Hermetically sealing a device without a heat treating step and the resulting hermetically sealed device

• US 7,829,147 B2
• Filed: 02/28/2008
• Issued: 11/09/2010
• 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, Koval, Shari Elizabeth
• Primary Examiner(s): Ahmed; Shamim
• Application Number:
  US12/072,784
• Publication Number:
  US 20080149924A1
• Time in Patent Office: 985 Days
• Field of Search: 427/376.1, 427/372.2, 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 17/3621 one layer at least containing a fluoride
• CPC Class Codes: C03C 17/3649 made of metals other than silver
• CPC Class Codes: C03C 17/3663 specially adapted for use as mirrors
• CPC Class Codes: C03C 3/12 Silica-free oxide glass compositions
• 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 14/086 of zinc, germanium, cadmium, indium, tin, thallium or bismuth
• CPC Class Codes: H10K 50/844 Encapsulations
• CPC Class Codes: Y10T 428/239 Complete cover or casing

Abstract

A method for hermetically sealing a device without performing a heat treatment step and the resulting hermetically sealed device are described herein. The method includes the steps of: (1) positioning the un-encapsulated device in a desired location with respect to a deposition device; and (2) using the deposition device to deposit a sealing material over at least a portion of the un-encapsulated device to form a hermetically sealed device without having to perform a post-deposition heat treating step. For instance, the sealing material can be a Sn²⁺-containing inorganic oxide material or a low liquidus temperature inorganic material.

Claims

1. A method for hermetically sealing a device, said method comprising the steps of:

positioning an un-encapsulated device in a desired location with respect to a deposition device; and

using the deposition device to deposit an Sn²⁺-containing inorganic oxide sealing material over at least a portion of the un-encapsulated device to form a hermetically sealed device without performing a post-deposition heat treating step; and

wherein the Sn²⁺-containing inorganic oxide sealing material has the following composition,

Sn (59-89 wt %);

P (0-13 wt %);

O (6-25 wt %); and

F (0-12 wt %).

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of cooling said device prior to depositing the Sn²⁺-containing inorganic oxide sealing material over said device.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein said deposition device is located within a clean room.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein said deposited Sn²⁺-containing inorganic oxide sealing material has a thickness in a range of about 2 μ

m.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein said using step includes utilizing a RF sputtering process to deposit the Sn²⁺-containing inorganic oxide scaling material over said device at a deposition rate in a range of about 5 Å

/second to about 75 Å

/second.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein said hermetically scaled device 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 said sealing material is doped with a dopant to achieve a desired specific physical-chemical property including one of the following, or any combination thereof:

an opacity-transparency;

a refractive index;

a coefficient of thermal expansion;

a sensitization;

a fermi level/resistivity;

a solubility/interface wettability; and

a hardness.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein said hermetically sealed device is a selected one of:

an organic-electronic device including;

an organic emitting light diode (OLED),

a polymer light emitting diode (PLED),

a photovoltaic,

a metamaterial,

a thin film transistor; and

a waveguide;

an inorganic-electronic device including;

a light emitting diode (LED),

a photovoltaic,

a metamaterial,

a thin film transistor; and

a waveguide;

an optoelectronic device including;

an optical switch;

a waveguide;

a flexible substrate;

a food container; and

a medical container.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the Sn²⁺-containing inorganic oxide sealing material comprises greater than 80% stannous oxide.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the Sn²⁺-containing inorganic oxide sealing material is deposited as a single, pore-free layer.