AVS 50th International Symposium
    Thin Films Tuesday Sessions
       Session TF-TuM

Paper TF-TuM3
Ultra-high Barrier Coating Deposition on Polycarbonate Substrates

Tuesday, November 4, 2003, 9:00 am, Room 329

Session: Thin Films on Organic, Polymeric and Biological Substrates
Presenter: M. Schaepkens, General Electric
Authors: M. Schaepkens, General Electric
K.W. Flanagan, General Electric
T.-W. Kim, General Electric
M. Yan, General Electric
A.G. Erlat, General Electric
C. Heller, General Electric
P.A. McConnelee, General Electric
Correspondent: Click to Email
The use of polycarbonate film substrates enables fabrication of new applications, such as flexible display devices, lighting devices, and other flexible electro-optical devices, using low cost, roll-to-roll fabrication technologies. One of the limitations of bare polycarbonate material in these applications is that oxygen and moisture rapidly diffuse through the material and subsequently degrade the electro-optical devices. This paper summarizes recent results obtained at GE Global Research to solve the oxygen and moisture diffusion issue. It will be shown that through the application of thin, dense, plasma-based inorganic coatings one can significantly reduce the oxygen and moisture permeation rate through polycarbonate films. However, as a result of defects that are commonly present in these inorganic coatings there is a limit to the performance of such barrier coatings. To further improve the barrier performance, advanced barrier coatings comprising both inorganic and organic materials have been developed. Both modelling and experimental results will be presented that explain why these hybrid material barrier coatings are capable of reaching ultra-high barrier performance.