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I’m glad to see an article that is now bringing the OLED and subset PLED technology into the theatrical scene. The OLED revolution has been called one of the 10 most significant technological developments to watch. For several years the technology has been pursued by many different major manufacturing companies but without success. The primary reason for this failure is the substance’s high sensitivity to oxygen in air. The thin polyester film used to sandwich the compound (2 mil generally) has inherent flaws with this type of application that make it impossible without modification to be a useful protector or “barrier” from the outside atmosphere.
I worked for a couple years at a small startup company that has been developing a “hard coat” technology to deposit silicone dioxide (an ultra-hard, clear, and oxygen proof barrier coating) onto flexible films to provide a truly waterproof film for this application. An example of why a barrier coating is necessary can be found in aluminized packaging of potato chips. The thin layer of aluminum sandwiched between the two thin layers of plastic is a barrier that keeps moisture out but has the side affect of being opaque and even reflective—not helpful if you want to make a clear and totally flexible HD television, or any other type of useful product.
This is still a very new technology but we are fast approaching the ability to produce almost perfect barrier films that resist scratching, maintain a flexible substrate, and that are very cheap to produce. Someday soon it might be possible to wrap a car with a plasma screen. Who knows?
The following is a paper that I did a good deal of research and development for with these new plasma sources to deposit these coatings on untreated films. These revolutionary findings were presented at the Annual Society of Vacuum Coaters technical conference in 2004.
1 comment:
I’m glad to see an article that is now bringing the OLED and subset PLED technology into the theatrical scene. The OLED revolution has been called one of the 10 most significant technological developments to watch. For several years the technology has been pursued by many different major manufacturing companies but without success. The primary reason for this failure is the substance’s high sensitivity to oxygen in air. The thin polyester film used to sandwich the compound (2 mil generally) has inherent flaws with this type of application that make it impossible without modification to be a useful protector or “barrier” from the outside atmosphere.
I worked for a couple years at a small startup company that has been developing a “hard coat” technology to deposit silicone dioxide (an ultra-hard, clear, and oxygen proof barrier coating) onto flexible films to provide a truly waterproof film for this application. An example of why a barrier coating is necessary can be found in aluminized packaging of potato chips. The thin layer of aluminum sandwiched between the two thin layers of plastic is a barrier that keeps moisture out but has the side affect of being opaque and even reflective—not helpful if you want to make a clear and totally flexible HD television, or any other type of useful product.
This is still a very new technology but we are fast approaching the ability to produce almost perfect barrier films that resist scratching, maintain a flexible substrate, and that are very cheap to produce. Someday soon it might be possible to wrap a car with a plasma screen. Who knows?
The following is a paper that I did a good deal of research and development for with these new plasma sources to deposit these coatings on untreated films. These revolutionary findings were presented at the Annual Society of Vacuum Coaters technical conference in 2004.
http://www.generalplasma.com/pdf/paper%20SVC%202004%20PECVD%20barrier%20films.pdf
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