Radiation curable thermal transfer elements
View Patent ↗Radiation curable thermal transfer elements including a substrate and a light-to-heat conversion layer overlaying the substrate, and processes to make the thermal transfer elements. The light-to-heat conversion layer is derived from a radiation curable material capable of being cured by exposure to radiation at a curing wavelength and an imaging radiation absorber material not substantially increasing radiation absorbance at the curing wavelength. The radiation curable transfer elements can be used in processes for making organic microelectronic devices.
1. A method of imaging a donor film onto a receptor using alignment through a light-to-heat conversion layer of the donor film, comprising:
providing a donor film comprising a substrate, a transfer layer, and a radiation curable light-to-heat conversion layer disposed between the substrate and the transfer layer in order to generate heat when the donor film is exposed to imaging radiation;
aligning the donor film with a patterned receptor and a laser system, including placing the donor film in intimate contact with the patterned receptor, wherein the light-to-heat conversion layer comprises an NIR dye or pigment as an imaging radiation absorber material, wherein the imaging radiation absorber material does not substantially absorb in a region used for the radiation curing of the light-to-heat conversion layer, and wherein the imaging radiation absorber material has sufficient transparency in the visible region in order to perform the alignment through the light-to-heat conversion layer;
imaging the donor film with the laser system in order to cause imagewise transfer of at least a portion of the transfer layer to the patterned receptor according to the alignment;
maintaining registration between the donor film and the patterned receptor when performing the imaging along a particular imaging path; and
removing the donor film from the patterned receptor.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the maintaining step includes using a sensor to detect fiducial marks on the patterned receptor.
3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the transfer layer of the donor film comprises a pre-patterned transfer layer and wherein the aligning step includes aligning the donor film according to the pre-patterned transfer layer.