• Journal of Ceramic Processing Research
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• v.13 no.spc1
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• pp.140-144
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• 2012

Ga-doped ZnO (GZO) was a limit of application on the photovoltaic devices such as CIGS, CdTe and DSSC requiring high process temperature, because it's electrical resistivity is unstable above 300 ℃ at atmosphere. Therefore, ZTO (zinc tin oxide) was introduced in order to improve permeability and thermal stability of GZO film. The resistivity of GZO (300 nm) single layer increased remarkably from 1.8 × 10-3Ωcm to 5.5 × 10-1Ωcm, when GZO was post-annealed at 400 ℃ in air atmosphere. In the case of the ZTO (150 nm)/GZO (150 nm) double layer, resistivity showed relatively small change from 3.1 × 10-3Ωcm (RT) to 1.2 × 10-2Ωcm (400 ℃), which showed good agreement with change of carrier density. This result means that ZTO upper layer act as a barrier for oxygen at high temperature. Also ZTO (150 nm)/GZO (150 nm) double layer showed lower WVTR compared to GZO (300 nm) single layer. Because ZTO has lower WVTR compared to GZO, ZTO thin film acts as a barrier by preventing oxygen and water molecules to penetrate on top of GZO thin film.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2015.08a
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• pp.157-157
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• 2015

Recently, the growing interest in organic microelectronic devices including OLEDs has led to an increasing amount of research into their many potential applications in the area of flexible electronic devices based on plastic substrates. However, these organic devices require a gas barrier coating to prevent the permeation of water and oxygen because organic materials are highly susceptible to water and oxygen. In particular, high efficiency OLEDs require an extremely low water vapor transition rate (WVTR) of $1{\times}10^{-6}g/m^2day$. The Key factor in high quality inorganic gas barrier formation for achieving the very low WVTR required ($1{\times}10^{-6}g/m^2day$) is the suppression of defect sites and gas diffusion pathways between grain boundaries. In this study NBAS process was introduced to deposit enhanced film density single gas barrier layer with a low WVTR. Fig. 1. shows a schematic illustration of the NBAS apparatus. The NBAS process was used for the $Al_2O_3$ nano-crystal structure films deposition, as shown in Fig. 1. The NBAS system is based on the conventional RF magnetron sputtering and it has the electron cyclotron resonance (ECR) plasma source and metal reflector. $Ar^+$ ion in the ECR plasma can be accelerated into the plasma sheath between the plasma and metal reflector, which are then neutralized mainly by Auger neutralization. The neutral beam energy is controlled by the metal reflector bias. The controllable neutral beam energy can continuously change crystalline structures from an amorphous phase to nanocrystal phase of various grain sizes. The $Al_2O_3$ films can be high film density by controllable Auger neutral beam energy. we developed $Al_2O_3$ high dense barrier layer using NBAS process. We can verified that NBAS process effect can lead to formation of high density nano-crystal structure barrier layer. As a result, Fig. 2. shows that the NBAS processed $Al_2O_3$ high dense barrier layer shows excellent WVTR property as a under $2{\times}10^{-5}g/m^2day$ in the single barrier layer of 100nm thickness. Therefore, the NBAS processed $Al_2O_3$ high dense barrier layer is very suitable in the high efficiency OLED application.

• 한국정보디스플레이학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2006.08a
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• pp.633-636
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• 2006

GE has developed a plastic substrate technology comprised of a superior high-heat polycarbonate substrate film and a unique transparent coating package that provides the ultrahigh barrier to moisture and oxygen, and chemical resistance to solvents used in device fabrication. This contribution will update recent progresses made at GEFlexible Ultra-high Gas Barrier Substrate for Organic Electronics on ultra-high barrier coated plastic substrate, both in batch mode and in roll-to-roll mode

• 한국정보디스플레이학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2007.08a
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• pp.445-446
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• 2007

The use of plastic substrates enables new applications, such as flexible display devices, and other flexible electronic devices, using low cost, rollto-roll (R2R) fabrication technologies. One of the limitations of polymeric substrate in these applications is that oxygen and moisture rapidly diffuse through the material and subsequently degrade the electro-optical devices. GE Global Research (GEGR) has developed a plastic substrate technology comprised of a superior high-heat polycarbonate (LEXAN(R)) substrate film and a unique transparent coating package that provides the ultrahigh barrier (UHB) to moisture and oxygen, chemical resistance to solvents used in device fabrications, and a high performance transparent conductor. This article describes the coating solutions for polycarbonate (LEXAN(R)) films and its compatibility with OLED device fabrication processes.

• Journal of Korean Vacuum Science & Technology
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.47-51
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• 2001

To obtain high remnant polarization and good crystalinity of ferroelectric thin films in non-volatile memory devices, the high temperature treatment in oxygen ambient is inevitable. Severe problems that occur in this process are oxygen diffusion into substrate, oxidation of electrode and buffer layer, degradation of microstructure and so on. We made ruthenium dioxide thin film by reactive sputtering with oxygen and argon mixture atmosphere. Comparing quantitatively the core-level spectra of Ru and RuO$_2$ obtained by x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy(XPS), we found that chemical state of RuO$_2$ is very stable and of good resistance to oxygen diffusion and oxidation of adjacent layers. It opens the use of RuO$_2$ thin film as a multifunctional layer of good conducting electrode and resistive barrier for the diffusion and the oxidation. We also suggest a correct understanding of Ru 3d core-level spectrum for RuO$_2$ based on the scheme of final state screening and charge transfer satellites.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.22 no.12
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• pp.1028-1032
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• 2009

