Printing, molding, and near-field photolithographic methods for patterningorganic lasers, smart pixels and simple circuits

This paper describes several 'soft lithographic' techniques that use rubber stamps, molds, and conformable photomasks for micro and nanofabrication. I t illustrates how these methods provide low cost routes to patterning for a pplications in organic electronics and integrated optics. It summarizes som e of our recent work in (i) roller printing of organic transistors and rela ted circuitry for transistors, organic 'smart pixels' and complementary inv erters that have critical dimensions as small as 1 mum, (ii) nanomolding of first and third order distributed feedback, distributed Bragg reflector an d photonic crystal resonators for plastic lasers that have narrow emission profiles in the visible range, and (iii) fabrication of low voltage organic transistors and inverter circuits with 0.1 mum channels formed using low c ost near-field photolithographic methods. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science S.A. Al l rights reserved.