JP2011253784A - Coating applicator and manufacturing method of organic electronic element - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a coating applicator and a manufacturing method of an organic electronic element using this coating applicator which enables to maintain, in application while supporting and carrying on a back roll a support medium and the support medium on whose surface a film is patterned, their flatness by preventing fluctuate of the support medium in the application, and thereby, capable of performing formation of the coating film with stable uniformity.SOLUTION: A coating applicator, which applies application liquid ejected from application means on a belt-like support medium wound and supported on a back roll to be continuously carried, includes spray means arranged opposite to the back roll and spraying gas on a surface of the back roll. The coating applicator: sprays the gas on the support medium by the spray means; presses and supports the support medium on the back roll by the spray of the gas; and performs the application in carrying.

Description

  The present invention relates to a coating apparatus, and more particularly, to a coating apparatus that performs coating with a coating unit on a belt-like support that is wound around a back roll, supported, and continuously conveyed.

  Conventionally, as a so-called roll-to-roll coating method in which a coating solution is applied to a continuously running belt-like support, the coating solution is discharged onto the belt-like support by discharging the coating solution in an amount that forms a required coating solution film. There is known a pre-weighing type coating apparatus used for a so-called pre-weighing type coating method. As a pre-weighing type coating method, an extrusion coating method using a slit type die coater, a slide coating method using a slit type die coater, a curtain coating method, and a coating method using an inkjet head are known.

  Among the pre-weighing type coating methods, the extrusion coating method using a slit type die coater has higher coating accuracy, higher quality, higher speed, thin film, suitability for multilayer coating, etc. than other types of coating methods. For example, optical films, ink jet recording paper, heat-developable recording materials, organic electroluminescence elements (hereinafter also referred to as organic EL elements), organic thin film transistor elements, organic solar cell elements (hereinafter organic) It is also referred to as a PV element), and is used in the manufacture of various organic electronics elements such as organic photoelectric conversion elements.

  Organic electronics devices are devices that perform electrical operations using organic compounds, and are expected to exhibit features such as energy saving, low cost, and flexibility, and are attracting attention as a technology that replaces conventional inorganic semiconductors based on silicone. Has been. These organic electronics elements are elements that emit light, generate electric power, charge, or control current and voltage by passing a current through an electrode through a very thin film of an organic compound.

  An organic EL element has a structure in which a light emitting layer made of an organic compound thin film is sandwiched between electrodes, and emits light when a current is supplied between a first electrode (anode or cathode) and a second electrode (anode or cathode). Therefore, when a thin-film organic EL element is used as a light source, it is easy to reduce the size and weight, and the illuminating device has a faster light emission response speed than a fluorescent lamp and a relatively stable light amount immediately after lighting. It is used in the field of display and lighting, and is generally manufactured by film formation by vapor deposition. However, in order to improve productivity and reduce manufacturing costs, production by coating method is desired. In recent years, there has been an increasing demand for higher functionality and thinner layers of equipment.

  An organic PV element and an organic photoelectric conversion element are elements that generate power when irradiated with light, with a power generation layer made of a thin film of an organic compound sandwiched between a first electrode (anode or cathode) and a second electrode (anode or cathode). is there. Therefore, when a thin-film organic photoelectric conversion element is used as a solar cell, it can be easily reduced in size and weight, and has a relatively stable output even in a low illuminance environment or a high temperature environment as compared with an existing inorganic semiconductor solar cell. The solar cell can be obtained.

  When an organic compound used for an organic electronics element is coated on a support by a coating method to produce an organic electronics element, the coating solution generally used for the organic electronics element has a viscosity of 0.5 mPa · s to 3 mPa · s. The film thickness is 5 nm to 500 nm. For this reason, since the uniformity of the film thickness of an organic compound influences the performance of an organic electronics element, the request | requirement of the film thickness uniformity is high.

  For these reasons, the stability of the bead, the physical properties of the coating solution, the drying conditions, the vibration suppression during the application of the back roll, the shaking of the support, the flatness of the support, etc. Consideration has been made.

  Using a porous back roll having a suction hole of 50 μm to 200 μm against the shaking of the support when applying the coating liquid, suction means for sucking air on the back roll surface from inside the back roll, A coating apparatus that prevents the support from shaking and keeps the coating film thickness uniform with high accuracy by bringing it into close contact with the back roll and applying it is disclosed (for example, see Patent Document 1).

