Micropatterning of Liquid Metal by Dewetting

Although gallium-based liquid metals are attracting growing interest thanks to its potential applications in deformable, flexible electronic devices, challenges in fabrication associated with the high surface tension and oxide skin remain to be overcome. We report a novel fabrication technique for liquid metal circuits using dewetting. An excessively thin liquid film spontaneously shrinks on a substrate to reduce surface free energy. In the case of a thin liquid metal film on a substrate with microgrooves, the oxide on the microgroove wall and the additional viscous resistance delay the shrinkage in the grooves, which separates the liquid volume inside the microgrooves from the external volume. Utilizing this mechanism, we successfully produced 20-μm-thick conductive lines of eutectic gallium indium (EGaIn) on polydimethylsiloxane. This fabrication technique is simple, fast, and cost-effective and requires no top covering layer. The resultant metal lines show potentially applicable electrical resistance to flexible and stretchable electronic devices.