Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Optics and Laser Technology journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/optlastec Full length article Excimer laser sintereing of silver nanoparticles electrodes for fully solution processed organic thin film transistors Abdullah S. Alshammari a,c, ⁎ , Mohammad R. Alenezi b,c , S.R.P. Silva c, ⁎ a Department of Physics, College of Science, University of Hail, P.O. Box 2440, Hail, Saudi Arabia b Department of Electronics, College of Technological Studies, PAAET, P.O. Box 42325, Shuwaikh, Kuwait c Advanced Technology Institute, Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences, University of Surrey, Guildford GU2 7XH, UK HIGHLIGHTS • Excimer laser sintering of printed Ag nanoparticles electrodes was investigated. • Sintering process parameters were optimized to produce highly conductive electrodes. • The laser sintered Ag electrodes were utilized to fabricate high performance OTFTs. • Excimer laser is a promising alternative tool for metallic nanoparticles sintering. ARTICLE INFO Keywords: Eximer laser Silver nanoparticles Optical sintering Printed electronics ABSTRACT Printing and related processing technologies of electronic materials have become an essential part in the pro- duction of many components of today's electronics. Laser processing of metal based inks in particular has re- ceived a great attention and can eliminate the need of the conventional high temperature sintering methods. Here, silver nanoparticles ink was printed using a drop on demand (DOD) printer and cured to produce highly conductive silver patterns. The printed silver nanoparticles were sintered using excimer laser and thermal treatment. The effects of curing parameters such as energy density, scan speed and annealing temperature on the surface morphology and electrical performance of the inkjet printed structures were investigated. The results revealed strong dependence of the morphology and electrical performance of the printed samples on the process parameters namely the laser fluence and the scanning speed. The production of discontinuous samples and laser ablation of silver sintered patterns at some treatment stages were also noticed. Moreover, using optimized sintering conditions, highly conductive patterns similar to those thermally treated were produced. The printed conductive patterns were then successfully utilized as S/D electrodes for organic thin film transistors. The fully solution processed transistors with printed silver electrodes exhibited excellent ohmic contact characteristics with mobility and on/off ratio in the range of 10 -2 cm 2 /V·s and 10 3 , respectively. The results indicate that, in addition to the various material processing uses, excimer laser can also be used as a sintering tool for printed metallic nanoparticles in the roll-to-roll manufacturing processes. 1. Introduction Printed electronics have become an attractive field of research due to a number of advantages such as device flexibility, light weight and the reduced production cost. The field has seen significant progress over the past few years in terms of improving the printing and processing techniques as well as the electronic materials which are the key factors in the development of the printed electronics industry. Different printing techniques have been introduced to prepare and deposit materials for electronic applications such as screen printing, micro- contact printing and inkjet printing [1–6]. Among these techniques, inkjet printing technique is considered as the most promising for de- positing organic compounds and the production of future printed electronics. The technique is a simple, low-cost and non-contact tech- nique [7–9]. It has also been utilized to deposit various conductive patterns for electronic circuits and devices, transistor components, or- ganic light emitting diodes, RF filter circuits and conductive layers for solar cells fabrication [10]. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.optlastec.2019.105758 Received 5 August 2018; Received in revised form 19 June 2019; Accepted 1 August 2019 ⁎ Corresponding authors. E-mail addresses: ashammari@uoh.edu.sa (A.S. Alshammari), s.silva@surrey.ac.uk (S.R.P. Silva). Optics and Laser Technology 120 (2019) 105758 Available online 22 August 2019 0030-3992/ © 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. T