In this study, the influences of silicon-based gas barrier films fabricated by using a facing target sputtering(FTS) system on the gas permeability for flexible displays have been investigated. Under these optimum conditions on the $SiO_x$ film with oxygen concentration($O_2/Ar+O_2$) of 3.3% and the $SiO_xN_y$ film with nitrogen concentration($N_2/Ar+O_2+N_2$) of 30% deposited by the FTS system, it was found that the films were grown about 4 times higher deposition rate than that of the conventional sputtering system and showed high transmittance about 85% in the visible light range. Particularly, the polyethylene naphthalate(PEN) substrates with the $SiO_x$ and/or $SiO_xN_y$ films showed the enhanced properties of decreased water vapor transmission rate (WVTR) over $10^{-1}\;g/m^2{\cdot}day$ compared with the PEN substrate without any gas barrier films, which was due to high packing density in the Si-based films with high plasma density by FTS process and/or the denser chemical structure of Si-N bond in the $SiO_xN_y$ film.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2014.02a
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• pp.95-95
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• 2014

An OLED(Organic Light-Emitting Diode) device based on the emissive electroluminescent layer a film of organic materials. OLED is used for many electronic devices such as TV, mobile phones, handheld games consoles. ULVAC's mass production systems are indispensable to the manufacturing of OLED device. ULVAC is a manufacturer and worldwide supplier of equipment and vacuum systems for the OLED, LCD, Semiconductor, Electronics, Optical device and related high technology industries. The SMD Series are single-substrate sputtering systems for deposition of films such as metal films and TCO (Transparent Conductive Oxide) films. ULVAC has delivered a large number of these systems not only Organic Evaporating systems but also LTPS CVD systems. The most important technology of thin-film encapsulation (TFE) is preventing moisture($H_2O$) and oxygen permeation into flexible OLED devices. As a polymer substrate does not offer the same barrier performance as glass substrate, the TFE should be developed on both the bottom and top side of the device layers for sufficient lifetimes. This report provides a review of promising thin-film barrier technologies as well as the WVTR(Water Vapor Transmission Rate) properties. Multilayer thin-film deposition technology of organic and inorganic layer is very effective method for increasing barrier performance of OLED device. Gases and water in the organic evaporating system is having a strong influence as impurities to OLED device. CRYO pump is one of the very useful vacuum components to reduce above impurities. There for CRYO pump is faster than conventional TMP exhaust velocity of gases and water. So, we suggest new method to make a good vacuum condition which is CRYO Trap addition on OLED evaporator. Alignment accuracy is one of the key technologies to perform high resolution OLED device. In order to reduce vibration characteristic of CRYO pump, ULVAC has developed low vibration CRYO pumps to achieve high resolution alignment performance between Metal mask and substrate. This report also includes ULVAC's approach for these issues.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.34 no.5
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• pp.512-518
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• 1997

The high temperature oxidation behaviors of titanium nitride films prepared by PACVD technique were studied in the temperature range of from 50$0^{\circ}C$ to 80$0^{\circ}C$ under air atmosphere. Ti0.88Al0.12N film, which showed the excellent microhardness from the previous work, was investigated on its oxidation resistance compared with pure TiN film. Ti-Al-N film showed superior oxidation resistance up to $700^{\circ}C$, whereas TiN film was fast oxidized into rutile TiO2 crystallites from at 50$0^{\circ}C$. It was found that an amorphous layer having AlxTiyOz formula was formed on the surface region due to outward diffusion of Al ions at the initial stage of oxidation. The amorphous oxide layer played a role as a barrier against oxygen diffusion, protected the remained nitride layer from further oxidation, and thus, resulted in the high oxidation resistive characteristics of Ti-Al-N film.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.41 no.6
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• pp.435-438
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• 2004

MOCVD is one of the major deposition techniques for Cu thin films and Ta-Si-N is one of promising barrier metal candidates for Cu with high thermal stability. Effects of hydrogen plasma pretreatment of the underlying Ta-Si-N film surface on the Cu nucleation in Cu MOCVD were investigated using scanning electron microscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and Auger electron emission spectrometry analyses. Cu nucleation in MOCVD is enhanced as the rf-power and the plasma exposure time are increased in the hydrogen plasma pretreatment. The optimal plasma treatment process condition is the rf-power of 40 Wand the plasma exposure time of 2 min. The hydrogen gas flow rate in the hydrogen plasma pretreatment process does not affect Cu nucleation much. The mechanism through which Cu nucleation is enhanced by the hydrogen plasma pretreatment of the Ta-Si-N film surface is that the nitrogen and oxygen atoms at the Ta-Si-N film surface are effectively removed by the plasma treatment. Consequently the chemical composition was changed from Ta-Si-N(O) into Ta-Si at the Ta-Si-N film surface, which is favorable for Cu nucleation.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.41 no.5
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• pp.364-369
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• 2004

The barrier and optical properties of AlO$_{x}$ thin films on polycarbonate deposited by Reactive Ion Beam Sputtering (RIBS) were investigated at different oxygen partial pressure. We measured the deposition rate of AlO$_{x}$ thin films. As the oxygen partial pres-sure increased, the deposition rate increased then decreased. The changes of deposition rate are associated with the properties of deposited films. The properties of deposited AlO$_{x}$ thin films were studied using X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS), Scan-ning Electron Microscopy (SEM), and Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM). Optimum deposition parameters were found for fabricat-ing aluminum oxide thin films with high optical transparency for visible light and low Oxygen Transmission Rate (OTR). The optical transmittance of AlO$_{x}$ thin film deposited on polycarbonate (PC) showed the same value of bare PC.bare PC.