High Speed Deposition of ALD Ultra-Barrier Films (Printed Electronics Europe 2014)

• Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) has been shown to provide extremely high quality diffusion barrier films, even for very thin single layers.

• But.... Conventional pulse-based ALD processing is slow, expensive, and generally not suitable for Roll-to-Roll processing.

• New ALD methods have been developed that allow very high deposition rates and very low cost of ownership, while preserving the barrier performance achieved in conventional processes.

• These technologies have been demonstrated at laboratory scale for rigid substrates, and ramped to pilot scale for Roll-to-Roll processing.

Eric Dickey is President of Lotus Applied Technology, a company specializing in thin film process research and development, with a particular emphasis on Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD). Eric began his career in 1984, holding a variety of engineering and management positions in R&D and manufacturing organizations at companies in the flat panel display and optical coating industries. He has extensive experience in the technical fields of reactive sputtering, evaporation, and CVD processing, and over 20 years of experience in ALD technology, including processes for dielectrics, conductors, inorganic phosphors, optical coatings, and diffusion barriers. He is currently focused on "Spatial" ALD, for high speed deposition of ALD films.

Lotus Applied Technology is a technology development and licensing company, working to break down the cost and throughput limitations of conventional pulse-based Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD). Lotus was spun off in 2007 from Planar Systems, Inc., where ALD was used in high volume manufacturing and R&D for more than 20 years. Currently, the company is focused on ultra-barrier encapsulation processes for rigid and flexible substrates. Lotus works directly with global manufacturing partners in the supply chain for direct encapsulation and Roll-to-Roll converting of encapsulation materials, for the Thin Film PV, OLED display, OLED lighting, and high performance packaging industries.