CN111137041B

CN111137041B - Film layer pretreatment method, device and ink-jet printing film forming method

Info

Publication number: CN111137041B
Application number: CN201911302068.4A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 胡兵; 彭军军
Original assignee: Najing Technology Corp Ltd
Current assignee: Najing Technology Corp Ltd
Priority date: 2019-12-17
Filing date: 2019-12-17
Publication date: 2021-10-08
Anticipated expiration: 2039-12-17
Also published as: CN111137041A

Abstract

The invention discloses a film pretreatment method and a film pretreatment device. The membrane layer pretreatment method comprises the following steps: s1, placing the film-forming substrate with the ink printed on the surface in a chamber; s2, controllably introducing first steam into the chamber, wherein the first steam comprises steam of a first solvent, and the first solvent is a good solvent of the solute in the ink; and S3, when the air pressure in the cavity reaches a preset pressure value, the second gas which is chemically inert to the ink is repeatedly blown to the surface of the film forming substrate. The film layer pretreatment method provided by the invention can effectively smooth the ink printed on the film forming substrate, thereby obtaining the film layer with smooth surface and uniform thickness.

Description

Film layer pretreatment method, device and ink-jet printing film forming method

Technical Field

The invention relates to the technical field of ink-jet printing film forming, in particular to a film layer pretreatment method and a film layer pretreatment device.

Background

There is a trend to use ink jet printing technology to make electroluminescent displays. Compared with the traditional evaporation process, the ink-jet printing technology has the advantages of high material utilization rate, low cost and the like. When the functional layers of the light-emitting device are prepared by adopting the ink-jet printing technology, ink is printed in pixel pits formed in advance, and then the film layer is dried through a drying process so as to remove the solvent in the film layer.

In the production process, because the ink drops are small, a plurality of ink drops need to be printed in the same pixel pit, so that the whole pixel pit is paved. However, it is difficult to achieve complete coalescence of the droplets of ink printed in the pixel pits, so that a smooth surface cannot be obtained, and eventually the surface of the film layer after drying is uneven. The reason is mainly that the ink droplets usually include a plurality of solvents, and some of the solvents with low boiling points volatilize faster, which causes the content or components of the solvents in the ink droplets printed first and the ink droplets printed later to be different, so that the ink droplets printed successively cannot be sufficiently fused. In addition, due to the influence of the pixel definition layer, the fusion action of the ink droplets in the pixel pits is affected by different pixel shapes, different materials of pixel dam glue, the depth of the pixel pits, and the like, for example, the ink droplets may be adsorbed on the inclined plane of the pixel pits, and after drying, the edge and corner accumulation is caused, which affects the uniformity of the film layer, and further affects the performance of the light emitting device, such as the light emitting uniformity.

In the prior art, the substrate after ink-jet printing is generally treated by an ultrasonic treatment method, but the ultrasonic treatment effect is not obvious because some solvents are volatilized quickly and the film is dried quickly. In addition, the ultrasonic treatment time is long, and the ultrasonic treatment method is not suitable for large-scale production.

Disclosure of Invention

The invention aims to provide a film layer pretreatment method and a film layer pretreatment device, which solve the problem that the surface of an ink drop is not smooth and uniform after ink jet printing in the prior art.

According to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided a film pretreatment method, comprising the steps of:

s1, placing the film-forming substrate with the ink printed on the surface in a chamber;

s2, controllably introducing first steam into the chamber, wherein the first steam comprises steam of a first solvent, and the first solvent is a good solvent of the solute in the ink;

and S3, when the air pressure in the cavity reaches a preset pressure value, reciprocally purging a second gas which is chemically inert to the ink to the surface of the film forming substrate.

In some of these embodiments, the second gas is selected from one or more of air, nitrogen, an inert gas; or the second gas is a vapor of a second solvent that is a good solvent for the solute in the ink, the second solvent being the same as or different from the first solvent.

In some embodiments, the preset pressure value in step S3 is less than or equal to the saturated vapor pressure of the first vapor.

In some of these embodiments, the temperature of the second gas is greater than the temperature within the chamber.

