• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2012.02a
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• pp.100-101
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• 2012

The plasma damage free and room temperature processedthin film deposition technology is essential for realization of various next generation organic microelectronic devices such as flexible AMOLED display, flexible OLED lighting, and organic photovoltaic cells because characteristics of fragile organic materials in the plasma process and low glass transition temperatures (Tg) of polymer substrate. In case of directly deposition of metal oxide thin films (including transparent conductive oxide (TCO) and amorphous oxide semiconductor (AOS)) on the organic layers, plasma damages against to the organic materials is fatal. This damage is believed to be originated mainly from high energy energetic particles during the sputtering process such as negative oxygen ions, reflected neutrals by reflection of plasma background gas at the target surface, sputtered atoms, bulk plasma ions, and secondary electrons. To solve this problem, we developed the NBAS (Neutral Beam Assisted Sputtering) process as a plasma damage free and room temperature processed sputtering technology. As a result, electro-optical properties of NBAS processed ITO thin film showed resistivity of $4.0{\times}10^{-4}{\Omega}{\cdot}m$ and high transmittance (>90% at 550 nm) with nano- crystalline structure at room temperature process. Furthermore, in the experiment result of directly deposition of TCO top anode on the inverted structure OLED cell, it is verified that NBAS TCO deposition process does not damages to the underlying organic layers. In case of deposition of transparent conductive oxide (TCO) thin film on the plastic polymer substrate, the room temperature processed sputtering coating of high quality TCO thin film is required. During the sputtering process with higher density plasma, the energetic particles contribute self supplying of activation & crystallization energy without any additional heating and post-annealing and forminga high quality TCO thin film. However, negative oxygen ions which generated from sputteringtarget surface by electron attachment are accelerated to high energy by induced cathode self-bias. Thus the high energy negative oxygen ions can lead to critical physical bombardment damages to forming oxide thin film and this effect does not recover in room temperature process without post thermal annealing. To salve the inherent limitation of plasma sputtering, we have been developed the Magnetic Field Shielded Sputtering (MFSS) process as the high quality oxide thin film deposition process at room temperature. The MFSS process is effectively eliminate or suppress the negative oxygen ions bombardment damage by the plasma limiter which composed permanent magnet array. As a result, electro-optical properties of MFSS processed ITO thin film (resistivity $3.9{\times}10^{-4}{\Omega}{\cdot}cm$, transmittance 95% at 550 nm) have approachedthose of a high temperature DC magnetron sputtering (DMS) ITO thin film were. Also, AOS (a-IGZO) TFTs fabricated by MFSS process without higher temperature post annealing showed very comparable electrical performance with those by DMS process with $400^{\circ}C$ post annealing. They are important to note that the bombardment of a negative oxygen ion which is accelerated by dc self-bias during rf sputtering could degrade the electrical performance of ITO electrodes and a-IGZO TFTs. Finally, we found that reduction of damage from the high energy negative oxygen ions bombardment drives improvement of crystalline structure in the ITO thin film and suppression of the sub-gab states in a-IGZO semiconductor thin film. For realization of organic flexible electronic devices based on plastic substrates, gas barrier coatings are required to prevent the permeation of water and oxygen because organic materials are highly susceptible to water and oxygen. In particular, high efficiency flexible AMOLEDs needs an extremely low water vapor transition rate (WVTR) of $1{\times}10^{-6}gm^{-2}day^{-1}$. The key factor in high quality inorganic gas barrier formation for achieving the very low WVTR required (under ${\sim}10^{-6}gm^{-2}day^{-1}$) is the suppression of nano-sized defect sites and gas diffusion pathways among the grain boundaries. For formation of high quality single inorganic gas barrier layer, we developed high density nano-structured Al2O3 single gas barrier layer usinga NBAS process. The NBAS process can continuously change crystalline structures from an amorphous phase to a nano- crystalline phase with various grain sizes in a single inorganic thin film. As a result, the water vapor transmission rates (WVTR) of the NBAS processed $Al_2O_3$ gas barrier film have improved order of magnitude compared with that of conventional $Al_2O_3$ layers made by the RF magnetron sputteringprocess under the same sputtering conditions; the WVTR of the NBAS processed $Al_2O_3$ gas barrier film was about $5{\times}10^{-6}g/m^2/day$ by just single layer.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.36 no.10
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• pp.1049-1054
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• 2012

Continued advancements in organic materials have led to the development of organic devices that are thin, flexible, and lightweight and that can potentially be used as low-cost energy-conversion devices. While these devices have many advantages, the environmentally induced degradation of the active materials and the low-work-function electrodes remain a valid concern. Hence, many vacuum deposition processes have been applied to develop low-permeation barrier coatings. In this work, we present the results pertaining to the developed thin-film encapsulation. Multilayer encapsulation involves the use of $SiO_x$ or $SiN_x$ with parylene. The effective water vapor transmission rates were investigated using a Ca-corrosion test. The integration of the developed barrier layers was demonstrated by encapsulating pentacene/$C_{60}$ solar cells, and the results are presented.

• Journal of the Semiconductor & Display Technology
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.67-70
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• 2022

In order to prevent water vapor and oxygen permeation in the organic light emitting diodes (OLED), Al₂O₃ thin-film encapsulation (TFE) technology were investigated. Atomic layer deposition (ALD) method was used for making the Al₂O₃ TFE layer because it has superior barrier performance with advantages of excellent uniformity over large scales at relatively low deposition temperatures. In this study, the thickness of the Al₂O₃ layer was varied by controlling the numbers of the unit pulse cycle including Tri Methyl Aluminum(Al(CH₃)₃) injection, Ar purge, and H₂O injection. In this case, several process parameters such as injection pulse times, Ar flow rate, precursor temperature, and substrate temperatures were fixed for analysis of the effect only on the thickness of the Al₂O₃ layer. As results, at least the thickness of 39 nm was required in order to obtain the minimum WVTR of 9.04 mg/m²day per one Al₂O₃ layer and a good transmittance of 90.94 % at 550 nm wavelength.

• Journal of Information Display
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.8-11
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• 2010

In this study, a new thin films passivation technique using Zn with high electronegativity and $MgF_2$, a fluorine material with better optical transmittance than the sealing film materials that have thus far been reported was proposed. Targets with various ratios of $MgF_2$ to Zn (5:5, 4:6 and 3:7) were fabricated to control the amount of Zn in the passivation films. The Mg-Zn-F films were deposited onto the substrates and Zn was located in the gap between the lattices of $MgF_2$ without chemical metathesis in the Mg-Zn-F films. The thickness and optical transmittance of the deposited passivation films were approximately 200 nm and 80%, respectively. It was confirmed via electron dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) analysis that the Zn content of the film that was sputtered using a 4:6 ratio target was 9.84 wt%. The Zn contents of the films made from the 5:5 and 3:7 ratio targets were 2.07 and 5.01 wt%, respectively. The water vapor transmission rate (WVTR) was determined to be $38^{\circ}C$, RH 90-100%. The WVTR of the Mg-Zn-F film that was deposited with a 4:6 ratio target nearly reached the limit of the equipment, $1\times10^{-3}\;gm^2{\cdot}day$. As the Zn portion increased, the packing density also increased, and it was found that the passivation films effectively prevented the permeation by either oxygen or water vapor. To measure the characteristics of gas barrier, the film was applied to the emitting device to evaluate their lifetime. The lifetime of the applied device with passivation was increased to 25 times that of the PLED device, which was non-passivated.