Organic Electronics Printing via Plasma After-Glow Shielding
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current high throughput printing technologies for organic electronic materials often alter the chemical structure and bonding environment of materials, leading to poor performance in devices like OLEDs and photovoltaics, due to direct exposure to high energy plasma species during deposition.
Innovation Solution
The use of an atmospheric pressure dielectric barrier discharge plasma jet with a nozzle design that shields organic electronic materials from the high energy plasma region by utilizing the after-glow region for deposition, preventing exposure to energetic plasma species and maintaining material properties.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If atmospheric pressure plasma jet is used for high throughput printing of organic electronic materials, then deposition speed and throughput are improved, but the chemical structure and bonding environment of the materials are altered due to exposure to high energy plasma species
Solution Approach 1:
The plasma jet is segmented into distinct regions: a high energy plasma core region and a lower energy after-glow region. The organic electronic materials are selectively exposed only to the after-glow region, which provides sufficient propulsion and deposition capability while preserving the chemical integrity of the materials. This spatial segmentation resolves the contradiction by allowing high throughput deposition without material degradation.
Solution Approach 2:
Different regions of the plasma jet are assigned different functional qualities: the core plasma region provides high energy for propulsion, while the after-glow region provides a gentler environment suitable for material deposition. By controlling the interaction zone to be specifically in the after-glow region, the method achieves both high throughput and material preservation.
2Manufacturing precision
If multiple deposition techniques are used for different materials, then material-specific deposition quality is improved, but processing time and device complexity increase
Solution Approach 1:
The atmospheric pressure plasma jet system is designed to be a universal deposition tool that can handle multiple types of electronic materials (metals, metal oxides, organic electronics) with a single device. By adjusting plasma parameters and using the after-glow region for all material types, the system achieves versatile deposition capability without requiring multiple specialized tools, thereby reducing processing time and device complexity.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
Enables high throughput deposition of organic electronic materials without altering their chemical structure or electronic properties, improving device performance and reproducibility by using the after-glow region of the plasma jet to propel materials onto substrates.
Implementation Method 1
atmospheric pressure dielectric barrier discharge plasma jet
Implementation Method 2
atmospheric pressure dielectric barrier discharge plasma jet
Implementation Method 3
utilizing the after-glow region for deposition
Data Source
AI summary
Method for high throughput, highly reproducible, direct write plasma jet deposition of organic electronic materials through nozzles containing non-concentric tubes with inner tube having higher dielectric constant and/or higher wall thickness than the outer tube, so that the inner tube containing the aerosol of organic electronic materials is shielded from the outer tube containing plasma and the organic electronics is focused at the outlet of the nozzle through the after-glow region of the atmospheric pressure plasma. Ensuring reproducibility of the method for printing organic electronic materials by removing the contaminants and residues in inner tube using reactive gas and generating a plasma discharge at a potential significantly higher than the operating potential for printing so that the plasma is generated in both the inner and outer tube for dielectric barrier discharge plasma jet based cleaning of the nozzle.