• 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.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.25 no.6
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• pp.530-537
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• 2015

Photovoltaic (PV) modules are environmentally energy conversion devices to generate electricity via photovoltaic effect of semiconductors from solar energy. One of key elements in PV modules is "Backsheet," a multilayered barrier film, which determines their lifetime and energy conversion efficiency. The representative Backsheet is composed of chemically resistant poly(vinyl fluoride) (PVF) and cheap poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) films used as core and skin materials, respectively. PVF film is too expensive to satisfy the market requirements to Backsheet materials with production cost as low as possible. The promising alternatives to PVF-based Backsheet are hydrocarbon Backsheets employing semi-crystalline PET films instead of PVF film. It is, however, necessary to provide improved barrier property to water vapor to the PET films, since PET films are suffering from hydrolytic decomposition. In this study, a polyurethane adhesive with reduced water vapor permeation behavior is developed via a homogeneous distribution of hydrophobic silica nanoparticles. The modified adhesive is expected to retard the hydrolysis of PET films located in the core and inner skin. To clarify the efficacy of the proposed concept, the mechanical properties and electrochemical PV performances of the Backsheet are compared with those of a Backsheet employing the polyurethane adhesive without the silica nanoparticles, after the exposure under standard temperature and humidity conditions.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.71-74
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• 2006

In this paper, we investigated the characterization of silicon oxide(SiOx) thin film on Ethylene Terephthalate(PET) substrates by e-beam deposition for transparent barrier application. The temperature of chamber increases from $30^{\circ}C$ to $110^{\circ}C$, the roughness increase while the Water vapor transmission rate (WVTR) decreases. Under these conditions, the WVTR for PET can be reduced from a level of $0.57 g/m^2/day$ (bare subtrate) to $0.05 g/m^2/day$ after application of a 200-nm-thick $SiO_2$ coating at 110 C. A more efficient way to improve permeation of PET was carried out by using a double side coating of a 5-${\mu}m$-thick parylene film. It was found that the WVTR can be reduced to a level of $-0.2 g/m^2/day$. The double side parylene coating on PET could contribute to the lower stress of oxide film, which greatly improves the WVTR data. These results indicates that the $SiO_2$ /Parylene/PET barrier coatings have high potential for flexible organic light-emitting diode(OLED) applications.

• Journal of the Semiconductor & Display Technology
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.22-26
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• 2021

Thin-film encapsulation (TFE) technology is most effective in preventing water vapor and oxygen permeation in the organic light emitting diodes (OLED). Of those, a laminated structure of Al₂O₃ and MgO were applied to provide efficient barrier performance for increasing the stability of devices in air. Atomic layer deposition (ALD) method is known as the most promising technology for making the laminated Al₂O₃/MgO and is used to realize a thin film encapsulation technology in organic light-emitting diodes. Atomic layer deposited inorganic films have superior barrier performance and have advantages of excellent uniformity over large scales at relatively low deposition temperatures. In this study, the control system of the MgCP₂ precursor for the atomic layer deposition of MgO was established in order to deposit the MgO layer stably by the injection time of second level and the stable heating temperature. The deposition rate was obtained stably to be from 4 to 10 Å/cycle using the injection pulse times ranging from 3 to 12 sec and a substrate temperature ranging from 80 to 150 ℃.

• 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.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2012.08a
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• pp.251-252
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• 2012

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 $1{\times}10^{-6}g/m^2$/day. The Key factor in high quality inorganic gas barrier formation for achieving the very low WVTR required ($1{\times}10^{-6}g/m^2$/day) is the suppression of defect sites and gas diffusion pathways between grain boundaries. In this study, we developed an $Al_2O_3$ nano-crystal structure single gas barrier layer using a Neutral Beam Assisted Sputtering (NBAS) process. The NBAS system is based on the conventional RF magnetron sputtering and neutral beam source. The neutral beam source consists of an electron cyclotron Resonance (ECR) plasma source and metal reflector. The Ar+ ions in the ECR plasma are accelerated in the plasma sheath between the plasma and reflector, which are then neutralized by Auger neutralization. The neutral beam energies were possible to estimate indirectly through previous experiments and binary collision model. The accelerating potential is the sum of the plasma potential and reflector bias. In previous experiments, while adjusting the reflector bias, changes in the plasma density and the plasma potential were not observed. The neutral beam energy is controlled by the metal reflector bias. The NBAS process can continuously change crystalline structures from an amorphous phase to nano-crystal phase of various grain sizes within a single inorganic thin film. These NBAS process effects can lead to the formation of a nano-crystal structure barrier layer which effectively limits gas diffusion through the pathways between grain boundaries. Our results verify the nano-crystal structure of the NBAS processed $Al_2O_3$ single gas barrier layer through dielectric constant measurement, break down field measurement, and TEM analysis. Finally, the WVTR of $Al_2O_3$ nano-crystal structure single gas barrier layer was measured to be under $5{\times}10^{-6}g/m^2$/day therefore we can confirm that NBAS processed $Al_2O_3$ nano-crystal structure single gas barrier layer is suitable for OLED application.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2010.08a
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• pp.160-160
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• 2010

