Production and measurement of large-area moisture barriers for electronic applications

The use of organic electronic materials, combined with the desire to produce lightweight & low cost flexible devices, raises the need to develop a commercially viable technology which limits the impact of the active material's intrinsic environmental instability. CPI has been involved in the area of barrier film and encapsulation development for many years and with its development with Beneq of R2R Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) processes is actively engaging with the industry to meet this technology need. This work reviews the existing technologies and highlights the barrier and associated metrology technologies being developed at CPI's National Printable Electronics Facility, including a variant of calcium-test which has been calibrated to the mass standard. The aim of all this work is to reduce costs and improve the manufacturability of these materials for a commercial/industrial environment.