Disclosure of Invention
The invention provides a micro device transfer head, a manufacturing method thereof and a micro device transfer method.
The technical scheme of the invention is as follows:
the invention discloses a micro device transfer head which comprises a base substrate, a plurality of high platforms and a metal solidification transfer layer, wherein the plurality of high platforms are positioned on the base substrate and are arranged in an array mode, and the metal solidification transfer layer is positioned on each high platform.
Preferably, n (n is more than or equal to 1, and n is an integer) layers of metal or alloy are further arranged between the high platform and the metal solidification transfer layer, and the melting point of the metal or alloy is higher than that of the metal solidification transfer layer.
Preferably, the metal solidification transfer layer is an elemental metal or an alloy.
Preferably, the base substrate is a glass or ceramic or an elemental metal or alloy.
The invention also discloses a manufacturing method of the micro device transfer head, which comprises the following steps:
s1: forming a plurality of plateaus which are positioned on the base substrate and are arranged in an array;
s2: coating photoresist on the basis of the step S1, and forming a layer of photoresist in the region outside the plateau after exposure and development;
s3: forming a metal curing layer paved on the whole surface through a film plating process on the basis of the step S2;
s4: the metal solidified layer and the photoresist in the region other than the mesa are removed by a lift-off process on the basis of step S3, and the metal solidified layer remaining on the mesa forms a metal solidified transfer layer.
Preferably, the coating process is electron beam evaporation or magnetron sputtering or ultrasonic atomization.
Preferably, the step S3 further includes: polishing or plasma treating the surface of the high platform before the coating process.
Preferably, the step S3 further includes: before the coating process, n (n is more than or equal to 1 and n is an integer) layers of metal or alloy are formed on a high platform.
The invention also discloses a transfer method of the micro device, which comprises the following steps:
s01: aligning and attaching a micro device transfer head with a metal curing transfer layer with a transient substrate array where a micro device to be transferred is located;
s02: heating the micro device transfer head and uniformly applying pressure to press the micro device into the metal solidification transfer layer;
s03: cooling and solidifying the metal solidification transfer layer;
s04: removing the micro device transfer head and taking the micro device away from the transient substrate;
s05: the micro device transfer head transfers the micro device to the display back plate provided with the metal curing layer;
s06: heating the micro device transfer head and the display back plate at the same time, and applying pressure to the micro device transfer head to press the micro device into the metal curing layer on the display back plate;
s07: cooling and solidifying the metal solidified layer;
s08: removing the micro device transfer head;
s09: and removing residual metal of the metal solidification transfer layer at the top end of the micro device.
Preferably, the micro device is provided with one or more metal layers on top.
The invention can bring at least one of the following beneficial effects:
the invention provides a micro device transfer head with a metal solidification transfer layer, and then the micro device transfer head is combined with a display back plate with a metal solidification layer, and the huge transfer of micro light-emitting diodes can be easily realized by utilizing the adhesive force of metal. Even if the upper surface of the transferred micro light-emitting diode contains metal residues, the metal residues can be removed through an etching process in a packaging process after the later shaping is finished. The thickness of the metal solidification transfer layer of the transfer head of the micro device is easy to control, the metal solidification transfer layer can be only generated on a high platform through a glue coating, exposure and development process, and the problem of residual glue at the periphery of a glass column is solved.
Drawings
The present invention will be further described in the following detailed description of preferred embodiments, which is to be read in connection with the accompanying drawings.
FIG. 1 is a schematic representation of a prior art Micro LED when attached by an adhesive tip;
FIG. 2 is a schematic illustration of a prior art Micro LED transferred to a display backplane;
FIG. 3 is a schematic view of a micro device transfer head of the present invention;
fig. 4 is a schematic diagram of step S1 of a method of fabricating a micro device transfer head according to the present invention;
fig. 5 is a schematic diagram of step S2 of a method of fabricating a micro device transfer head according to the present invention;
fig. 6 is a schematic diagram of step S3 of a method of fabricating a micro device transfer head according to the present invention;
fig. 7 is a schematic diagram of step S4 of a method of fabricating a micro device transfer head according to the present invention;
fig. 8 is a schematic diagram of step S1 of the transfer method of the micro device of the present invention;
fig. 9 is a schematic diagram of step S2 of the transfer method of the micro device of the present invention;
fig. 10 is a schematic diagram of step S4 of the transfer method of the micro device of the present invention;
fig. 11 is a schematic diagram of step S5 of the transfer method of the micro device of the present invention;
fig. 12 is a schematic diagram of step S6 of the transfer method of the micro device of the present invention;
fig. 13 is a schematic diagram of step S8 of the transfer method of the micro device of the present invention.
