Picosun increases efficiency for LED and OLED production

ESPOO, Finland, 13th of April 2021 – Picosun Group has proved to significantly increase the production efficiency of its LED and OLED customers with the PICOSUN® P-300BV ALD system. Recent tests show that a reduced ALD process cycle time and an increased number of wafers deposited with the same film thickness resulted in almost 100% better throughput. A throughput of over 20 000 wafers per month can be reached with a wafer batch of 100 wafers*. At the same time, the process quality in terms of film thickness uniformity has remained on an excellent level (<1% 1sigma) when measured within wafer, wafer to wafer as well as batch to batch.

“Picosun ALD solutions have become the standard in high volume ALD manufacturing. PICOSUN® P-300BV ALD system is designed especially for production of LEDs and OLEDs. With our experience and deep know-how in ALD we are continuously striving to minimize the total cost of ownership and ensure future-proofness for our customers”, states Juhana Kostamo, Vice President, Industrial Business Area of Picosun Group.

Global LED and OLED manufacturers trust in ALD in their production to achieve better device performance and longer product lifetimes. This is a result of thin, conformal, uniform and pinhole-free material layers deposited by ALD for passivation and moisture protection as well as for creating buffer and interface layers.

* 4” 100 wafers, >20000 WPM, <1% 1sigma WiW, <1% 1sigma WtW, <1% 1sigma BtB (120 nm TMA + H2O @ 200 oC)

Read more about PICOSUN® P-300BV at picosun.com/product/p-300bv/

Picosun’s ALD technology boosts UVC LED performance

• In order to reach maximum light output and long operating lifetime, LED chips require surface passivation to eliminate parasitic currents caused by traps and defects
  
• ALD passivation layer could potentially replace the expensive hermetic seal package of the LEDs and thus lower the costs of the final device.
• Short-wavelength UVC radiation destroys bacteria and viruses so UVC LED technology is particularly topical now during the still ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. 
  

ESPOO, Finland, 24^th September 2020 – Picosun Group, the leading supplier of AGILE ALD^® (Atomic Layer Deposition) thin film coating technology, reports excellent results in UVC (ultraviolet-C) LED performance, achieved with the company’s ALD solutions.

Excellent reliability and lifetime improvements of UVC LEDs have been obtained at Picosun’s customer and collaboration partner site, National Chiao Tung University (NCTU), Taiwan, using passivation and barrier films deposited with PICOSUN^® ALD equipment(*). ALD passivation layer could potentially replace the expensive hermetic seal package of the LEDs and thus lower the costs of the final device.

 

“We have used Picosun’s ALD technology already for years with great success. Our PICOSUN^® ALD equipment yields superior quality films which has helped us to achieve several breakthroughs in our LED research. Picosun has local presence in Taiwan and we appreciate the prompt response of their customer support if we ever have any issues. At the phase when R&D results are to be ramped up to industrial-level production, the scalability of Picosun’s ALD technology is a huge benefit,” comments Professor Hao-Chung Kuo from NCTU.

In order to reach maximum light output and long operating lifetime, LED chips require surface passivation to eliminate parasitic currents caused by traps and defects. Also barrier coating is typically needed as LED materials are sensitive to moisture. ALD is an ideal technique to manufacture both the passivation and barrier films – and when the LED size diminishes to micrometer dimensions, the only coating method capable of producing high enough quality films on the required minuscule scale. Ultra-thin, pinhole-free ALD films do not suppress the LED light intensity and they provide reliable protection against ambient conditions, whereas their superior conformality ensures no thickness variations between the facets of the LED chip. Thickness variations, typical side effect of other coating methods, can potentially lead to uneven distribution of film stress or thermal expansion behavior and risk physical damage of the chip.

Short-wavelength UVC radiation destroys bacteria and viruses so UVC LED technology is particularly topical now during the still ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Small, lightweight LEDs enable versatile design of portable, compact disinfecting equipment, they consume less power than other UVC sources, they are durable, and they pose no risk of hazardous material leaks such as e.g. mercury lamps.

“We are happy of the achievements of Professor Kuo’s group at NCTU, and how Picosun’s ALD technology has helped them to achieve their goals in UVC LED development. Our long-term collaboration and networking with both the academia and prominent industries in this field gives us the perfect synergy advantage to facilitate implementation of these solutions in industrial manufacturing,” says Mr. Edwin Wu, CEO of Picosun Asia Pte. Ltd.

(*) UVC LED with 50 nm ALD Al₂O₃ passivation and normal LED packaging (no hermetic seal) maintained 80% of its original efficiency even after 500 hours environmental test at 85% humidity and 85 ^oC temperature.

Picosun delivers multiple production ALD systems to Asia for solid state lighting device manufacturing

ESPOO, Finland, 26th February 2020 (LINK) – Picosun Group, Finland-based, global provider of advanced Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) thin film coating solutions, has been chosen by a major Asian customer to deliver significant ALD production capacity for manufacturing of solid state lighting devices. 

The PICOSUN^® P-300BV ALD system is specially designed for production of LEDs, discrete devices, and MEMS devices such as print heads, sensors, and microphones.

