Epson invents new inkjet technology

A few days ago, Seiko Epson invented a new technology called uniform ink-jet filming. This ink-jet technology can evenly deposit organic materials, which means that large-screen organic light-emitting display (OLED) televisions have the conditions for mass production. At the SID 2009 display technology conference recently held in the United States, Epson demonstrated a 14-inch OLED display prototyped using this technology, which is equivalent to a 37-inch full HD display.

It is understood that the process of forming a uniform thin film layer of organic material on a glass substrate is a key element in the production of OLED TVs. At present, vacuum thermal evaporation is the most widely used technology. The process using this technique must be performed in a vacuum chamber. It is required that a light shield is placed next to the glass substrate to determine the pattern of deposited material on the substrate. However, vacuum thermal evaporation technology has several defects in the production of large-screen OLED TVs. For example, shadow masks are highly susceptible to shifts due to the high temperature environment in the process flow, making it difficult to maintain uniform deposition rates on large-size substrates. .

Epson uses the same drop-on-demand inkjet technology as inkjet printers, which can accurately deposit organic materials in the required amount in place, and has developed new technologies based on fully optimizing its patented micro voltage inkjet technology. OLED display production process. Due to the very high material utilization of the inkjet system, manufacturers can reduce production costs. In addition, when it is used in an OLED TV production process, since no shading plate is required, the process steps thereof will be less than the vacuum thermal evaporation technology, so it is expected to significantly increase the output.