Atomic layer deposition (ALD), an advanced deposition technique used in R&D and microelectronics fabrication, is demonstrating its suitability for high volume roll-to-roll processing.
The Finnish ALD company Beneq is delivering the first model of its industrial web coating ALD tool to the Advanced Surface Technology Research Laboratory (Astral), a research unit of the Lappeenranta University of Technology in Finland.
The WCS 500 will be used by Astral as part of application-oriented research into high-barrier packaging films and processes. However, the tool suggests ALD's potential as a high-volume process technique for fabricating encapsulation layers and films, for organic and printed electronic devices.
Compared with batch processing ALD tools, roll-to-roll versions will achieve a 10-20-fold increase in productivity, says Mikko Söderlund, application manager for barrier coatings at Beneq. The company is positioning itself to provide ALD tools for organic and flexible electronics encapsulation.
Cost-effective encapsulation
The high-barrier food packaging industry is a promising source of cost-effective encapsulation films for extending the lifetimes of plastic and flexible electronic devices such as organic solar cells, to protect them from oxygen, moisture, and UV radiation.
Converters and packaging film suppliers such as Amcor are investigating the suitability of adapting transparent barrier films for plastic electronics applications and work is also occurring in Japan, where several high-barrier film suppliers, including Toray, are headquartered.
ALD can deposit films over any surface morphology or shape down to a few molecules in thickness. The process is low-temperature, occurring at well below 100°C, making it compatible with printed and organic electronics fabrication.
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