Printed electronics promises the realization of low-cost electronic systems on flexible substrates over large areas. In order to achieve this, high quality patterns need to be printed at high speeds. Gravure printing is a particularly promising technique that is both scalable and offers micron-scale resolution. Here, we review the tremendous progress that has recently been made to push gravure printing beyond its traditional limitations in the graphic arts. Rolls with far greater precision than traditional rolls and with sub-5 μ m resolution can be fabricated utilizing techniques leveraging the precision of silicon microfabrication. Physical understanding of the sub-processes that constitute the gravure process is required to fully utilize the potential of gravure. We review the state-of-the-art of this understanding both for single cells and patterns of multiple cells to print high-resolution features as well as highly-uniform layers. Finally, we review recent progress on gravure printed transistors as an important technology driver. Fully high-speed printed transistors with sub-5 μ m channel length and sub-5 V operation can be printed with gravure.

A minimum flow rate is required to maintain steady Taylor cone-jets issued from an electrified nozzle. This letter reports that the well-known scaling law proportional to the charge relaxation time and independent of the nozzle diameter is only applicable to lowly viscous systems. For highly viscous systems with rapid viscous diffusion, the cone-jet transitional region spans a length scale comparable to the nozzle diameter; the minimum flow rate appears to be proportional to the capillary-viscous velocity and the cross-sectional area of the nozzle, but independent of the liquid conductivity.

High-throughput patterning and enhanced mechanical stability are key to enabling large-area applications of metal nanowire mesh transparent electrodes. In this work, hybrid transparent conductors based on silver nanowires embedded in an indium zinc oxide matrix were prepared by high-speed gravure-printing (1.0 m s⁻¹) from a single, stable liquid precursor. These gravure-printed films demonstrate excellent conductivity (9.3 Ω □⁻¹) and transparency (T_550nm ∼ 91%), as well as robust mechanical properties. The encapsulating indium zinc oxide matrix dramatically improves adhesion, surface roughness (R_q < 5 nm), film uniformity, and thermal stability (up to 350 °C) of the embedded silver nanowires. These properties of the hybrid films make them a suitable electrode material for a variety of printed electronic devices, such as flexible OLEDs and solar cells.