No. 2000-225368

  Patent Document 1 is a coating apparatus that applies and conveys a support by sucking and adhering the support to a back roll by a suction means in order to prevent dust from adhering to the support surface, scratches, and shaking of the support.

  However, in Patent Document 1, when the support is brought into close contact with the back roll, the support is adsorbed to the suction holes of 50 μm to 200 μm provided on the surface of the back roll. Concavities and convexities are formed on the body surface, which deteriorates the film thickness variation at the time of application.

  Moreover, since it is attracted | sucked by suction, the surrounding dust collects around a back roll, Therefore It is easy to generate | occur | produce the leak and dark spot by dust.

  In the suction by such suction means, if the suction conditions can be controlled in the width direction of the support, it is easy to stabilize the adhesion between the support and the back roll and the conveyance of the support. However, in order to control the suction in the width direction, a countermeasure such as dividing the back roll as a suction roller can be considered, but the mechanism becomes complicated and fine control is difficult.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and supports a support having a support and a film patterned on the surface with a back roll, and prevents the support from shaking during coating in coating while transporting. Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide a coating apparatus capable of maintaining the properties, and thereby forming a stable and uniform coating film, and a method for producing an organic electronic element using the coating apparatus.

  The above object is achieved by the following configurations and methods.

1. A coating apparatus that applies the coating liquid discharged from the coating means onto a continuously-supported belt-like support wound around and supported by a back roll,
It is arranged facing the back roll, and has a spraying means for blowing gas onto the surface of the back roll,
Gas is blown onto the support by the blowing means, the support is pressed against the back roll by blowing the gas, and the support is conveyed from the blowing position of the blowing means on the back roll while being conveyed. The coating apparatus performs the coating by the coating unit on the downstream side in the transport direction.

  2. 2. The coating apparatus according to 1 above, wherein the coating unit is a slit type die coater.

  3. 3. The coating apparatus according to 1 or 2 above, wherein a tension during conveyance of the support is 5 N / m width to 100 N / m width.

  4). In the method for manufacturing an organic electronic element having a configuration in which at least one organic functional layer is laminated between a first electrode and a second electrode on a support, the organic functional layer is any one of items 1 to 3. A method for producing an organic electronic element, characterized in that the organic electronic element is formed by the coating apparatus according to the above.

  As described above, in coating while supporting and transporting the support with the back roll, it is possible to prevent the support from shaking during coating and to maintain flatness. Thereby, formation of the stable coating film can be performed. Further, since the gas is blown onto the support, the surrounding dust can be removed from the support, and the occurrence of leaks and dark spots due to dust can be prevented.

It is a figure which shows the main structures of the coating device which concerns on this invention. It is a perspective view which shows a back roll and a spraying means. It is a figure which shows the example using a nozzle type spraying means. It is the schematic of the nozzle type spraying means seen from the nozzle side. It is a figure which shows the example using a chamber type spraying means. It is an enlarged view near a chamber type spraying means.

  Embodiments of a coating apparatus according to the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. The present invention is not limited to the following.

  FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a main configuration of a coating apparatus according to the present invention. The coating apparatus 1 is a roll-to-roll type coating apparatus.

  In the figure, 100 is a back roll, 200 is a spraying means, 300 is a slit type die coater which is a coating means, and S is a belt-like support. The slit type die coater 300 is arranged at a position facing the back roll 100 and downstream of the support S in the transport direction from the spray position of the spray means 200.

  FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing the back roll 100 and the spraying means 200.

  The support S is supported while being wound around the back roll 100, and is conveyed in the direction of the arrow by a conveying means (not shown).

  As described above, this implementation is possible because it is possible to cope with high coating accuracy, high quality, high speed, thin film, suitability for multilayer coating, and the like, and is not easily affected by the gas discharged from the spraying means 200. In this embodiment, a slit type die coater (hereinafter referred to as a die coater) 300 is used as the coating means. Note that the application means is not limited to this, and other types of application means can be used.

  The die coater 300 discharges the coating liquid from the slit on the back roll 100 and performs coating on the transported support S.