In some embodiments, after the step S2, the following steps are performed in a loop: and S0, extracting the third gas in the chamber, and leading the third gas into the chamber in a controllable mode so as to regulate and control the gas pressure and the temperature in the chamber.

In some embodiments, in step S0, the third gas is mixed with the first vapor and then controllably introduced into the chamber.

In some embodiments, in step S3, the flow rate of the second gas on the surface of the film-forming substrate is greater than the flow rate of the circulation gas in the chamber.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided an inkjet printing film forming method including the steps of:

a1, printing ink in the containing cavity of the film forming substrate;

a2, pretreating the film-forming substrate by the film pretreatment method as described above;

and A3, stopping introducing the gas into the chamber, and drying the ink on the film forming substrate in the chamber.

In some of the embodiments, in the step a3, when the ink on the film formation substrate is dried, the gas in the chamber is discharged.

According to still another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a film pretreatment apparatus including:

a chamber having a stage for carrying a film formation substrate;

an air blowing unit which is provided above the stage so as to be capable of reciprocating, and adapted to blow air onto the surface of the film formation substrate mounted on the stage;

a first vapor control unit comprising a first inlet passage in communication with the chamber, the first vapor control unit adapted to controllably admit vapor into the chamber;

and the second gas control unit comprises a second gas inlet channel communicated with the gas blowing unit, and is suitable for controllably introducing gas into the gas blowing unit.

In some embodiments, a temperature control device and a metering device are arranged in the first air inlet passage, so as to adjust and/or detect the temperature and the flow rate of the air flow in the first air inlet passage.

In some embodiments, the first vapor control unit further comprises a first pumping channel in communication with the chamber, and a circulation pump disposed between the first pumping channel and the first air intake channel, the circulation pump adapted to pump vapor within the chamber into the first pumping channel and pump vapor within the first pumping channel into the first air intake channel.

In some of these embodiments, the first vapor control unit further comprises a first vapor source for raising a first vapor, the circulation pump being connected to the first vapor source such that the circulation pump is adapted to pump the first vapor into the first air intake passage.

In some of these embodiments, the second vapor control unit further comprises a second vapor source for providing a second vapor, the second vapor source being in communication with the second air intake passage.

In some of the embodiments, the stage includes a substrate heating unit for drying the film formation substrate mounted on the stage.

In some embodiments, the film pre-treatment apparatus further comprises an exhaust unit for exhausting gas in the chamber.

In some of these embodiments, the air blowing unit includes one or more air outlet bits, and the air outlet bits include:

the first surface of the first air knife part is provided with a groove, the upper end of the groove extends to the upper edge of the first air knife part, so that an air inlet opening is formed in the upper edge of the first air knife part, the lower end and two sides of the groove are positioned in the edge of the first air knife part, the width of the groove is gradually increased from the upper end to the lower end, and the groove is communicated with the second air inlet channel through the air inlet opening;

a second air knife portion having a second surface opposite the first surface of the first air knife portion; and

a shim disposed between the first surface of the first air knife portion and the second surface of the second air knife portion, the shim having a hollowed out area, a lower end of the hollowed out area extending to a lower edge of the shim, thereby forming a linear shim opening at the lower edge of the shim, the hollowed out area at least partially opposing the groove such that the groove communicates with the hollowed out area.

In some embodiments, the gas outlet tool bit further comprises a heating component for heating the gas in the gas outlet tool bit.

In some embodiments, the blowing unit further comprises a guide rail, the air outlet cutter head is movably and angularly arranged on the guide rail, and the guide rail is height-adjustably arranged above the object stage.

Compared with the prior art, the invention has the beneficial effects that: the provided film layer pretreatment method can effectively smooth ink printed on a film forming substrate, thereby being beneficial to obtaining a film layer with smooth surface and uniform thickness; the film layer pretreatment method and the corresponding device can realize the steps of sequentially carrying out pretreatment and drying film formation on the film forming substrate in the same chamber, the pretreatment operation is simple, the cost is low, and the large-scale application is facilitated.

