KR101150398B1 - ITO-Metal laminate improved in layered metal architecture and method of fabricating electrode thereof - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention is a base film; An ITO coating layer formed on the base film; A tie coating layer formed on the ITO coating layer; And it discloses an ITO metal laminate comprising a; metal layer formed on the tie coating layer.

ITO, tie coating layer, metal seed layer, residue, etching, peel strength, plasma treatment

Description

ITO metal laminate improved in layered metal architecture and method of fabricating electrode

The present invention relates to an indium tin oxide (ITO) metal laminate, and more particularly, to an ITO metal laminate having a metal laminate structure for forming an electrode and a method of forming the electrode.

ITO film, which is widely used in substrates for touch panels and flexible displays, is processed in its own line form and used as an electrode, or in the form in which wiring patterns are formed on the film by silver (Ag) paste coating process. . 1 illustrates a conventional ITO metal laminate having a structure in which an ITO coating layer 11 is formed on a polymer transparent film 10 and an electrode 12 of silver (Ag) paste is formed on the ITO coating layer 11.

However, the electrode made of only ITO has a problem of low electrical conductivity, which is not suitable for products requiring high driving voltage or fast response speed.

In addition, in the case of forming the wiring pattern using silver (Ag) paste, it is difficult to make the wiring width to 100 μm or less, so that the dead space on the touch panel or the flexible display substrate becomes wider. The electrical conductivity is too high, there is a problem that the drive voltage or response speed characteristics are not good.

In order to solve the above problems, conventionally, a method of forming a metal electrode on the ITO wiring pattern by etching the ITO coating layer according to the wiring pattern and then performing a process such as PVD method, CVD method or electrolytic / electroless plating method is widely used. It became. However, such an electrode forming method has a problem that the process is not only complicated and difficult, but also the etching property of the ITO coating layer is poor, and the adhesion between the ITO coating layer and the metal electrode is poor.

The present invention has been made to solve the above problems, and an object thereof is to provide an ITO metal laminate and a method of forming the electrode having a laminated structure for forming an electrode pattern by etching the metal layer formed on the ITO coating layer.

In order to achieve the above object, an ITO metal laminate according to the present invention includes a base film; An ITO coating layer formed on the base film; A tie coating layer formed on the ITO coating layer; And a metal layer formed on the tie coating layer.

The metal layer may include a metal seed layer stacked on the tie coating layer; And a conductive layer plated on the metal seed layer.

The metal seed layer and the conductive layer may be made of copper or a copper alloy.

The base film is preferably a polymer transparent film.

The tie coating layer may be made of any one selected from nickel (Ni), chromium (Cr), molybdenum (Mo), and titanium (Ti), or two or more alloys.

When the tie coating layer is made of a nickel (Ni) -chromium (Cr) alloy, the content ratio (wt%) of chromium (Cr) in the nickel (Ni) -chromium (Cr) alloy is 5% or more and less than 20%. It is preferable.

The tie coating layer preferably has a thickness of 30 kPa or more and less than 200 kPa.

According to another aspect of the invention, (a) preparing a base film on which the ITO coating layer is formed; (b) forming a tie coating layer on the ITO coating layer; (c) forming a metal seed layer on the tie coating layer and plating a conductive layer on the metal seed layer; And (d) etching the conductive layer, the metal seed layer and the tie coating layer according to the wiring pattern.

In the step (a), the step of plasma treating the surface of the base film; Coating ITO on the plasma treated surface to form an ITO coating layer; And plasma treating the surface of the ITO coating layer.

In the step (c), it is preferable that the metal seed layer is formed by sputtering or vacuum depositing copper or a copper alloy, and the conductive layer is formed by electroplating or electroless plating the copper or copper alloy.

According to the present invention, since the wiring pattern can be easily formed only by etching the metal layer formed on the ITO coating layer without etching the ITO coating layer, the process cost for forming the electrode can be reduced.

Since the ITO metal laminate according to the present invention has excellent etching property for forming a metal electrode and excellent adhesion between the ITO coating layer and the metal electrode, the ITO metal laminate may be usefully applied to a touch panel, a flexible display substrate, a flexible solar cell substrate, and the like.

In addition, since the ITO metal laminate according to the present invention can be continuously manufactured by a roll to roll method, it is possible to improve productivity.

Hereinafter, exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. Prior to this, terms or words used in the specification and claims should not be construed as having a conventional or dictionary meaning, and the inventors should properly explain the concept of terms in order to best explain their own invention. Based on the principle that can be defined, it should be interpreted as meaning and concept corresponding to the technical idea of the present invention. Therefore, the embodiments described in the specification and the drawings shown in the drawings are only the most preferred embodiment of the present invention and do not represent all of the technical idea of the present invention, various modifications that can be replaced at the time of the present application It should be understood that there may be equivalents and variations.

2 is a cross-sectional view showing the configuration of an ITO metal laminate according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

2, the ITO metal laminate according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention is the base film 100, the ITO coating layer 101, the tie coating layer (Tiecoating Layer) 102, the metal seed layer (going from top to bottom) 103 and the conductive layer 104 includes a stacked structure in order.