  By the way, in order to make the film thickness uniform in this application, it is important to prevent the support S from shaking and maintain the flatness of the support S as described above. It is necessary to transport it. However, as described above, in the method using the suction means, unevenness is generated on the surface of the support when adsorbing the support due to the presence or absence of the suction holes, which deteriorates the film thickness variation at the time of application.

  The coating apparatus according to the present invention has a spraying means 200, sprays gas onto the support S, and transports the support S in close contact with the back roll 100.

  The spraying means 200 is disposed so as to face the back roll 100 with the support S therebetween, and sprays gas onto the surface of the back roll 100. As a result, the support S is pressed against the back roll 100 with air (air nip) and is brought into close contact therewith.

  FIG. 1 shows an example in which a slit-type spraying means (hereinafter referred to as a slit-type spraying means 201) having a slit for blowing out gas in the width direction of the support S is used. In FIG. 1, side plates (side members in the front-rear direction of the drawing) that close both side surfaces of the slit-type spraying means 200 are omitted.

  The slit-type blowing means 201 is connected to a blowing means (not shown) such as a compressor, and discharges the high-pressure gas supplied from the blowing means from the slit 202 through the manifold 203 substantially uniformly. The gas discharge pressure (air volume, wind speed) is appropriately set based on experiments or conventional data based on the material and thickness of the support S.

For example, the air volume is 1 CMM (m ³ / min) and the wind speed is 30 to 50 m / s.

  As described above, since the gas is continuously discharged from the slit 202 in the width direction of the support S, the discharge of the gas from the slit-type spraying means 201 can be made substantially uniform in the width direction of the support S. . As a result, the support S can be uniformly adhered to the back roll 100.

  An example using the slit-type spraying means 201 shown in FIG.

  Here, the surrounding gas (air) may be caught between the back roll 100 and the support S at a position where the back roll 100 and the support S start contact. This air causes the support S to float up from the back roll 100, causing shaking, and hinders uniform coating thickness.

  In order to prevent this, the slit-type spraying means 201 is arranged so that the spray position of the gas discharged from the slit is the position where the back roll 100 and the support S start contact (point TP in FIG. 1). It is preferable.

  Thereby, since the support S is pressed against the back roll 100 by the gas discharged at the TP point, the gas (air) existing between the back roll 100 and the support S immediately before the start of contact can be eliminated.

  Here, when the organic electronic element is applied by the coating apparatus 1 described above, the support S can transmit the emitted light or the light for generating the electromotive force, that is, the wavelength of these lights. It is preferable that it is a transparent member. Examples of such a member include a transparent resin film from the viewpoint of lightness and flexibility.

  When such a transparent resin film is used, the tension of the support S is preferably 5 to 100 N / m width (5 to 100 N per 1 m width). If the width is less than 5 N / m, the tension becomes insufficient, and it may be difficult to maintain close contact in the entire contact area between the support S and the back roll 100, and a part of the support S may be lifted from the back roll 100. There is. Further, when the width exceeds 100 N / m, the tension becomes excessive, and the quality of the film and the coating film applied by the die coater 300 may be deteriorated due to expansion and contraction due to the presence or absence of tension.

  Next, another embodiment of the spraying means 200 will be described.

<Example 2>
FIG. 3 is a diagram showing nozzle-type spraying means 221 using spray nozzles for gas spraying.

  The nozzle type spraying means 221 has a nozzle 222 arranged in the width direction of the support S, and the gas supplied from a blowing means (not shown) such as a compressor connected to the nozzle type spraying means 221 is supplied to the nozzle 222. Then, gas is blown onto the surface of the back roll 100. Thereby, the support S is pressed against the back roll 100 with air (air nip) and is brought into close contact therewith.

  FIG. 4 is a schematic view of the nozzle-type spraying means 221 viewed from the nozzle 222 side.

  The arrangement of the nozzle-type spraying means 221 in the transport direction of the support S is in accordance with the first embodiment shown in FIG.

  The nozzle-type spraying means 221 having the nozzles 222 can generally reduce the opening area of the discharge port, so that the supply amount of high-pressure gas can be suppressed. Further, it is possible to control the discharge amount of the gas individually or for each group of the nozzles 222, and therefore it is possible to control the pressure by the discharge gas in the width direction of the support S. Further, the nozzle type spraying means 221 can be manufactured at a relatively low cost.