Drawings

FIG. 1 is a schematic view of one embodiment of a membrane pretreatment device of the present invention;

FIG. 2 shows a film formation substrate which has not been subjected to pretreatment;

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view of one embodiment of a vented tool tip of a film pretreatment device of the present invention;

FIG. 4 is a schematic view of a first air knife portion of the air knife head of FIG. 3;

FIG. 5 is a schematic view of a shim of the vented tool tip of FIG. 3;

FIG. 6 is a schematic view of a second air knife portion of the air knife head of FIG. 3;

FIG. 7 is a photograph of a film dried after being processed by the film pretreatment method of the present invention after ink jet printing;

FIG. 8 is a plot of the thickness of the film layer of FIG. 7 as measured by a step profiler;

FIG. 9 is a photograph of a film produced by direct drying after ink jet printing without film pretreatment;

FIG. 10 is a plot of the thickness of the film layer of FIG. 9 as measured by a step profiler;

in the figure:

100. a chamber; 101. an object stage;

200. a blowing unit; 210. an air outlet cutter head; 220. a guide rail;

211. a first air knife section; 2111. a first surface; 2112. a groove; 2113. an air inlet opening;

212. a gasket; 2121. a hollowed-out area; 2122. a gasket opening;

213. a second air knife section; 2131. a second surface;

300. a first vapor control unit; 301. a first air intake passage; 302. a first pumping channel; 303. a circulation pump; 304. a first vapor source;

400. a second gas control unit; 401. a second intake passage; 402. a second vapor source;

500. an exhaust unit;

800. a film formation substrate; 801. an accommodating chamber;

900. and (3) ink.

Detailed Description

The present invention is further described below with reference to specific embodiments, and it should be noted that, without conflict, any combination between the embodiments or technical features described below may form a new embodiment.

In the description of the present invention, it should be noted that, for the terms of orientation, such as "central", "lateral", "longitudinal", "length", "width", "thickness", "upper", "lower", "front", "rear", "left", "right", "vertical", "horizontal", "top", "bottom", "inner", "outer", "clockwise", "counterclockwise", etc., the terms of orientation and positional relationship indicate that the orientation or positional relationship shown in the drawings is based on, and are only for convenience of describing the present invention and simplifying the description, but do not indicate or imply that the device or element referred to must have a specific orientation, be constructed and operated in a specific orientation, and should not be construed as limiting the specific scope of the present invention.

It is noted that the terms first, second and the like in the description and in the claims of the present application are used for distinguishing between similar elements and not necessarily for describing a particular sequential or chronological order.

The terms "comprises," "comprising," and "having," and any variations thereof, in the description and claims of this application, are intended to cover a non-exclusive inclusion, such that a process, method, system, article, or apparatus that comprises a list of steps or elements is not necessarily limited to those steps or elements expressly listed, but may include other steps or elements not expressly listed or inherent to such process, method, article, or apparatus.

The term "gas" in the description and claims of the present application also includes vapour, i.e. gas is allowed to mix with fine droplets.

The invention provides a film layer preprocessing device, as shown in fig. 1, which is suitable for preprocessing a film forming substrate 800 with ink 900 printed on the surface, as shown in fig. 2, the film forming substrate 800 has a plurality of accommodating cavities 801 for accommodating the ink 900, and the accommodating cavities 801 can be, but are not limited to, formed by being defined by a pixel defining layer. The purpose of the membrane layer pre-treatment is to smooth the surface of the ink 900 and to spread the ink 900 evenly within the receiving cavity 801.

The ink 900 according to the present invention may be an ink formed of a material for preparing an electron transport layer and a solvent, an ink formed of a material for preparing a light emitting layer and a solvent, an ink formed of a material for preparing a hole transport layer and a solvent, or the like, and is not limited to the above.

The film pre-treatment apparatus includes a chamber 100, a gas blowing unit 200, a first vapor control unit 300, and a second gas control unit 400.