 
Solid state illumination technologies are the future of lighting. Running on much lower power than other lighting devices and lasting much longer, they save both resources and environment. As small, compact and light-weight they are also simple to use in remote locations such as rural areas in developing countries, thus providing safe and easily powered lighting for example for children to study or health care stations to operate.

Picosun wants to introduce ALD to applications where it can improve both people’s quality of life and the state of the environment. Indeed, ALD is an ideal technology to enable various sustainable solutions, not only in lighting but in various other industries. In many cases, replacing thick, lower quality coatings with ultra-thin but superior quality ALD films leads to both material and energy savings and longer end product lifetime. Picosun’s equipment design, refined to top-notch performance through decades of cumulative experience in the field, ensures that no matter what industry, an optimal coating solution can always be found from the company’s portfolio.

“ALD films enhance the performance and lengthen the lifetime of solid state lighting devices. Our PICOSUN® P-300BV ALD system is specifically designed for these applications. It combines fast batch production capacity with vacuum loading for the highest ALD film quality and purity. We are happy to be chosen as the ALD technology provider for our esteemed customer. A facility of multiple P-300BV ALD tools that shall be installed in their premises will significantly strengthen our position in this market. For the end users, our ALD solutions enable flexible, power-saving and environmentally friendly lighting solutions with superb brightness and long life,” says Mr. Edwin Wu, CEO of Picosun Asia Pte. Ltd.

Veeco Introduces Suite of MOCVD Systems to Enable High Performance Photonics Devices

Plainview, N.Y. - Veeco Instruments Inc. (Nasdaq: VECO) introduced today the Lumina Metal Organic Chemical Vapor Deposition (MOCVD) platform, which incorporates the proprietary TurboDisc® reactor technology for outstanding film uniformity, yield and device performance for a variety of photonics applications. This new MOCVD platform, including the Lumina R480™ and Lumina R480S™ models, will accelerate the production of VCSEL, Edge-Emitting Laser (EEL) and Mini / Micro LED devices. 

 

(Image: Veeco)

In response to strong consumer demand for arsenic phosphide (As/P) MOCVD technology, the Lumina platform is advancing a new generation of high-efficiency photonics devices including VCSELs used in 3D sensing, autonomous driving and high-speed data communication. The Lumina platform is also designed for mini and micro LED production for advanced displays found in next-generation 4K and 8K televisions, smartphones and wearable devices, as well as EEL devices used for advanced optical communications and silicon photonics applications.

“Leading photonics manufacturers are currently seeing the benefits of our Lumina MOCVD system and are validating its impact in the manufacturing of high-volume photonics devices,” said Gerry Blumenstock, Senior Vice President, Product Line Management. “As the world’s leader in MOCVD equipment, the Lumina platform is the answer for the next generation VCSEL, EEL andmini / micro LED devices. With its proven design, technology and performance, Lumina provides exciting opportunities for the next generation of photonics devices.”

The Lumina R480 and R480S systems are based on Veeco’s industry leading MOCVD TurboDisc® technology which features excellent uniformity and low defectivity over long campaigns for exceptional yield and flexibility. In addition, Veeco’s proprietary technology drives uniform thermal control for excellent thickness and compositional uniformity. Providing a seamless wafer size transition, the system is capable of depositing high quality As/P epitaxial layers on wafers up to six inches in diameter. The R480 and R480S systems allow users to customize their systems for maximum value.

Veeco will be exhibiting at Photonics West in San Francisco, CA from Tuesday, February 4 to Thursday, February 6. Stop by booth number 1456 to learn more about Veeco’s MOCVD and ion beam sputtering solutions for photonics applications.

Improvement of the quantum efficiency of micro LED by ALD passivation

Micro LED has been interested in the next generation display and been actively developing at many electronics manufactures and institutes for applications of AR/VR, wearable device and extra-large display as a core factor of the forth industry. Also it is evaluated to have superior properties to LED as well as OLED with low power consumption, excellent brightness, greater contrast, flexibility and reliability.

Micro LED of less than 10 µm size is required for displays needed high pixel per inch (PPI) but the quantum efficiency drop would occur by sidewall effect in the manufacturing process. Looking at the reason in detail, micro LED chips require separation of them by dry etching process and the sidewall effect reducing external and internal quantum efficiency happens not to optimize extraction of light by chemical contaminations and structural damages during the etching process.

ALD passivation on the sidewall of Micro LED after dry etching process

The passivation of sidewall by atomic layer deposition recover and remove the plasma damage by dry etching so that the quantum efficiency could be increased and also the ratio of improvement could increase as small as the size of micro LED.

Specially, the interest of productive ALD equipment has been gradually increased because of the excellent dielectric passivation by ALD Al2O3 thin films expecting to improve quantum efficiency.

NCD has been developing wafer based high throughput batch ALD system continuously enable to form high quality oxide passivation to improve the quantum efficiency of micro LED. By introduction of the system in production of micro LED, it could be expected to guarantee the productivity, high quality and performance reliability of high resolution micro LEDs for applications of AR/VR, flexible and wearable devices and extra-large displays.  

NCD Si wafer based batch ALD cluster system

Source: http://www.ncdtech.co.kr/2018/bbs/board.php?bo_table=eng_board_05&wr_id=47