<Example 3>
FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a chamber-type spraying means 241 that uses a gas chamber (chamber) for gas spraying. FIG. 6 is an enlarged view of the vicinity of the chamber type spraying means 241.

  The chamber-type spraying means 241 has a nozzle 242 as a gas introduction pipe at a position facing the back roll 100, and is connected to the nozzle 242 at the tip of the nozzle 242 and extends to the vicinity of the surface of the support S 244 is provided in the width direction of the support S. The opening width of the wall 244 is larger than the diameter of the nozzle 242 and constitutes the chamber 243. By making the cross-sectional area of the chamber 243 larger than the diameter (cross-sectional area) of the nozzle 242 but not completely opening it, it becomes possible to inject high-pressure gas over a larger area than in the case of the nozzle, and the amount of gas can be reduced. It is possible to obtain a high nip effect while saving. That is, the cross-sectional area of the gas flow is expanded in the chamber 243 at one end, but the pressure can be kept high to some extent.

  Further, in the chamber-type spraying means 241, when the atmospheric pressure is Pa and the pressure in the chamber 243 is Pc, the pressure ΔP for pressing the support S can be expressed as follows.

ΔP = Pc−Pa
Here, Examples 1 and 2 can be said to be a wind pressure that blows gas onto the support S, that is, a dynamic pressure type in order to bring the gas into close contact with the back roll 100 by the dynamic pressure of the gas, but Example 3 is supported by the static pressure in the chamber. Since the body S is brought into close contact with the back roll 100, it can be said to be a static pressure type.

  Thus, the chamber type spraying means 241 is a static pressure type, and the flow of the discharged gas is gentle, so that the surrounding atmosphere is hardly disturbed. For this reason, the support S before reaching the back roll 100 is less likely to be shaken (fluttered), and there is an advantage in the stability of conveyance of the support S.

  The selection of Examples 1 to 3 is appropriately performed based on the material of the support S, the thickness, the width, the coating thickness, the allowable range of the coating thickness, the specification and form of the apparatus, and the like.

  As described above, in coating while supporting and transporting the support with the back roll, it is possible to prevent the support from shaking during coating and to maintain flatness. Thereby, formation of the stable coating film can be performed.

  Further, since the gas is blown onto the support, the surrounding dust can be removed from the support, and the occurrence of leaks and dark spots due to dust can be prevented.

  In particular, the present invention conveys a support or a support having a patterned film on the surface with low tension, and applies a coating solution on the support using a coating means to form a thin film. In this case, the flatness of the support can be maintained, and a stable and uniform film thickness can be obtained, which is effective.

  For example, the present invention is preferably used for the production of an organic electronic device having a structure in which at least one organic functional layer is laminated between a first electrode and a second electrode on a support. At least one organic functional layer is applied to a patterned coating film containing a conductive material having a thermal contraction rate different from the thermal contraction rate of the support, for example, the support on which the first electrode or the second electrode is formed. In the case of stacking, it is effective from the viewpoint of maintaining the flatness of the support.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Application | coating apparatus 100 Back roll 200 Spray means 201 Slit type spray means 202 Slit 203 Manifold 221 Nozzle type spray means 222 Nozzle 241 Chamber type spray means 242 Nozzle 243 Chamber 300 Die coater

Claims (4)

A coating apparatus that applies the coating liquid discharged from the coating means onto a continuously-supported belt-like support wound around and supported by a back roll,
It is arranged facing the back roll, and has a spraying means for blowing gas onto the surface of the back roll,
Gas is blown onto the support by the blowing means, the support is pressed against the back roll by blowing the gas, and the support is conveyed from the blowing position of the blowing means on the back roll while being conveyed. The coating apparatus performs the coating by the coating unit on the downstream side in the transport direction.   The coating apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the coating unit is a slit type die coater.   The coating apparatus according to claim 1 or 2, wherein a tension during conveyance of the support is 5 N / m width to 100 N / m width.   In the manufacturing method of the organic electronics element which has a structure which laminated | stacked at least 1 layer of organic functional layers between the 1st electrode and the 2nd electrode on the support body, the said organic functional layer is any one of Claim 1 to 3 A method for producing an organic electronics element, characterized by being formed by the coating apparatus according to the item.

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