The chamber 100 has a stage 101 for carrying a film formation substrate 800. Preferably, the chamber 100 has an insulating structure (e.g., insulating cotton) outside the chamber 100, and the insulating structure is used to insulate the chamber 100, so as to reduce the phenomenon that the substrate 800 is contaminated by the vapor condensed into liquid beads when the vapor meets the chamber walls.

The air blowing unit 200 is arranged above the objective table 101 in a reciprocating manner, when the film forming substrate 800 is arranged on the objective table 101, the air blowing unit 200 is suitable for blowing air to the surface of the film forming substrate 800, in the process of moving the air blowing unit 200 in a reciprocating manner, the air flow blown by the air blowing unit 200 can reach all positions of the film forming substrate 800, so that the ink 900 printed in all positions of the accommodating cavity 801 of the film forming substrate 800 can be acted by the air flow of the air blowing unit 200, under the action of the air flow, the ink drops which are not fully fused tend to be fused, the surface of the ink 900 is smoother, and the ink 900 is more uniformly distributed in the accommodating cavity 801.

The first vapor control unit 300 includes a first gas inlet channel 301 in communication with the chamber 100, the first vapor control unit 300 being adapted to controllably introduce vapor into the chamber 100. The purpose of introducing vapor into the chamber 100 is to suppress the evaporation of the solvent in the ink during the pretreatment process, and to prevent the ink from drying before or during the pretreatment process, which may result in non-uniform film formation. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the first vapor control unit 300 may control the flow rate, temperature, etc. of the vapor.

The second gas control unit 400 includes a second gas inlet channel 401 communicating with the gas blowing unit 200, and the second gas control unit 400 is used to controllably introduce gas into the gas blowing unit 200. The gas blowing unit 200 constantly blows gas to the surface of the film formation substrate 800, and the gas flow can smooth the surface of the ink 900 in the accommodating chamber 801 and uniformly spread the ink 900 accumulated at the corners of the accommodating chamber 801 in the accommodating chamber 801. It will be understood by those skilled in the art that the second gas control unit 400 may control the flow rate, temperature, etc. of the gas.

In some embodiments, a temperature control device and a metering device are disposed in the first air intake passage 301 for detecting and adjusting the temperature, flow rate, etc. of the air flow in the first air intake passage 301.

In some embodiments, a temperature control device and a metering device are disposed in the second air intake passage 401, and are used for detecting and adjusting the temperature, the flow rate and the like of the air flow in the second air intake passage 401.

In some embodiments, the first vapor control unit 300 further comprises a first pumping channel 302 in communication with the chamber 100 and a circulation pump 303 disposed between the first pumping channel 302 and the first gas inlet channel 301, wherein the circulation pump 303 is adapted to pump the gas in the chamber 100 into the first pumping channel 302 and pump the gas in the first pumping channel 302 into the first gas inlet channel 301, and further, the gas is recirculated into the chamber 100. That is, the circulation pump 303 can realize the controllable circulation of the gas in the chamber 100, and the steam in the chamber 100 can be continuously circulated, so that the stability of the steam atmosphere in the chamber 100 can be maintained, and the formation of liquid drops on the inner wall of the chamber by the steam can be avoided.

In some embodiments, the first vapor control unit 300 further comprises a first vapor source 304, the first vapor source 304 is configured to provide a first vapor, and the circulation pump 303 is connected to the first vapor source 304 such that the circulation pump 303 can pump the first vapor into the first air intake channel 301, and the first vapor is then communicated into the chamber 100 through the first air intake channel 301.

In some embodiments, the second gas control unit 400 further comprises a second vapour source 402, the second vapour source 402 being for providing a second vapour, the second vapour source 402 being in communication with the second air inlet passage 401.

In some embodiments, the stage 101 includes a substrate heating unit (not shown) for drying the film formation substrate 800. The film layer preprocessing device provided by the invention not only can preprocess the ink printed on the film forming substrate 800, but also can directly carry out drying processing after preprocessing is finished so as to dry the ink into a film.

In some embodiments, the film pre-processing apparatus further includes an exhaust unit 500, and when performing the drying process, the exhaust unit 500 may be used to exhaust the gas in the chamber 100, so as to increase the vacuum degree in the chamber 100 and facilitate the drying of the film.

