AVS 46th International Symposium
    Flat Panel Displays Topical Conference Tuesday Sessions
       Session FP-TuM

Paper FP-TuM6
Growth of ITO and SiN@sub x@ Films on Polymeric Substrates For Flexible Displays

Tuesday, October 26, 1999, 10:00 am, Room 604

Session: Novel Materials for Field Emission Displays and Technologies for Flexible Displays
Presenter: P.F. Carcia, DuPont Central Research and Development
Authors: P.F. Carcia, DuPont Central Research and Development
R.S. McLean, DuPont Central Research and Development
M.H. Reilly, DuPont Central Research and Development
Correspondent: Click to Email
The discovery that classes of polymeric materials are electro-luminescent and the rapid progress in their development into a technology promise a revolution in future flat panel displays. Currently, the first devices are being manufactured on glass substrates. If, however, devices could be made on flexible polymeric substrates in a reel-to-reel process, this would reduce cost, improve ruggedness, and reduce weight. However, to achieve success on plastic substrates, barrier coatings are needed to exclude atmospheric gases that chemically degrade device performance, and low resistance transparent coatings are needed for efficient electro-optical performance. In this paper we investigate the relationship of the polymeric substrate and its surface morphology to the properties and structure of inorganic thin films, as examined by atomic force microscopy. Conducting ITO films were grown by rf magnetron sputtering and SiN@sub x@ films by both rf magnetron sputtering and ECR PECVD. ITO films had very small grain size, as deposited on unheated PET and PEN polymeric substrates, 2 mils thick , with sheet resistance of only about 15 ohms/square. These films were relatively thin (150-200 nm thick) with low stress and high optical transparency in the visible, and they were also surprisingly good barriers to oxygen transport. Because of their higher optical transparency, SiN@sub x@ films are more attractive in flexible polymer display devices as barriers for atmospheric gases. And SiN@sub x@ films 50 nm thick, synthesized by ECR PECVD on PET and PEN film, were excellent barriers (<0.005 cc/m@super 2@/day-atm) to atmospheric gases. Finally, we will discuss a simple method to semi-quantitatively image defects in barrier films.