Detailed Description
In order to more clearly illustrate the embodiments of the present invention or the technical solutions in the prior art, the following description will be made with reference to the accompanying drawings. It is obvious that the drawings in the following description are only some examples of the invention, and that for a person skilled in the art, other drawings and embodiments can be derived from them without inventive effort.
For the sake of simplicity, the drawings only schematically show the parts relevant to the present invention, and they do not represent the actual structure as a product. In addition, in order to make the drawings concise and understandable, components having the same structure or function in some of the drawings are only schematically illustrated or only labeled. In this document, "one" means not only "only one" but also a case of "more than one".
The technical solution of the present invention is described in detail with specific examples below.
The invention provides a micro device transfer head, as shown in fig. 3, comprising a base substrate 01, a plurality of plateaus 02 arranged in an array on the base substrate 01, and a metal solidification transfer layer 03 disposed on each of the plateaus 02. In order to increase the adhesion between the metal solidification transfer layer 03 and the plateau 02, one or more layers of metal or alloy (not shown) having a melting point higher than that of the metal solidification transfer layer 03 may be disposed between the plateau 02 and the metal solidification transfer layer 03. The Micro device transfer head can press the Micro light-emitting diode 04(Micro LED) to be transferred by utilizing the characteristic of heating and melting the metal solidification transfer layer 03, and can be used for transferring the Micro light-emitting diode 04 away from the transient substrate 05 after cooling.
The plateau 02 is formed on a base substrate of the micro device transfer head through an etching process, and then a metal solidification transfer layer 03 with a certain thickness is formed on the plateau 02 through a coating process (such as electronic evaporation, ultrasonic atomization, magnetron sputtering and the like). The base substrate 01 may be glass or ceramic, or may be a material such as elemental metal or alloy; the metal solidification transfer layer 03 may be a simple metal (e.g., Sn, Bi, Al, In, etc.), or an alloy (e.g., a tin-bismuth alloy).
It should be noted that the width (or diameter) of the mesa 02 may be larger than the width (or diameter) of the top of the micro led 04 to be transferred, or may be smaller than the width (or diameter) of the top of the micro led 04 to be transferred, and there is no specific limitation to this, but the thickness of the metal solidification transfer layer 03 needs to ensure that the metal solidification transfer layer 03 does not melt and flow out and contact the multi-layer quantum well of the micro led 04 when the micro led 04 to be transferred is heated, melted and pressed, in order to ensure that the micro led 04 can effectively emit light.
The method of making the micro device transfer head of the present invention is described below in terms of specific embodiments.
The manufacturing method of the micro device transfer head comprises the following steps:
s1: as shown in fig. 4, a plurality of plateaus 02 arranged in an array on a base substrate 01 are formed;
s2: as shown in fig. 5, the photoresist 06 is coated on the basis of step S1, and a layer of photoresist 061 is formed in the region outside the plateau 02 after exposure and development (i.e., the photoresist 06 on the plateau 02 is removed);
s3: as shown in fig. 6, a metal cured layer 031 laid over the entire surface is formed by a plating process on the basis of step S2;
s4: as shown in fig. 7, in step S3, the metal solidified layer 031 and the photoresist 061 are removed by a lift-off process in the region other than the mesa 02, and the metal solidified layer 031 remaining on the mesa 02 forms the metal solidified transfer layer 03.
The coating process can be electron beam evaporation, magnetron sputtering or ultrasonic atomization.
In order to increase the adhesion between the metal solidification transfer layer 03 and the plateau 02, the step S3 may further include: polishing or plasma treating the surface of the high platform 02 before the coating process is carried out; alternatively, step S3 may include: one or more layers of metal or alloy (e.g., titanium-nickel alloy) are formed on the plateau 02 prior to the plating process. The melting point of the metal between the plateau 02 and the metal solidification transfer layer 03 is higher than that of the metal solidification transfer layer 03.