The air blowing unit 200 includes one or more air outlet blades 210, as shown in fig. 3, and the air outlet blades 210 are used for making the blown air flow uniform, so as to ensure that the air flow has a good leveling effect on the ink surface.

In some embodiments, the air outlet cutter head 210 includes a first air cutter portion 211, a second air cutter portion 213, and a spacer 212 disposed between a first surface 2111 of the first air cutter portion 211 and a second surface 2131 of the second air cutter portion 213.

As shown in fig. 4, the first surface 2111 of the first air knife portion 211 has a notch 2112. The upper end of the groove 2112 extends to the upper edge of the first air knife portion 211, that is, there is an air intake opening 2113 at the upper edge of the first air knife portion 211, so that the groove 2112 communicates with the outside at the air intake opening 2113. The lower end and both sides of the groove 2112 are within the edge of the first air knife portion 211. The width of the groove 2112 becomes gradually larger from the upper end to the lower end.

As shown in fig. 5, the spacer 212 has a hollowed-out area 2121, and the lower end of the hollowed-out area 2121 extends to the lower edge of the spacer 212, that is, a spacer opening 2122 is provided at the lower edge of the spacer 212, and the spacer opening 2122 is linear. The hollowed-out region 2121 of the shim 212 at least partially corresponds with the groove 2112 of the first air knife portion 211 such that the groove 2112 communicates with the hollowed-out region 2121.

The second surface 2131 of the second air knife portion 213 covers the gasket 212 so that the hollowed-out area 2121 of the gasket 212 and the recess 2112 of the first air knife portion 211 form an air chamber having one end communicating with the outside through the air inlet opening 2113 and the other end communicating with the outside through the gasket opening 2122.

The second air inlet passage 401 communicates with the air inlet opening 2113 so that the air enters the air chamber through the air inlet opening 2113, and the funnel-shaped recess 2112 can effectively disperse the pressure of the air entering the air chamber so that the air flow can be uniformly blown out from the gasket opening 2122. The two sides of the shim opening 2122 are respectively the first surface 2111 of the first air knife portion 211 and the second surface 2131 of the second air knife portion 213, that is, a linear air outlet is formed at the shim opening 2122, and the air blown out by the air outlet knife head 210 is uniformly blown toward the film forming substrate 800 in a linear shape.

The air outlet tool bit 210 provided by the invention has a reliable structure and is not easy to damage. The air flow provided by the air egress blade 210 effectively smoothes out the undulating surface of the ink 900 and promotes uniform distribution of the ink within the receiving cavity 801.

In some embodiments, the thickness of the spacer 212 is 50 μm to 200 μm.

The larger the size of the air outlet tool bit 210 is, the worse the uniformity of the air outlet pressure is. It is preferable to purge different areas with a plurality of air outlet bits 210, respectively, to meet the requirement of mass production.

In some embodiments, air outlet tool tip 210 further comprises a heating element (not shown) for heating the air in air outlet tool tip 210 to prevent the vapor therein from condensing into water droplets in air outlet tool tip 210 and contaminating ink 900 during purging.

In some embodiments, the blowing unit 200 includes a guide rail 220, the air outlet tool bit 210 is movably disposed on the guide rail 220, and the guide rail 220 is disposed above the stage 101 in a height-adjustable manner. The angle of the air outlet cutter head 210 on the guide rail 220 is adjustable, and the air outlet angle of the air outlet cutter head 210 can be adjusted to be optimal by combining the type of the ink 900 or the shape of the accommodating cavity 801.

The invention also provides a membrane pretreatment method, which comprises the following steps:

s1, placing the film formation substrate 800 with the ink 900 printed on the surface in a chamber 100;

s2, controllably introducing a first vapor into the chamber 100, where the first vapor includes a vapor of a first solvent, and the first solvent is a good solvent of solutes in the ink 900;

s3, when the pressure in the chamber 100 reaches a predetermined pressure value, a second gas chemically inert to the ink 900 is purged back and forth toward the surface of the film formation substrate 800.

