comprises a number of metallic, semiconducting, and insulating layers, which need to be deposited and patterned accurately with very high yields on a (large) glass substrate. We are exploring how to fabricate the gate metal lines of the TFT array in an entirely new and potentially cost-effective wayby depositing the metal layer of the TFT array using electroless deposition (ELD) and by patterning the gates using microcontact printing (μCP). To achieve this goal, we separately explore first the plating conditions to deposit a gate metal on 15 in. glass substrates, and second the printing process to finally combine them later in the work. Here, we review in depth the metallization of the glass by ELD of NiB as gate material, and we demonstrate the patterning of the gate layer using a conventional photoengraving process (PEP, i.e., photolithography and wet etching). We selected NiB because this material can fulfill the conductivity requir...