The Finnish specialist thin film coating firm Picodeon has announced the development of a new surface coating technology for aluminium oxide (Al2O3) that gives increased control and new options for treating heat-sensitive plastic electronics.
The new system uses ultra-short pulsed laser deposition (USPLD) to create either porous or dense barrier coatings of aluminium oxide. It has already been incorporated into the Colab 4 production equipment built by Picodeon. The Colab 4 employs a 200 W, 40 MHz laser and has an integrated plasma monitoring and laser power measurement tools. These measuring functions give the operator the ability to control the qualities of the deposed layer very precisely.
USPLD can used to produce uniform films within a much tighter set of technical parameters than existing methods which employ sputtering, physical or chemical vapour deposition techniques. For example, in tests the company has been able to show that the new system can improve the porosity of a 3 µm film from 10% to 45% by tuning the laser power repletion rate and the scanning speed.
Use in OLED screens
Ultra-thin barrier films are a vital component for a greater future deployment of plastic electronics, as these components, like OLED cells are typically highly vulnerable to water. Aluminium oxide layers are highly impermeable to water, transparent and flexible; making them an ideal solution for encapsulation a new generation of OLED, AMOLED and organic photovoltaic panels, provided any pinhole defects are kept to a minimum.
Ultra-thin barrier films are a vital component for a greater future deployment of plastic electronics, as these components, like OLED cells are typically highly vulnerable to water. Aluminium oxide layers are highly impermeable to water, transparent and flexible; making them an ideal solution for encapsulation a new generation of OLED, AMOLED and organic photovoltaic panels, provided any pinhole defects are kept to a minimum.
Critically the USPLD technique can be used on plastic substrates that bear printed electronics materials like polyethylene (PE) and thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) at temperatures which are low enough to not damage or warp the substrate itself.
The company is already proceeding with rolling out the new Colab 4 USPLD to its existing customers and will develop further coatings based using silver, copper, oxides of tin and other metals as it progresses. Another step is to look to expand the capacity of the current equipment to allow larger scale production runs using USPLD.
Picodeon's vice-president for sales and business development, Marko Mylläri, says: 'This development has enormous potential for new applications of dense and porous aluminium oxide coatings on heat sensitive materials.' USPLD can also be used in other industrial layer applications beyond plastic electronics too.
By John Nelson, follow John on Google+
Enjoyed reading this article? For even more high-value content onplastic electronics technology, subscribe to the +Plastic Electronics subscriber service.
To receive the latest headlines straight to your Twitter account, follow us @PlusPE
No comments:
Post a Comment