It will be understood by those skilled in the art that the controlled introduction of the first vapor into the chamber 100 means that the flow rate, temperature, etc. of the first vapor may be controlled, and the flow rate, temperature, etc. of the first vapor may be adjusted according to the pressure and temperature of the gas in the chamber 100.

It will be understood by those skilled in the art that "a second gas that is chemically inert to the ink 900" means that the components of the second gas do not chemically react with the components of the ink 900. It is worth mentioning that the components of the ink 900 include a solute and a solvent.

The invention provides a film layer pretreatment method, which aims to flatten the surface of ink 900 in an accommodating cavity 801 before the ink 900 is dried, and uniformly spread the ink 900 in the accommodating cavity 801 to avoid ink accumulation at the corners of the accommodating cavity 801. Before purging the film formation substrate 800, the film formation substrate 800 is first exposed to the first vapor atmosphere, so as to prevent the solvent in the ink 900 from being rapidly volatilized and the ink from being dried in advance. When sweeping, the second is gaseous through sweeping repeatedly, makes and prints the many drops of ink that get into in the holding chamber 801 and fully fuse, also can solve the ink droplet simultaneously and hole the corner accumulational problem of corner for the ink droplet is evenly distributed in the pixel hole, is favorable to obtaining the even, surperficial even rete of thickness. In addition, since the purging step is to purge the surface of the film formation substrate 800 in a reciprocating manner, the ink 900 in each position in the accommodating chamber 801 can be subjected to the action of the air flow, which is more favorable for solving the problem of ink accumulation at the corners.

The first solvent mainly functions to reduce volatilization of the solvent in the ink 900 by keeping the ink 900 on the film formation substrate 800 at a saturated vapor pressure. In some embodiments, the ink 900 includes multiple solvents, and the first solvent is the same composition as the solute good solvent in the ink 900. The first solvent may be a single kind of solvent or a mixed solvent.

In some embodiments, the second gas is selected from one or more of air, nitrogen, and an inert gas. Of course, the second gas should be a clean gas to avoid introducing impurities into the ink 900.

In other embodiments, the second gas is a vapor of a second solvent that is a good solvent for the solutes in the ink 900, the second solvent being the same or different from the first solvent. The vapor of the second solvent may be slightly soluble in the surface of the ink 900 to balance the surface tension, in addition to leveling the surface of the ink 900 by the action of the gas flow.

In some embodiments, the "preset pressure value" recited in step S3 is equal to or less than the saturated vapor pressure of the first vapor.

In some embodiments, the temperature of the second gas is greater than the temperature within the chamber 100 in step S3. The temperature of the second gas is higher than the ambient temperature during purging, so that the air flow is more favorable for smoothing the surface of the ink, and the fusion of ink droplets is promoted. It is worth mentioning that when the second gas is purged, the chamber 100 is filled with the vapor for suppressing the evaporation of the ink solvent, so that the temperature of the second gas is higher than the temperature in the chamber 100, that is, the temperature of the second gas is higher than the temperature of the gas in the chamber 100.

The purge angle and the purge speed of the second gas have a certain influence on the processing effect, and when the operation is performed, the appropriate purge angle and purge speed may be selected according to actual conditions such as the characteristics of the ink 900 and the shape of the accommodating chamber 801, which is not limited in the present invention.

When the second gas is subjected to reciprocating purging, the purging angle or the purging speed of the second gas can be kept constant, and can also be changed regularly or irregularly. In some embodiments, in step S3, during the process of reciprocally purging the second gas on the surface of the film formation substrate 800, the purging angle of the second gas is changed, and the purging angle of the second gas is changed during purging, which is more favorable for subjecting the ink 900 at each position in the accommodation chamber 801 to the airflow.

