Manufacturing equipment - Page 27

Although ink-jet (Sumitomo Chemical, Sumation, CDT, etc.), continuous spray (DuPont, Dainippon Screen), roll printing (LG Display, demonstrated for TFT backplanes), and roll-to-roll printing (GE) have gotten most of the attention, there is another, time-tested solution process: slot-coating or extrusion coating, which has been used to apply photoresist, among other things, for decades.

Greg Gibson, CTO of NexTech FAS indicated that the commercial use of slot coating to apply some of the functional coatings used in OLED displays is closer than I would have thought. (NexTech FAS is the operating company for the process equipment companies NexTech Solutions and FAS Holdings Group, which are in the process of merging.)

Slot coaters put down an unpatterned layer of material, so their most obvious application is for OLED lighting and for the unpatterned layers in an OLED display, such as the hole injection layer (HIL) and the electronic transport layer (ETL). Although patterning of multiple organic layers, such as would be required for an RGB display, is difficult, development work is continuing, Gibson said. And patterning of a single layer, as would be required for a color-by-white or monochrome display, is relatively straightforward.

Displays incorporating HIL, ETL, and/or emitting layers applied with slot coaters are likely to appear on the market in 2010, Gibson said. Which layers exactly? Products will incorporate at least two of the three, Gibson answered.

HILs and ETLs are usually apply by thin-film deposition and are very thin. Can slot coaters apply layers that thin? "Our development is to slot-coat very thin layers, and it has taken a combination of equipment and material advancements," Gibson said. "There is a low solids concentration in the wet film, which is fairly thin itself, and then it dries to a thickness of 100 to 200 nm. Although it’s hard to make a direct comparison, that’s in the general range of thin-film deposition. The materials are somewhat different than ink-jet materials because they need to be formulated specifically for slot-coating solution processing."

DuPont and Dainippon Screen Manufacturing Co. today announced their intention to form a strategic alliance to develop integrated manufacturing equipment for printed organic light emitting diode (OLED) displays. The companies have also signed an agreement relating to their intention to bring together the elements needed--materials, technology and equipment--to mass produce OLED displays, delivering higher performance at a lower cost.

"The flat panel display market is about $100 billion annually and growing. DuPont is applying its science to make possible more vivid displays that are lower cost than current LCD displays," said David B. Miller, group vice president, DuPont Electronic & Communication Technologies. "We are excited to combine our strengths with Dainippon Screen's unique printing technology to bring to market the core technology that will enable improved high definition televisions and other flat panel displays."

Researchers have developed an improved oOLED sealing (encapsulation) process to reduce moisture intrusion and improve device lifetime.

OLEDs have better color and flexibility and the capability of larger displays, but companies still need an inexpensive encapsulation method that can be used to mass produce organic electronics that don’t allow moisture in, said Wusheng Tong, a senior research scientist at the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI).

Manufacturers now seal displays in an inert atmosphere or in a vacuum environment. They glue a glass lid on top of the display substrate with a powder inside the display to absorb moisture that diffuses through the glue. These seals are expensive and labor-intensive to assemble.

With funding from GTRI’s independent research and development program, Tong and his GTRI collaborators senior research scientist Hisham Menkara and principal research scientist Brent Wagner have replaced the glass enclosure with a thin-film barrier formed by a less expensive conventional deposition method.

The researchers selected advanced ion assisted deposition, which utilizes reactive ions to deposit a high-density, pinhole-free thin silicon oxynitride (SiON) film on the OLED surface.

Read more here (Newswise)

NexTech FAS' Advantage Series coating systems offer high performance extrusion (spinless) coating of liquid materials onto substrates during the manufacture process of Flat Panel Displays. The systems, which are currently supplied for Gen 2 through Gen 8 panel sizes, are capable of coating a wide variety of process chemistries, including tough-to-coat OLED materials which are often deposited at submicron thicknesses with stringent uniformity and environmental requirements.

The customer originally purchased NexTech FAS' equipment line in the third quarter of 2006 and later placed a follow-up order in the second quarter of 2007. The Advantage II Extrusion Coating system is designed to work in a fully-automated and controlled environment and is being implemented in a pilot/R&D line at the customer's site. The use of these tools enables the customer to further its R&D objectives and optimize its development process. This order paves the way for potentially significant future equipment orders used in the process and development of OLED displays and technology

The pilot fabrication system consists of clusters combining thermal evaporation and organic vapor phase deposition (OVPD) modules. The usable substrate size is 370 x 470 mm² on glass substrates and foils. The targeted tact time is three minutes, resulting in an annual capacity of approximately 13,000 m². The system is designed for efficient materials usage and flexibility in substrate format and organic stack. It is one of the worlds first pilot production systems for OLED lighting and organic based solar cells.

The order of the fabrication system is the first step to establish COMEDD at the Fraunhofer IPMS. To speed up the time to market for OLED lighting, organic solar cells and OLED-on-CMOS-devices, the Fraunhofer IPMS is building three pilot production lines. Germany’s state and federal government, as well the EU, are investing € 25 million into COMEDD to establish the leading European institution for R&D and pilot production of small-molecule organic devices.

The order of our tool is for us an important step to OLED lighting fabrication machine market. says Dr. Hoon Lim, CEO of Sunic Systems.

The integration of an OVPD® module is a milestone for our business to integrate next generation fabrication technology into new market segments. notes Dr. Bernd Schulte, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer at AIXTRON AG.

Read more here (Azom)

OTB Display today announced that it received an order from Universal Display Technology (Jilin) for in-line equipment for the manufacturing of full color OLED displays. The fully integrated OLED production system is based on solution-processed polymers and OTB's thin-film encapsulation technology, making it one of the world's first production lines that integrates the complete display cell manufacturing process.

Universal Display Technology (Jilin) Co., Ltd. acquired an OLED manufacturing turn-key solution including equipment, related services and process know-how. OTB Display will build up mass production capabilities at Universal Display Technology (Jilin) Co., Ltd manufacturing facility, which is located in the Changchun National High-Tech Industries Development Area in the Jilin Province of the People's Republic of China. The Universal Display Technology (Jilin) Co., Ltd. will commence mass production of OLED displays in 2008.

Ron Mertens from OLED-Info.com recently had the opportunity to interview Toshiki Mizoe, overseas sales manager, Tokki Corporation. Tokki manufactures vacuum process equipment and factory automation system, and developed the first OLED mass production system in 1999, which processed both OLED / electrode material deposition and encapsulation by one system. Tokki's OLED production system has been delivered to most of small molecular OLED manufactures in Japan, Korea and Taiwan.

Q: First of all, thank you for agreeing to conduct this interview. Can you describe your production system (ELVESS)?
ELVESS is cluster tool OLED production system, and it has evaporation chambers for organic materials and metal (for cathode), and automatic encapsulation unit is connected to the system. Total system can be run for 5 to 6 days without stop, with tact time of