Showing posts with label organic electronics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label organic electronics. Show all posts

Thursday, May 12, 2022

Picosun solution enables stretchable organic electronics manufacturing on large scale

ESPOO, Finland, 12th of May 2022 – Organic electronics enable everyday devices such as displays, lighting and sensors to have high energy efficiency, light weight and low manufacturing costs. These benefits have made organic electronics a mainstream technology today and great steps have been taken to realize the technology’s true potential. Finally, flexible and stretchable circuitry can be fabricated, paving the way for wearable devices and e-textiles.


This technological leap has left behind traditional encapsulation methods, such as heavy glass lids with limited stretchability. The biggest downside of organic electronics, however, is their susceptibility to oxidation by moisture. This moisture ingress can have a direct impact on device performance and longevity. To address this challenge, thin film encapsulation solutions (TFEs) have been introduced as a key technology, heavily relying on vacuum-based thin film deposition techniques like atomic layer deposition (ALD). Ultra-thin ceramic ALD films serve as an effective moisture barrier but can crack under stress unless combined with more elastic molecular layer deposition (MLD) films.

Picosun has brought a stable MLD process to the realm of batch processing with PICOSUN® P-300B ALD tool with batch sizes up to 27 pieces of 200 mm wafers. The results show wafer-to-wafer uniformity of 1% and several Å/min growth rates. When combined with ALD in a nanolaminate, the resulting TFE can resist defects when up to 2% tensile stress is applied and the coatings exhibit a steady-state and effective water vapour transfer rate (WVTR) in a range of 10-6 g/m2*d in ambient conditions, when measured from a very large sample area (3320 mm2) to reflect a real-world application.

“We see immense possibilities for our customers with the Picosun’s proven capabilities of depositing ultra-barrier performance TFEs on large scale. As an example, the future OLED manufacturing can be upscaled without fearing for the reliability of the devices”, states Juhana Kostamo, VP, Industrial Business Area of Picosun Group.

Thursday, August 6, 2015

Heliatek solar films awarded with World Economic Forum's Technology Pioneers

Heliatek, the Dresden-based German company that produces ultra-light, flexible and less than 1 mm thick Photovoltaic solar films, was awarded today as one of the World Economic Forum's "technology pioneers", a selection of the world's most innovative companies. Heliatek is a spin-off from the Technical University of Dresden and the University of Ulm. The company is a leader in the field of Organic Electronics Energy holding the world record efficiency of 12%. It started commercialization of its solar films in July 2014. 
 


The tandem cell: two solar cells stacked on top of each other. The active layers are only around 250 nm thick. (www.heliatek.com)
 
Heliatek was chosen by a professional jury from among hundreds of candidates as one of the 49 selected companies and was the only German company to do so. Thanks to its selection, it will have access to the most influential and sought-after business and political network in the world, and be invited to the World Economic Forum's "Summer Davos" in Dalian, China, this September, or the Annual Meeting in Davos in January.


Thibaud Le Séguillon, Heliatek CEO, remarks, "We are delighted to be recognized by The World Economic Forum as a Technology Pioneer. We have developed groundbreaking technology and manufacturing process that will have a significant impact on the way energy is produced. By integrating our solar films to building facades, we turn these into localized power stations."

 
Heliatek  hold the world record of 12% cell efficiency for opaque (non-transparent) organic solar cells. In production, they currently achieve 7-8 %. The latest development allows transparency levels up to 50% with an efficiency of 6%. The intrinsic lifespan of our small molecules is >25 years (extrapolated). (www.heliatek.com)


"We're glad to see a German company make it to the selection," says Fulvia Montresor, Head of Technology Pioneers at the World Economic Forum. "Heliatek is part of a group of entrepreneurs who are more aware of the crucial challenges of the world around them, and who are determined to do their part to solve those challenges with their company."
 

The innovative roll-to-roll production process offers many advantages: high throughput, high yield and low costs. For example only 1g of organic material is necessary for one square meter (1m²= 10.74 ft²) of active HeliaFilm®. Together with the low power consumption of the production process this leads to a uniquely short energy payback time of less than 3 months. (www.Heliatek.com)
 
The Technology Pioneers were selected from among hundreds of applicants by a selection committee of 68 academics, entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and corporate executives. Notable members of the committee include Arianna Huffington (founder, Huffington Post) and Henry Blodget (editor-in-chief, Business Insider). The committee based its decisions on criteria including innovation, potential impact, working prototype, viability and leadership.

Past recipients include Google (2001), Wikimedia (2007), Mozilla (2007), Kickstarter (2011) and Dropbox (2011). More information on past winners can be found here.

Sunday, August 17, 2014

Aixtrons OEC-200 cluster platform includes an ALD process module

AIXTRON supplies deposition equipment to the semiconductor industry. The company's technology solutions are used by a diverse range of customers worldwide, enabling them to build advanced components for electronic and opto-electronic applications based on compound, silicon, or organic semiconductor materials, for polymers, as well as carbon nanotubes (CNT), graphene and other nanomaterials. For the deposition of organic thin films, AIXTRON offers two core technologies for mass production and R&D: AIXTRON’s Organic Vapor Phase Deposition (OVPD®) equipment serves as enabling technology for the deposition of organic small molecules for OLEDs and organic semiconductor solutions. With its line of Polymer Vapor Phase Deposition (PVPD®) equipment, AIXTRON also offers solutions for carrier gas enhanced vapor phase deposition of functional polymer thin films for a variety of applications, for instance for the manufacturing of functional layers for OTFTs, electro-wetting displays and others. The OVPD-200 system incorporates latest improvements for Organic Vapor Phase Deposition and offers modular source configuration. The new PRODOS-200 provides a powerful evaluation platform for Polymer Vapor Phase Deposition processes. Both solutions can be integrated with the novel OEC-200 cluster platform. Providing a range of integration components such as transfer modules, load locks, buffers, and other subsystems, the OEC-200 platform allows to integrate OVPD -200 and PRODOS-200 into automated cluster environments.”

Aixtron recently relased a video of this Organic Lab at R&D Center OLED Demo Cluster & Gen8 Demo Module. If you watch it you will also notice that it includes an ALD process module!


Aixtrons OEC-200 cluster platform (screendump)


Close up on the ALD process module (screendump)