In some embodiments, after step S2, the following steps are looped: s0, pumping out the third gas in the chamber 100, and controllably introducing the third gas into the chamber 100, thereby controlling the vapor pressure and temperature in the chamber 100. The gas in the chamber 100 is circulated controllably, so that the steam atmosphere in the chamber 100 can be ensured to be stable during long-time treatment, and unstable liquid drops formed on the inner wall of the chamber by the steam are avoided. It will be understood by those skilled in the art that "the third gas is controllably introduced into the chamber 100" means that the flow rate, temperature, etc. of the third gas are controllable, and the flow rate, temperature, etc. of the third gas may be adjusted according to the temperature and pressure in the chamber 100.

It is worth mentioning that the composition of the gas in the chamber 100 may change at any time due to the continuous purging of the second gas into the chamber, and thus the composition of the third gas pumped out of the chamber 100 at different times may also be different. The composition of the third gas as it is withdrawn from the chamber 100 may also be different from the composition of the third gas as it is introduced into the chamber 100.

In step S0, the third gas may be introduced into the chamber 100 alone, or the third gas and the vapor of the first solvent may be mixed in a certain ratio and then controllably introduced into the chamber 100.

When the gas in the chamber 100 is continuously circulated, that is, the gas in the chamber 100 flows at a constant speed, at this time, the flow rate and the pressure of the second gas need to be higher than those of the circulating gas, so as to ensure that the second gas forms a gas flow with respect to the ambient environment, and the surface of the film formation substrate 800 can be purged.

In some embodiments, the film layer pretreatment method further includes providing a gas blowing unit 200 for blowing out the second gas, and in step S3, the gas blowing unit 200 is reciprocated over the film formation substrate 800 such that the gas blowing unit 200 reciprocally blows the second gas toward the surface of the film formation substrate 800.

Further, the second gas is heated in the gas blowing unit 200 such that the temperature of the second gas is higher than the temperature in the chamber 100. The second gas is heated in the blowing unit 200, so that vapor in the second gas can be prevented from condensing at the gas outlet of the blowing unit 200 to form water drops, and the ink in the accommodating cavity is polluted.

The invention also provides an ink-jet printing film forming method, which comprises the following steps:

a1, printing the ink 900 into the accommodating chamber 801 of the film formation substrate 800;

a2, performing pretreatment on the film formation substrate 800, wherein the pretreatment method refers to the film pretreatment method of the present invention, that is:

s1, placing the film formation substrate 800 of the step A1 in a chamber 100;

s3, when the pressure in the chamber 100 reaches a predetermined pressure, reciprocally purging a second gas chemically inert to the ink 900 toward the surface of the film formation substrate 800;

a3, the gas is stopped from being introduced into the chamber 100, and the ink 900 on the film formation substrate 800 is dried in the chamber 100.

The inkjet printing film forming method provided by the invention can perform purging treatment and drying treatment on the ink 900 on the film forming substrate 800 in the same equipment without transferring the film forming substrate 800, and the method is beneficial to simplifying the treatment steps, avoiding the solvent in the ink 900 from volatilizing in a large amount before pretreatment, and also avoiding the film forming substrate 800 from being polluted in the transferring process.

In step a3, when the ink on the film formation substrate 800 is dried, the gas in the chamber 100 is exhausted, that is, the chamber 100 is brought into a certain degree of vacuum, thereby promoting the drying and film formation of the ink 900.

Fig. 7 is a microphotograph of a thin film formed by the inkjet printing film forming method according to the present invention, and the thin film of fig. 9 is different from the thin film of fig. 7 in that the thin film is directly dried to be formed without a pretreatment after ink is printed on a substrate. FIG. 8 is a thickness of the film of FIG. 7 measured using a step meter, the circled area showing the pixel edge ink build-up at around 25 nm; FIG. 10 is the thickness of the film of FIG. 9 measured using a step meter, the circled area showing the pixel edge ink pile-up at around 50 nm; it can be seen that the film of figure 7 has a significantly better thickness uniformity than the film of figure 9.

The foregoing has described the general principles, principal features, and advantages of the invention. It will be understood by those skilled in the art that the present invention is not limited to the embodiments described above, which are merely illustrative of the principles of the invention, but that various changes and modifications may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention, which fall within the scope of the invention as claimed. The scope of the invention is defined by the appended claims and equivalents thereof.

