Laser-Written Conductive Tracks for the Integration of Surface-Mount Devices Onto PMMA

We present the integration of surface mounted devices (SMDs) into polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) centered around capillary filling of nanoparticle inks into laser-written microgrooves. Our approach is fully flexible due to the direct laser-writing of open channels that act as guide for the nanoparticle ink forming the conductive tracks. Here, rather than having a dedicated soldering step the electrical contact is directly taken care of by the capillary forces driving the nanoparticle ink. This allows for a low-cost fabrication platform for transparent circuits. Demonstration of the integration process is done on the basis of two exemplary SMDs, being 1206-sized resistors and surface mounted integrated circuits with eight pins (SOIC8).