The invention also discloses a transfer method of the micro device, which comprises the following steps:
s01: as shown in fig. 8, first, a micro device transfer head with a metal solidification transfer layer 03 is aligned and attached to a transient substrate 05 array where micro light emitting diodes 04 to be transferred are located;
s02: as shown in fig. 9, the micro device transfer head is heated and uniformly pressed to press the micro light emitting diodes 04 into the metal solidification transfer layer 03;
s03: cooling and solidifying the metal solidification transfer layer 03, i.e., cooling and solidifying by lowering the temperature to the metal solidification transfer layer 03;
s04: as shown in fig. 10, the micro device transfer head is removed and the micro light emitting diodes 04 are carried away from the transient substrate 05;
s05: as shown in fig. 11, the micro device transfer head transfers micro light emitting diodes 04 onto the display back sheet 07 provided with the metal cured layer 071;
s06: as shown in fig. 12, the micro device transfer head and the display backplane 07 are heated simultaneously and pressure is applied to the micro device transfer head causing the micro light emitting diodes 04 to be pressed into the metal solidified layer 071 on the display backplane 07;
s07: cooling and solidifying the metal solidified layer 071, specifically cooling and solidifying the metal solidified layer 071 by lowering the temperature to a temperature between the solidifying point of the metal solidified layer 071 and the solidifying point of the metal solidified transfer layer 03;
s08: as shown in fig. 13, the micro device transfer head is removed to effect separation of the micro device transfer head from the micro light emitting diodes 04, and the temperature is reduced to room temperature;
s09: removing residual metal on the metal solidification transfer layer 03 at the top end of the micro light-emitting diode 04 by an etching process;
the solidified metal layer 071 on the back sheet 07 is shown to have a higher solidifying point than the solidified metal transfer layer 03 (for example, when the solidified metal transfer layer 03 is Sn, the solidified metal layer 071 needs to be made of a material with a solidifying point higher than Sn, such as Al).
The above step S7 mentions that the transfer of the micro light emitting diode 04 is started after the temperature is cooled to a temperature between the solidification point of the solidified metal layer 071 and the solidification point of the solidified metal transfer layer 03, because in this temperature interval, the solidified metal layer 071 will be cooled and solidified, and the solidified metal transfer layer 03 will be in a molten state because the solidification point has not been reached yet, and the micro device transfer head can be just transferred away.
The residual metal on the metal solidified transfer layer 03 at the top end of the micro light emitting diode 04 in the step S9 may be removed by an etching process in a packaging process after the later shaping is completed.
In order to increase the adhesion between the micro device transfer head and the micro light emitting diode 04, one or more metal layers may be additionally formed on the top of the micro light emitting diode 04, and the metal layer may be the same metal material as or different from the metal solidification transfer layer 03 on the micro device transfer head; the melting point of the metal layer on the top of the micro light-emitting diode 04 is not limited, and may be higher than the melting point of the metal solidification transfer layer 03 or lower than the melting point of the metal solidification transfer layer 03; the thickness of the metal solidification transfer layer 03 on the micro device transfer head can be adjusted according to the thickness of the metal layer on the top of the micro light-emitting diode 04, so that the metal solidification transfer layer 03 cannot be melted and flow out and contact with the multi-layer quantum well of the micro light-emitting diode 04 when the metal solidification transfer layer 03 is heated, melted and pressed on the micro light-emitting diode 04 to be transferred.
The invention provides a micro device transfer head with a metal solidification transfer layer, and then the micro device transfer head is combined with a display back plate with a metal solidification layer, and the huge transfer of micro light-emitting diodes can be easily realized by utilizing the adhesive force of metal. Even if the upper surface of the transferred micro light-emitting diode contains metal residues, the metal residues can be removed through an etching process in a packaging process after the later shaping is finished. The thickness of the metal solidification transfer layer of the transfer head of the micro device is easy to control, the metal solidification transfer layer can be only generated on a high platform through a glue coating, exposure and development process, and the problem of residual glue at the periphery of a glass column is solved.
It should be noted that the above mentioned embodiments are only preferred embodiments of the present invention, but the present invention is not limited to the details of the above embodiments, and it should be noted that, for those skilled in the art, it is possible to make various modifications and amendments within the technical concept of the present invention without departing from the principle of the present invention, and various modifications, amendments and equivalents of the technical solution of the present invention should be regarded as the protection scope of the present invention.