Claims

1. The membrane layer pretreatment method is characterized by comprising the following steps:

s2, controllably introducing first steam into the chamber, wherein the first steam comprises steam of a first solvent, the first solvent is a good solvent of the solute in the ink, and the film-forming substrate is in the atmosphere of the first steam so as to avoid rapid volatilization of the solvent in the ink;

2. The membrane layer pretreatment method of claim 1, wherein the second gas is selected from one or more of air, nitrogen, and inert gas; or the second gas is a vapor of a second solvent that is a good solvent for the solute in the ink, the second solvent being the same as or different from the first solvent.

3. The film pre-treatment method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the preset pressure value in step S3 is less than or equal to the saturated vapor pressure of the first vapor.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the temperature of the second gas is greater than the temperature within the chamber.

5. The membrane layer pretreatment method according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein after the step S2, the following steps are cyclically performed: and S0, extracting the gas in the chamber, and leading the extracted gas into the chamber in a controllable mode so as to regulate and control the gas pressure and the temperature in the chamber.

6. The method as claimed in claim 5, wherein in step S0, the extracted gas is mixed with the first vapor and then controllably introduced into the chamber.

7. The film pre-processing method of claim 5, wherein in step S3, the flow rate of the second gas on the surface of the film-forming substrate is greater than the flow rate of the gas circulated in the chamber.

8. An inkjet printing film forming method is characterized by comprising the following steps:

a1, printing ink in the containing cavity of the film forming substrate;

a2, pretreating the film-forming substrate by the film pretreatment method according to any one of claims 1 to 7;

9. The method according to claim 8, wherein in the step a3, when the ink on the film formation substrate is dried, gas in the chamber is discharged.

10. A membrane layer pretreatment device, comprising:

a chamber having a stage for carrying a film formation substrate having an ink printed on a surface thereof;

a first vapor control unit comprising a first air inlet channel communicated with the chamber, the first vapor control unit being adapted to controllably introduce a first vapor into the chamber, the first vapor comprising a vapor of a first solvent, the first solvent being a good solvent for solutes in the ink;

the second gas control unit comprises a second gas inlet channel communicated with the gas blowing unit, and the second gas control unit is suitable for controllably introducing gas which is chemically inert to the ink into the gas blowing unit;

the first steam control unit further comprises a first air exhaust channel communicated with the cavity and a circulating pump arranged between the first air exhaust channel and the first air inlet channel, and the circulating pump is suitable for exhausting steam in the cavity into the first air exhaust channel and pumping the steam in the first air exhaust channel into the first air inlet channel.

11. The membrane layer pretreatment device according to claim 10, wherein a temperature control device and a metering device are disposed in the first air inlet channel, so as to detect and adjust the temperature and the flow rate of the air flow in the first air inlet channel.

12. The membrane layer pretreatment device of claim 10, wherein the first vapor control unit further comprises a first vapor source for providing a first vapor, and wherein the circulation pump is connected to the first vapor source such that the circulation pump is adapted to pump the first vapor into the first gas inlet channel.

13. The membrane layer pretreatment device of claim 10, wherein the second gas control unit further comprises a second vapor source for providing a second vapor, the second vapor source being in communication with the second gas inlet channel.

14. The film layer preprocessing apparatus of claim 10, wherein the stage comprises a substrate heating unit for drying the film formation substrate mounted on the stage.

15. The membrane layer pretreatment device of claim 10, further comprising an exhaust unit for exhausting gas within the chamber.

16. The film pre-treatment apparatus of any one of claims 10-15, wherein the air blowing unit comprises one or more air outlet blades, and the air outlet blades comprise:

17. The film pre-treatment apparatus of claim 16, wherein the gas outlet tool head further comprises a heating element for heating the gas in the gas outlet tool head.

18. The film pre-processing device of claim 16, wherein the blowing unit further comprises a guide rail, the air outlet cutter head is movably and angularly arranged on the guide rail, and the guide rail is height-adjustably arranged above the object stage.