Method of manufacturing organic electroluminescent device and organic electroluminescent device

• US 7,452,738 B2
• Filed: 10/05/2005
• Issued: 11/18/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 10/22/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation (Seiko Group)
• Original Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation (Seiko Group)
• Inventors: Hayashi, Kenji, Yamauchi, Yukio, Nozawa, Ryoichi
• Primary Examiner(s): Mulpuri; Savitri
• Application Number:
  US11/243,411
• Publication Number:
  US 20060088951A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,140 Days
• Field of Search: 438/29, 438/99, 438141-166, 438/22, 438/24, 427/66, 257/40, 313/504, 428/690
• US Class Current: 438/29
• CPC Class Codes: H10K 50/84 Passivation; Containers; Encapsulations
• CPC Class Codes: H10K 50/8426 Peripheral sealing arrangements, e.g. adhesives, sealants
• CPC Class Codes: H10K 50/844 Encapsulations
• CPC Class Codes: H10K 59/87 Passivation; Containers; Encapsulations
• CPC Class Codes: H10K 59/8722 Peripheral sealing arrangements, e.g. adhesives, sealants
• CPC Class Codes: H10K 59/873 Encapsulations

Abstract

A method of manufacturing an organic electroluminescent device, which, on a substrate, has a plurality of first electrodes, a light-emitting functional layer disposed to correspond to formation positions of the first electrodes, and a second electrode covering the light-emitting functional layer, includes forming a buffering layer that covers the second electrode, and forming a gas barrier layer that covers the buffering layer. The forming of the buffering layer includes coating a coating material having a monomer/oligomer material and a curing agent under a vacuum atmosphere, without a solvent, and thermally curing the coating material so as to form the buffering layer.

Claims

1. A method of manufacturing an organic electroluminescent device, which, on a substrate, has a plurality of first electrodes, a light-emitting functional layer disposed to correspond to formation positions of the first electrodes, and a second electrode covering the light-emitting functional layer, the method of manufacturing an organic electroluminescent device comprising:

forming a buffering layer that covers the second electrode;

the forming of the buffering layer includes;

coating a coating material containing a monomer/oligomer material and a curing agent under a vacuum atmosphere, without a solvent, and

thermally curing the coating material so as to form the buffering layer;

forming a gas barrier layer that covers the buffering layer;

forming a partition that has a plurality of openings corresponding to the formation positions of the first electrodes;

forming the light-emitting functional layer in the plurality of openings; and

forming the second electrode that covers the partition and the light-emitting functional layer,

the forming of the buffering layer forms the buffering layer to cover the second electrode and the partition.

2. The method of manufacturing an organic electroluminescent device according to claim 1,

wherein, in the forming of the buffering layer, the coating is performed by use of a screen printing method.

3. The method of manufacturing an organic electroluminescent device according to claim 2,

wherein the screen printing method sequentially includes:

dropping the coating material on an aperture area of a mask;

pressing and moving the coating material onto the aperture area of mask by a squeegee so as to form the coating film made of the coating material on the substrate; and

removing the mask from the coating film.

4. The method of manufacturing an organic electroluminescent device according to claim 3,

wherein the removing the mask from the coating film removes the mask from the coating film while inclining the mask with respect to the substrate.

5. The method of manufacturing an organic electroluminescent device according to claim 1,

wherein the forming of the buffering layer has defoaming between the coating the coating material and the thermally curing the coating material, and

the defoaming is performed under an inert gas atmosphere of a pressure higher than that of the coating the coating material.

6. The method of manufacturing an organic electroluminescent device according to claim 1,

wherein the forming of the buffering layer forms a marginal portion of a planar pattern of the buffering layer in a wavy shape.

7. The method of manufacturing an organic electroluminescent device according to claim 1,

wherein, in the forming of the buffering layer, the coating material contains an epoxy-based monomer/oligomer material having a molecular weight of 3000 or less, and the coating material is cured by ester binding after the thermally curing the coating material so as to form the buffering layer.

8. The method of manufacturing an organic electroluminescent device according to claim 1,

wherein the room-temperature viscosity of the coating material is in a range of 500 to 20000 mPa·

s.

9. The method of manufacturing an organic electroluminescent device according to claim 1,

wherein the room-temperature viscosity of the coating material is in a range of 1000 to 10000 mPa·

s.

10. The method of manufacturing an organic electroluminescent device according to claim 1, further comprising:

forming an organic adhering layer, having an oxygen atomic weight more than that of the buffering layer, between the buffering layer and the gas barrier layer.

11. The method of manufacturing an organic electroluminescent device according to claim 1,

wherein the angle of a side end portion of the buffering layer is equal to or less than 30°

.

12. The method of manufacturing an organic electroluminescent device according to claim 1, further comprising:

forming an electrode protecting layer between the second electrode and the buffering layer.

13. The method of manufacturing an organic electroluminescent device according to claim 1,

wherein an electrode protecting layer and the gas barrier layer are made of a silicon oxynitride film, and

the buffering layer contains an epoxy-based compound and a silane coupling agent.

14. The method of manufacturing an organic electroluminescent device according to claim 1,

wherein a film thickness of the gas barrier layer is in a range of 300 to 700 nm.