The CDT Technology Development Centre is well equipped with state-of-the-art equipment designed to provide a flexible P-OLED proving ground for CDT and its license partners. The equipment provides a realistic environment for simulation of high volume display manufacturing plants.

Facilities

600m2 clean room
400m2 test and assembly area
Team of >50 people - scientists, engineers and support staff

• Photolithography

Substrate materials - Glass, ITO on glass or Anode metal/ITO on glass
Cleaning of substrates & masks
Spin coating of photoresist materials with 14" Karl Suss Spinner
Alignment to +/- 3µm and UV exposure with TopCon mask aligner
Substrate patterning development - Pixel bank structures and Lift-Off processes (SSEC tools)
Etching of MoCr, Al and ITO (SSEC tools)
Photoresist stripping (SSEC tools)
Particle and defect mapping for size using Orbotech
Film uniformity measurement (Nanospec)

• Ink and device development
  
  Ink formalations for improved display quality and  reduced defectivity
  Inkjet inks with excellent drop directionality and jetting stability over time, optimised to fill pixels with flat uniform swathe-free films
  Inkjet printed test cells with optimised display uniformity and lifetimes equivalent to spin coated devices 
  Ink formulations for display manufacturing optimised for high frequency jetting
  Development of inks and processes to ensure lonf term performance of ink and displays
  

• Polymer deposition

Ink jet printing:
Printing onto a patterned and cleaned glass substrate (active or passive matrix)
Polymer inks formulated to optimise jetting, film forming and device performance
Substrate surface treatment for ink containment using plasma tools
Inkjet printing with six high accuracy printers to a drop placement accuracy < ±5µm
Process metrology:
             Mitutoyo metrology system for measuring ink drop placement
             Litrex 40J jetting characteristics
             Zygo white light interferometer to measure the profiles of dried ink films

Spin coating:
Spinning onto ITO coated glass substrates
Cleaning and surface treatment by UV/Ozone
Spin coating, drying and baking of multiple inks to form three discrete layers
DekTak profileometer for stylus measurement of film thickness
Film thickness uniformity control of ± 2nm

• Cathode Deposition and Encapsulation
  Integrated double cluster tool for cathode deposition and encapsulation
  Cathode deposition by evaporation for metals and sputtering for transparent oxides
  Single cluster tool for cathode deposition with encapsulation under nitrogen
  Encapsulation by glass-on-glass or glass cans including getters
  Robotic adhesive dispense with automated UV curing
  
  
  
• Assembly and test
  
  Scribing and breaking of 14" plate capacity into singulated displays or test cells 
  Tab bonding of displays for electrical connection
  Manual pinning of test cells for performance testing of polymer materials
  Test systems: 
          Unibench system to record device images, color
          co-ordinates and color factors
          Two IVL rigs record device current, voltage and
          luminance characteristics
          Prometric camera for luminance emission uniformity analysis
          Throughput capability of over 700 test cells per week
          Lifetime testing capability of 470 dc driven and 240 pulsed 
          32 additional devices can be lifetime tested at elevated temperatures
  Device failure analysis and defect mapping

• Technology Transfer
  Detailed information needed to set up successful P-OLED display processes
  Process Design, Implementation and Control:
         Front end of line (photolithography and Etch)
         Polymer desposition (spin coating and inkjet printing)
         Back end of line (cathode deposition and encapsulation)
         Assembly and test
         Failure and yield analysis
  

Additional facilities

A sophisticated data collection system is employed as part of the manufacturing control software, which ensures full traceability and control of trials. As all reliability and product performance data is also gathered, it is possible to correlate large amounts of process data with display results, to find optimum process windows and ensure high yield and capable processes.