Method for producing organic electroluminescent device and film deposition apparatus

• US 10,665,817 B2
• Filed: 11/20/2019
• Issued: 05/26/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 03/08/2017
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sakai Display Products Corporation (Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Sakai Display Products Corporation (Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd.)
• Inventors: Kishimoto, Katsuhiko
• Primary Examiner(s): Ghyka, Alexander G
• Application Number:
  US16/689,502
• Publication Number:
  US 20200136090A1
• Time in Patent Office: 188 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: B05C 9/12 the auxiliary operation being performed after the application B05C9/14 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: B05D 3/06 by exposure to radiation B05D3/02 takes precedence ; plasma treatment B05D3/141
• CPC Class Codes: C23C 14/12 Organic material
• CPC Class Codes: C23C 14/5846 Reactive treatment
• CPC Class Codes: C23C 16/483 using coherent light, UV to IR, e.g. lasers
• CPC Class Codes: G09F 9/30 in which the desired character or characters are formed by combining individual elements panels comprising a number of electrodes in a single cell controlling light arriving from an independent light source, e.g. electro-optical or magneto-optical cell, G02F1/00
• CPC Class Codes: H05B 33/02 Details
• CPC Class Codes: H05B 33/04 Sealing arrangements , e.g. against humidity
• CPC Class Codes: H05B 33/06 Electrode terminals
• CPC Class Codes: H05B 33/10 Apparatus or processes specially adapted to the manufacture of electroluminescent light sources
• CPC Class Codes: H10K 50/844 Encapsulations
• CPC Class Codes: H10K 59/131 Interconnections, e.g. wiring lines or terminals
• CPC Class Codes: H10K 59/873 Encapsulations
• CPC Class Codes: H10K 71/00 Manufacture or treatment specially adapted for the organic devices covered by this subclass
• CPC Class Codes: H10K 71/421 using coherent electromagnetic radiation, e.g. laser annealing
• CPC Class Codes: H10K 77/111 Flexible substrates
• CPC Class Codes: Y02E 10/549 Organic PV cells
• CPC Class Codes: Y02P 70/50 Manufacturing or production processes characterised by the final manufactured product

Abstract

A method for producing an organic EL device in this disclosure includes the steps of providing an element substrate including a substrate and a plurality of organic EL devices arranged on the substrate; and forming a thin film encapsulation structure over the element substrate. The step of forming the thin film encapsulation structure includes the steps of forming a first inorganic barrier layer over the element substrate; condensing a photocurable resin on the first inorganic barrier layer; irradiating a plurality of selected regions of the photocurable resin with a laser beam to cure at least a part of the photocurable resin, thus to form a photocurable resin layer; removing an uncured part of the photocurable resin; and forming a second inorganic barrier layer, covering the photocurable resin layer, on the first inorganic barrier layer.

Claims

1. A method for producing an organic EL device, comprising the steps of:

providing an element substrate comprising a substrate that includes a plurality of active regions and a peripheral region outer to the active regions and also comprising a plurality of EL elements respectively formed on the active regions and a plurality of electrical circuits respectively formed on the active regions, each of the plurality of the electrical circuits including a plurality of lead wires each including a terminal on the peripheral region; and

forming a thin film encapsulation structure over the element substrate;

wherein the step of forming the thin film encapsulation structure includes the steps of;

forming a first inorganic barrier layer over the element substrate;

condensing a photocurable resin in a liquid-state on the first inorganic barrier layer;

irradiating a selected region of the photocurable resin with a laser beam to cure at least a part of the photocurable resin, thus to form a photocurable resin layer;

removing an uncured part of the photocurable resin layer to form an organic barrier layer; and

forming a second inorganic barrier layer, covering the organic barrier layer, on the first inorganic barrier layer,

wherein a region where the first inorganic barrier layer and the second inorganic barrier layer are in contact with each other without having the organic barrier layer therebetween is formed at the peripheral region to cross the plurality of lead wires.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of electrical circuits includes the plurality of organic EL elements and a back plane circuit for driving the plurality of organic EL elements.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the region where the first inorganic barrier layer and the second inorganic barrier layer are in contact with each other without having the organic barrier layer therebetween extends to form a slit.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein in the step of condensing the photocurable resin in the liquid state, the photocurable resin condensed on a flat portion of the first inorganic barrier layer has a thickness of 100 nm or greater and 500 nm or less.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of forming the organic barrier layer includes the step of generating the laser beam from laser light emitted from at least one semiconductor laser device.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the substrate is a flexible substrate.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the photocurable resin contains an acrylic monomer.