Sealing technique for decreasing the time it takes to hermetically seal a device and the resulting hermetically sealed device

• US 7,722,929 B2
• Filed: 06/21/2007
• Issued: 05/25/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 08/18/2005
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Corning Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Corning Incorporated
• Inventors: Aitken, Bruce Gardiner, Quesada, Mark Alejandro, An, Chong Pyung
• Primary Examiner(s): Ahmed; Shamim
• Application Number:
  US11/820,855
• Publication Number:
  US 20070252526A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,069 Days
• Field of Search: 204/192.29, 204/298.12
• US Class Current: 427/376.1
• CPC Class Codes: C03C 17/3615 Coatings of the type glass/metal/other inorganic layers, at least one layer being non-metallic
• CPC Class Codes: C03C 17/3649 made of metals other than silver
• CPC Class Codes: C03C 17/3671 specially adapted for use as electrodes
• CPC Class Codes: C03C 17/3678 specially adapted for use in solar cells
• CPC Class Codes: C03C 3/247 containing fluorine and phosphorus
• CPC Class Codes: C03C 8/24 Fusion seal compositions being frit compositions having non-frit additions, i.e. for use as seals between dissimilar materials, e.g. glass and metal; Glass solders
• CPC Class Codes: C23C 14/06 characterised by the coating material C23C14/0021 , C23C14/04 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H10K 50/844 Encapsulations
• CPC Class Codes: H10K 59/873 Encapsulations
• CPC Class Codes: H10K 71/40 Thermal treatment, e.g. annealing in the presence of a solvent vapour
• 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 sealing method for decreasing the time it takes to hermetically seal a device and the resulting hermetically sealed device (e.g., a hermetically sealed OLED device) are described herein. The sealing method includes the steps of: (1) cooling an un-encapsulated device; (2) depositing a sealing material over at least a portion of the cooled device to form an encapsulated device; and (3) heat treating the encapsulated device to form a hermetically sealed device. In one embodiment, the sealing material is a low liquidus temperature inorganic (LLT) material such as, for example, tin-fluorophosphate glass, tungsten-doped tin fluorophosphate glass, chalcogenide glass, tellurite glass, borate glass and phosphate glass. In another embodiment, the sealing material is a Sn²⁺-containing inorganic oxide material such as, for example, SnO, SnO+P₂O₅ and SnO+BPO₄.

Claims

1. A method for hermetically sealing an organic electronic device, said method comprising the steps of:

cooling an un-encapsulated organic electronic device;

sputtering a target material consisting of SnO and P₂O₅ to deposit a single thin film layer of a sealing material over at least a portion of said cooled organic electronic device to form an encapsulated organic electronic device; and

wherein the thin film sealing material layer is transparent at visible wavelengths and forms a hermetic barrier on the encapsulated organic electronic device.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said cooling step further includes cooling said un-encapsulated organic electronic device to a temperature <

10°

C.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein said sputtering step further includes depositing the sealing material at a deposition rate of about 5 Å

/second over said at least a portion of said cooled organic electronic device.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein said deposition step further includes depositing the sealing material at a deposition rate of about 25 Å

/second over said at least a portion of said cooled organic electronic device.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein said deposition step further includes depositing the sealing material at a deposition rate of about 75 Å

/second over said at least a portion of said cooled organic electronic device.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein said hermetic barrier has an oxygen permeance of less than 0.01 cc/m²/atm/day and a water permeance of less than 0.01 g/m²/day.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the thin film sealing material layer contains greater than 80% SnO.

8. A method for hermetically sealing an organic light emitting diode device, said method comprising the steps of:

cooling an un-encapsulated organic light emitting diode device comprising an electro-luminescent material to a temperature less than 15°

C.;

sputtering a target material consisting of SnO and P₂O₅ to deposit a single thin film layer of a sealing material over at least a portion of said cooled un-encapsulated organic light emitting diode device to form an encapsulated organic light emitting diode device; and

wherein said thin film sealing material layer is transparent at visible wavelengths and forms a pore-free barrier layer on the encapsulated organic light emitting diode device having an oxygen permeance less than 0.01 cc/m²/atm/day and a water permeance less than 0.01 g/m²/day.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein a thickness of said barrier layer is about 2 μ

m.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein a liquidus temperature of said barrier layer is less than 600°

C.

11. The method according to claim 9, wherein said target material is a pressed powder material.