Provided are a new ultrathin film silicon shadow mask which is flexible, is reusable, and can be precisely aligned and manipulated through transfer printing, and a lithography method using the same. A thin thickness of a silicon shadow mask may intrinsically form a pattern having an enhanced resolution in a plane and a non-planar surface. Further, the silicon shadow mask may be formed on a substrate by metal deposition in addition to etching in a multi-layer configuration by a transfer printing technology based alignment method. Through such a method, a material in which patterning is impossible may be patterned through photolithography.

A selective stencil mask and a stencil printing method are provided. The stencil mask is for printing a fluid material onto a substrate, and comprises: a stencil member comprising: at least one printing region each having an array of apertures that allow the fluid material to flow therethrough and deposit onto the substrate; and a blocking region configured to prevent the fluid material from flowing therethrough; and a supporting member attached to the stencil member and configured to, when the stencil mask is placed on the substrate, contact the substrate and create a gap between the stencil member and the substrate.

A printing stencil (1) for forming conductor tracks on a substrate. The printing stencil (1) has a plurality of cutouts in the form of printing gaps (4) for forming the conductor tracks. Each printing gap (4) of the plurality of printing gaps (4) has at least one print definition region (3) adjacent to the printing side and at least one printing medium supply region (2) adjacent to the squeegee side, the volume of the print definition region (3) being smaller than the volume of the printing medium supply region. Moreover, a printing device for forming conductor tracks on a substrate and a method for producing a metallic contact structure of a photovoltaic solar cell are also provided.

Reusable composite stencils for spray processes, particularly for spray processes used in the fabrication of integrated circuit devices, may be fabricated having a permanent core and at least one sacrificial material layer. Thus, in operation, when a predetermined amount of the sacrificial material layer has been ablated away by a material being sprayed in the spray process, the remaining sacrificial material layer may be removed and reapplied to its original thickness. Therefore, the permanent core, which is usually expensive and/or difficult to fabricate, may be repeatedly reused.