Organic electronic devices require a passivation layer to ensure sufficient lifetime. Specifically, flexible organic electronic devices need a barrier layer that transmits less than $10^{-6}\;g/m^2/day$ of water and $10^{-5}\;g/m^2/day$ of oxygen. To increase the lifetime of organic electronic device, therefore, it is indispensable to protect the organic materials from water and oxygen. Severe groups have reported on multi-layerd barriers consisting inorganic thin films deposited by plasma enhenced chemical deposition (PECVD) or sputtering. However, it is difficult to control the formation of granular-type morphology and microscopic pinholes in PECVD and sputtering. On the contrary, atomic layer deoposition (ALD) is free of pinhole, highly uniform, conformal films and show good step coverage. In this study, the passivation layer was deposited using single-process PEALD. The passivation layer, in our case, was a bilayer system consisting of $Al_2O_3$ films and a $TiO_2$ buffer layer on a poly (ether sulfon) (PES) substrate. Because the deposition temperature and plasma power have a significant effect on the properties of the passivation layer, the characteristics of the $Al_2O_3$ films were investigated in terms of density under different deposition temperatures and plasma powers. The effect of the $TiO_2$ buffer layer also was also addressed. In addition, the water vapor transmission rate (WVTR) and organic light-emitting diode (OLEDs) lifetime were measured after forming a bilayer composed of $Al_2O_3/TiO_2$ on a PES substrate.

• KOREAN JOURNAL OF PACKAGING SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.81-87
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• 2022

Paper is a promising alternative to petroleum-based plastic materials for sustainable packaging applications. However, paper exhibits poor gas and water vapor barrier properties, which restrict its effective application in the packaging industry. To enhance the properties of papers, sodium caseinate (CasNa)/transglutaminase (TG) coating solutions with various TG contents were prepared and coated on the papers. The chemical and morphological structures, mechanical properties, seal strength, and water vapor barrier properties of the coated papers were thoroughly investigated. The paper properties depended significantly on the chemical and morphological structures. Pristine CasNa and CasNa/TG coating solutions were evenly coated on the paper surfaces, without any cracks. The chemical structure of the CasNa/TG coated papers was slightly influenced by TG addition, resulting in increased elongation at break and enhanced water barrier properties. To promote the use of CasNa-coated papers in packaging applications, additional investigations must be performed to prevent gas and moisture permeation and enhance the mechanical strength of these papers via chemical reactions and introduction of organic/inorganic composites.

• 한국정보디스플레이학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2006.08a
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• pp.973-976
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• 2006

In this paper, the inorganic multi-layer encapsulation of thin film was newly adopted to protect the organic layer from moisture and oxygen. Using the electron beam, Sputter, inorganic multi-layer thin-film encapsulation was deposited onto the Ethylene Terephthalate(PET) and their interface properties between inorganic and organic layer were investigated. In this investigation, the SiON $SiO_2$ and parylene layer showed the most suitable properties. Under these conditions, the water vapor transmission rate (WVTR) for PET can be reduced from level of $0.57g/m^2/day$ (bare substrate) to $1^{\ast}10^{-5}g/m^2/day$ after application of a SiON and $SiO_2$ layer. These results indicate that the $PET/SiO_2/SiON/Parylene$ barrier coatings have high potential for flexible organic light-emitting diode(OLED) applications.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2010.02a
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• pp.457-457
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• 2010

Flexible organic light emitting diodes (F-OLEDs) requires excellent moisture permeation barriers to minimize the degradation of the F-OLEDs device. Specifically, F-OLEDs device need a barrier layer that transmits less than $10^{-6}g/m^2/day$ of water and $10^{-5}g/m^2/day$ of oxygen. To increase the life time of F-OLEDs, therefore, it is indispensable to protect the organic materials from water and oxygen. Severe groups have reported on multi-layerd barriers consisting inorganic thin films deposited by plasma enhenced chemical deposition (PECVD) or sputtering. However, it is difficult to control the formation of granular-type morphology and microscopic pinholes in PECVD and sputtering. On the contrary, atomic layer deoposition (ALD) is free of pinhole, highly uniform, conformal films and show good step coverage. Thus, $Al_2O_3/TiO_2$ multi-layer was deposited onto the polyethersulfon (PES) substrate by electron cyclotron resonance atomic layer deposition (ECR-ALD), and the water vapor transmission rates (WVTR) were measured. WVTR of moisture permeation barriers is dependent upon density of films and initial state of polymer surface. A significant reduction of WVTR was achieved by increasing density of films and by applying low plasma induced interlayer on the PES substrate. In order to minimize damage of polymer surface, a 10 nm thick $TiO_2$ was deposited on PES prior to a $Al_2O_3$ ECR-ALD process. High quality barriers were developed from $Al_2O_3$ barriers on the $TiO_2$ interlayer. WVTR of $Al_2O_3$ by introducing $TiO_2$ interlayer was recorded in the range of $10^{-3}g/m^2.day$ at $38^{\circ}C$ and 100% relative humidity using a MOCON instrument. The WVTR was two orders of magnitude smaller than $Al_2O_3$ barriers directly grown on PES substrate without the $TiO_2$ interlayer. Thus, we can consider that the $Al_2O_3/TiO_2$ multi-layer passivation can be one of the most suitable F-OLEDs passivation films.