Self-Limiting Polymer Exposure for Vertical Processing of Semiconductor Nanowire-Based Flexible Electronics

In this work, we demonstrate a vertical processing method to fabricate nanowire (NW)-based devices. This method combines the strong light absorption ability caused by the NW geometry and exposure to dose-dependent clearance properties of a photo-sensitive polymer. By embedding NW arrays in a polymer, the NW light absorption leads to self-limited exposure and selective removal of the polymer. This optical and self-limited exposure pattern definition method can replace more expensive processing equipment, such as reactive ion etching and the use of a mask aligner. Excitingly, this method can be used to enable peel-off of NW arrays from their parent substrate, opening up opportunities to fabricate flexible NW array devices.