Vacuum evaporation - Page 5

The Flexible Display Center (FDC) at Arizona State University (ASU) installed Sunic Systems' GEN-II OLED SUNICEL Plus 400 vacuum evaporation and encapsulation process tool. The FDC now has the ability to manufacture full color flexible OLEDs in-house - and the FDC says that they are already scaling the recently announced 3.8" AMOLED prototype (developed together with Universal Display, shown below) to larger sizes. The FDC purchased that system back in May 2010.

The FDC says that this new Gen II production system will enable the development of not only large-size flexible OLEDs but also solid-state lighting and plastic electronics.

Novaled announced that it has developed a new efficient (36 lm/W) fluorescent white OLED, which the company claims is the world's most power efficient white OLED structure. Novaled used their own proprietary organic materials and a new flat light outcoupling method of extraction and achieved an increase in light emission by more than 80%, with good color rendering. Novaled's new structure also has an improved light angular dependence.

Here's more technical info from Novaled's press release: 

Jusung Engineering (a Korean maker of semiconductor and display manufacturing equipment) announced it is entering the OLED market - for both display and lighting. Jusung will offer a 'total solution' - from vacuum deposition to encapsulation. The company currently offers 4-Gen OLED equipment, and they plan to establish a joint-venture outside of Korea to enter the worldwide OLED lighting market.

Jusung's CEO Hwang Chul-joo unveiled an OLED lighting panel that measures 730x920mm (we believe that's the largest panel ever unveiled), produced by vacuum deposition on a glass substrate. The lighting panel was produced in the company's pilot production line in Gwangju, Geongi-do. Hwang claims that their production equipment technology is at least one year ahead of the competition.

A few days ago we reported about Samsung's new 4.5" WVGA (800x480) flexible AMOLED prototype, and today we have a couple of new photos and some more information.

The panel is made from LTPS TFTs, on a polyimide substrate. The OLED is top-emission, and is made by vapor deposition. The brightness is 250cd/m², and the contrast ratio is 100,000:1.

It turns out that Mitsubishi's Diamond Vision OLED displays (which go on sale today!) actually use PMOLED displays, and not AMOLEDs as we assumed. This is possible because each 'tile is only 128x128 in resolution. Using PMOLEDs allows Mitsubishi to make the displays cheaply (compared to AMOLEDs).

155-inch Diamond Vision OLED

The OLED material used in the displays is small molecule, deposited by vacuum evaporation. The material was developed by Mitsubishi and Pioneer together. (the two companies are also collaborating on OLED lighting).

The Printable Electronics Technology Centre (PETEC) has announced plans for a new prototyping line to support the lighting and Organic Photovoltaic sectors. The new line is targeted at industries needing large area coating capability alongside the need for reproducible uniform and low defectivity thin film coating onto glass and plastic substrates.

It is designed to be an automated batch tool based on cassette handling of samples to minimise manual intervention. The specification has been aligned with the needs of the SSL and PV industry. It will produce up to 20 samples per day with a panel size from 100mm to 200mm square. The line will have slot-die and spin coating modules, metal and organic evaporation and encapsulation.  It will enable the deposition of solution and small molecule OLED material technologies. It will target fine coating active layers of 10-200nm thinness with uniformity of +-5% across the full panel width.

Last week we reported that PolyPhotonix plans to launch a 8" 60lm/W OLED Lighting panel. They will be using this line at PETEC.

The Flexible Display Center (FDC) at Arizona State University announced that Sunic System has become an industry partner in the center. The FDC, together with Sunic, will develop flexible OLED displays. The FDC has purchased a Gen-II OLED SUNICEL Plus 400 vacuum evaporation and encapsulation process tool from Sunic for its Tempe development facility.The tool will be installed in the fall (2010), with first devices anticipated in 1Q 2011.

The SUNICEL Plus system is designed to simplify OLED technology development and manufacturing, and is equipped to handle plastic substrates without interrupting the vacuum process. The system enables full color AMOLED and mono-color panel production with high electro luminescence (EL) performance and long lifetime.

The Holst Centre has released a new proprietary roll-to-roll (R2R) sintering platform for fast and low-temperature curing of printed conductive structures. The center is progressing towards a complete tool set for R2R manufacturing and can be used for plastic electronics such as flexible OLEDs, organic PV solar cells and more. Holst' line now includes printing, coating, drying and lamination stages in addition to the new sintering unit. A vacuum deposition stage is currently in development.

Screen printed structures on foil photo

High web speeds and low temperatures are key elements for R2R manufacturing of plastic electronics. The sintering platform uses a new photonic sintering process, developed by Holst Centre, which heats only the printed target material rather than the whole carrier substrate. The tool can sinter printed conductive structures in less than a second, which is already enabling a fast throughput speed of over 5 meters/minute. It also works at significantly lower temperatures than traditional sintering techniques, preventing distortion of the carrier substrates and reducing energy costs.

GE is working since 2003 on roll-to-roll OLED printing (of flexible and transparent OLED lighting panels). Dr Yan from GE says that in 2007, they had fairly high defects, around 65% yield. Today GE says that their yield is between 90%-95%.

One of the biggest issues GE is tackling is the flexible barrier layer to protect the OLED devices. GE has developed an "Ultra High Barrier" (UHB) by plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition. The performance that has been achieved is low 10-5g/m2/day, with good transparency and adhesion.

Dr Yan says that roll-to-roll organic printing is real, and OLED lighting is getting closer. OLEDs are still around 15 times more expansive than conventional lighting, but the price will drop in time, and OLEDs will get cheaper than LEDs because of roll-to-roll printing and potentially cheaper materials.

IDTechEx believes that it will take between 5 to 10 years for OLEDs to become cost effective. But even before that OLEDs can be used in high-value products and niches.

AU Optronics are showing a new 14" OLED panel, with full HD resolution at 157 ppi. The brightness on an all-white image is 200cd/m2, the contrast is 100,000:1, the frequency is 120Hz and they say it's shows 72% NTSC color gamut. 

AUO claims that this panel are ready for mass production. They are using an evaporation method with a metal stencil mask.