Protecting the polymer
Polymers are an essential part of so-called system-in-foil technologies such as flexible OLED displays or solar cells. Polymers provide good flexibility, low weight and compatibility with the roll-to-roll manufacturing process of these devices. However, these polymer substrates are sensitive to oxygen and water, causing the device to deteriorate.
To protect the device from deteriorating, a barrier layer is added to prevent the oxygen and water from reaching the polymer substrates. Research has recently shown that this layer can be best applied using a technique called thin film Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD) using Atmospheric Pressure Glow (APG) discharge plasma reactors.
Breakthrough
This project presented a technological breakthrough for the deposition of powder-free and dense siliciumoxid (SiO2) in inexpensive gas mixtures (nitrogen-based), a method for deposition of a barrier layer. The project also delivered well-defined research directions for industry for engineering APG-deposited ultra-high barriers (UHB) as needed in devices like flexible OLEDs and solar cells.
Partners
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