Manufacturing equipment - Page 17

Applied Materials announced three new systems that are used to deposit Metal-Oxide (mostly IGZO) TFTs for both LCD and OLED displays. First up is the AKT-55KS, a plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) system that handles 8.5-Gen substrates (2.2x2.5 meters). Applied says this system is defect-free and excels at keeping hydrogen out of the CVD).

Applied AKT-55KS

Applied also announced new physical vapor deposition (PVD) deposition systems. They announced two models, the SKT PiVot 25K which handles Gen-6 substrates and the SKT PiVot 55K which handles 8.5-gen substrates. Applied says that their PVD systems use the company's unique tubular cathodes of donor material. Those cathodes rotate using deposition which results in more even deposition.

Encapsulix announced today that a "leading OLED lighting supplier in Europe" placed an order for the M500 ALD deposition system. This system will be delivered by the end of 2013, and will be used to encapsulate OLED panels for the residential, commercial, automotive and avionics markets.

Encapsulix's "infinity ALD" M500 equipment can deposit encapsulation coating on the order of 10-100 nm in thickness and can be scaled up to any substrate size. This particular system will support up to Gen-2 (400x500 mm) substrates and will be limited to rigid glass-based panels. But the company's systems can be used to deposit on flexible substrates and even be adopted for roll-to-toll production (up to one meter width).

OLED Encapsulation is a very hot topic, especially for flexible OLEDs. Samsung and LG are already producing flexible OLEDs, but the search for better encapsulation technologies is still on. ALD, or Atomic Layer Deposition is one candidate for future deposition of OLED encapsulation. ALD is based on Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD) that uses two vapors (gaseous) precursors which react on the substrate which creates a solid thin film. ALD works in relatively low temperatures which means it is suitable for all substrates including plastics.

One of the leaders in ALD is Finland's Beneq. Beneq developed an inorganic barrier film called nClear which is deposited using ALD. Beneq says that nClear provides "world class" barrier performance and can be deposited at temperatures well below 100 degrees Celsius. Beneq offers the TFS-600 (Gen-2.5, 500x400 mm) which is used for industrial-scale OLED encapsulation. Beneq's director of Technical sales, Mikko Soderlund, was kind enough to answer a few questions we had on the company's technology and business. Mikko is leading the application development and commercialization of ALD-based thin-film encapsulation technology for OLEDs. He has a PhD in Photonics from Helsinki University of Technology (2009).

Applied Materials and Tokyo Electron (TEL) will merge into a new company that will have a market value of $29 billion. Applied shareholders will own approximately 68% of the new company and Tokyo Electron shareholders approximately 32%. The new company name is still unknown. Applied Materials is considered to be the world's leader in deposition and process control. According to Gartner, In 2012 Applied held 14.4% of the global semiconductor manufacturing equipment market and TEL had 11.1%.

Both companies are engaged with OLED manufacturing equipment. Applied Materials is offering two film deposition systems suitable for LTPS or Oxide-TFT backplane deposition (for both LCD and OLEDs panels). The AKT-PX-PECVD system (shown below) is sed to deposit LTPS films on large glass substrates (sized from 1.6 m² to 5.7 m²). The AKT-PiVoT PVD system is used to deposit metal oxide-based TFTs (IGZO in particular).

Veeco announced that is it going to acquire privately held Synos Technology who designs and manufactures Fast Array Scanning Atomic Layer Deposition systems (FAST-ALD) for flexible OLED displays. Veeco will pay an initial $70 million, and according to performance milestones, the total deal may grow to $185 million.

Veeco says that they believe Synos' technology will remove the barrier to adoption of flexible OLED displays. Synos' first pilot production system has been installed and the manufacturing ramp is currently expected to begin in 2014. Veeco says that in the future they also see FAST-ALD used in OLED TV, lighting, solar, batteries and other large adjacent markets.

DisplaySearch says that OLED TV panels production costs are still very high, but this will not deter investments and the company forecasts rapid expansion in AMOLED capacity, as can be seen in the chart below (in which the yellow bars show AMOLED capacity while the green bar is capacity that can be used for either LCD or AMOLED production):

According to this chart dedicated AMOLED fab capacity grew from less than a million square meters in 2011 to almost four million square meters in 2013. In 2017, dedicated AMOLED capacity will reach 14 million square meters (i.e. 28 times as much capacity as in 2011).

Manz AG reported that the company received its first large order from a Chinese customer for wet-chemical processing equipment to produce OLED displays . This 9 million Euro order (almost $12 million usd) follows several small purchases.

Manz's wet-chemical tools aren't used specifically for soluble OLEDs. These do not handle the organic layers, but are rather used for processes such as etching, stripping, and cleaning within the scope of display manufacturing. Their product range also includes wet chemical processing equipment for glass substrate recycling (the complete removal of all layers so the substrate can be recycled back into the production process).

LG Display has installed the first equipment in their new M2 Gen-8 OLED TV fab. The company is still on track to start production in middle 2014. The new fab will have a monthly capacity of 26,000 substrate, and LGD's total investment will be around $650 million. The number of actual TV panels they will make is unknown as it depends on yield and on panel size.

LG are currently producing flat and curved OLED TV panels. The flat OLED TV is on sale in Korea for $10,000 and the UK, while the curved 55" OLED TV, the 55EA9800, is now available in Korea for around $13,500 and in the US - exclusively through Magnolia stores inside Best Buy for $14,999.

Beneq signed an agreement with the UK's Centre for Process Innovation (CPI) to deliver an ALD roll-to-roll unit for their thin-film barrier development platform. The equipment will be delivered to CPI in England in Q2 2014. CPI have been looking at R2R ALD technology for several years, and their first goal now is to develop full system technologies and processes to the field of clear flexible barrier encapsulation and substrate materials.

CPI OLED production line

CPI's current OLED system supports both small evaporized and soluble OLED materials. Their pilot production line uses slot die technology to allow the coating of substrates (4", 6" or 8" in size) in a highly repeatable and reproducible manner with a uniform film thickness of under 50 nm.

Novaled and 4JET Technologies has jointly developed a new laser process called SLAM (Selective Layer Modification) for OLED customization and optimization. SLAM allows defined customization or grey scaling and it can also be used to optimize lighting density and to isolate short circuits.

4JET says that SLAM can be used to create OLED signage solutions with individual logos or patterns. Basically this creates structured OLEDs (like we've seen from Philips, Fraunhofer, UDC and others) after the manufacturing process.