Light-Emitting Device Sealing Through Groove-Based Substrate Separation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing methods for manufacturing organic EL devices face issues with moisture and oxygen infiltration due to exposure of the interface between the substrate and sealing film during cutting, leading to degradation and reduced productivity.
Innovation Solution
A method involving forming grooves around multilayered light-emitting structures on a substrate, applying a sealing film that covers these structures and grooves, and then cutting the substrate to separate the structures, ensuring part of the sealing film remains on the inner side surfaces of the grooves, thereby preventing moisture and oxygen infiltration while maintaining productivity.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If the substrate is cut to separate multilayered light-emitting structures after forming a sealing film, then productivity is improved, but the interface between substrate and sealing film is exposed leading to moisture and oxygen infiltration
Solution Approach 1:
The sealing film is formed in advance over the entire substrate including the regions where cuts will later be made. This preliminary sealing action ensures that the sealing film covers the cut surfaces after separation, preventing moisture and oxygen infiltration while maintaining high productivity through batch processing
Solution Approach 2:
The substrate is divided into multiple separate substrates after the sealing film is formed. This segmentation allows individual light-emitting structures to be separated while the sealing film remains intact on each piece, including on the newly exposed cut surfaces, thus maintaining sealing performance while enabling individual device handling
2Reliability
If the sealing film is formed before cutting the substrate, then cut surfaces are covered preventing degradation, but the manufacturing process complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The sealing film formation process is combined with the substrate processing step, where a single sealing film is formed over multiple light-emitting structures on a large substrate before cutting. This merging of operations simplifies the overall manufacturing process by eliminating the need for separate sealing operations on each individual substrate after cutting
Data Source
AI summary
A method for manufacturing a light-emitting device, comprising: forming, over a substrate, a plurality of multilayered light-emitting structures each including a first electrode, a light-emitting layer, and a second electrode; forming, in the substrate, a plurality of grooves that surround the multilayered light-emitting structures individually; forming, over the substrate, a sealing film that covers the multilayered light-emitting structures and the grooves; and separating the multilayered light-emitting structures from one another after forming the sealing film, by cutting the substrate such that, in each groove, part of the sealing film covering a given inner side surface of the groove remains, the given inner side surface being adjacent to any of the multilayered light-emitting structures.