Since the ITO metal laminate according to the present invention is applied to a touch panel or the like, it is preferable that a polymer transparent film such as polyethylene terephthalate (PET) film or polycarbonate (PC) film is used as the base film 100.

The ITO coating layer 101 is continuously formed on the base film 100 by a roll to roll sputter or the like. It is preferable that the base film 100 is surface treated by a plasma processing apparatus before the formation of the ITO coating layer 101. In addition, the ITO coating layer 101 formed on the base film 100 is also preferably surface-treated by a plasma processing apparatus for surface activation.

The tie coating layer 102 is a layer formed to increase the adhesion between the ITO coating layer 101 and the upper metal layer, and is formed on the ITO coating layer 101 by sputtering or vacuum deposition. As the metal material used for the tie coating layer 102, nickel (Ni), chromium (Cr), molybdenum (Mo), titanium (Ti), or the like may be used alone, or two or more of these alloys may be employed.

The metal seed layer 103 serves as a seed for plating the conductive layer 104 and is stacked on the tie coating layer 102 by sputtering or vacuum deposition. The metal seed layer 103 is formed of copper (Cu) or a copper (Cu) alloy, and is preferably formed to a thickness of about 1000 kPa.

The conductive layer 104 is plated on the metal seed layer 103 by an electrolytic plating method or an electroless plating method. Similar to the metal seed layer 103, the conductive layer 104 is formed of copper (Cu) or a copper (Cu) alloy. In consideration of the electrical properties required for the electrode material, the conductive layer 104 preferably has a thickness of 1 to 6 mu m.

In the ITO metal laminate, the conductive layer 104, the metal seed layer 103 and the tie coating layer 102 are removed according to the wiring pattern by an etching process to form a metal electrode on the ITO coating layer 101.

Etchability and Peel Strength Evaluation

In order to evaluate the etching and peel strength characteristics (adhesiveness) for forming the electrode pattern on the ITO metal laminate, it has a lamination structure of polymer transparent film / ITO coating layer / copper seed layer / copper conductive layer and has a size of 10 cm × 1 cm. After preparing a sample having a, an acid resistant tape or etch resist of a 10 cm x 1 mm pattern was formed on the sample.

A ferric chloride (FeCl ₃ ) solution having a specific gravity of about 1.3 and a temperature of 45 ° C. is prepared as an etching solution, and an alkali-based stripping solution is prepared as a nickel (Ni) -chromium (Cr) release agent.

The prepared sample is immersed in an etching solution for 40 seconds to remove the copper conductive layer and the copper seed layer, and then washed three to five times in flowing distilled water at room temperature.

After washing twice or more for 10 minutes using an ultrasonic cleaner to completely remove the residue remaining on the sample, all the moisture is removed using compressed nitrogen.

The presence of the tie-coating layer residue was observed using a naked eye and a reflecting microscope on the sample from which the copper layer was removed according to a predetermined pattern. In the case of a sample having a residue, the nickel (Ni) -chromium (Cr) is etched using the prepared nickel (Ni) -chromium (Cr) release agent.

Peel strength test is performed by measuring the peel strength between the ITO coating layer and the copper layer using a conventional UTM (UNIVERSAL TESTING MACHINE, INSTRON company MODEL 3342) and a T-type peel strength measuring tool, Miniature 90 Degree Peel Fixture (INSTRON). .

Figure 3 shows the results of measuring the etching properties and adhesive properties of the ITO metal laminate through the test. Referring to the table of FIG. 3, in the nickel (Ni) -chromium (Cr) alloy, the content ratio (wt%) of chromium (Cr) is excessively high, such as 20% or more, or the thickness of the tie coating layer is excessively, 200 μm or more. If thick, it can be seen that the nickel (Ni) -chromium (Cr) residue occurs. Therefore, in the tie coating layer made of nickel (Ni) -chromium (Cr) alloy, the content ratio (wt%) of chromium (Cr) has a range of 5% or more and less than 20%, and the thickness of the tie coating layer is 30Å or more, It is preferable to have a range of less than 200 Hz.

In the ITO metal laminate having the above configuration, since the tie coating layer 102 is formed on the ITO coating layer 101 and the metal seed layer 103 and the conductive layer 104 are formed on the tie coating layer 102, the conductive layer 104 is formed. ), A metal electrode pattern may be formed on the ITO coating layer 101 simply by etching the metal seed layer 103 and the tie coating layer 102. In addition, a high peel strength of, for example, 0.03 kgf / cm or more may be imparted to the metal seed layer 103 and the conductive layer 104 with respect to the ITO coating layer 101 by the tie coating layer 102.

The manufacturing method of the ITO metal laminate according to the present invention comprises the steps of preparing a base film on which the ITO coating layer 101 is formed, forming the tie coating layer 102 on the ITO coating layer 101, and on the tie coating layer 102. After the metal seed layer 103 is formed, a process of plating the conductive layer 104 made of copper or a copper alloy on the metal seed layer 103 is included. These processes can be carried out continuously by the roll-to-roll manufacturing method.

In the base film preparation process, a polymer transparent film such as a polyethylene terephthalate (PET) film or a polycarbonate (PC) film is prepared and the surface thereof is subjected to plasma treatment to form an ITO coating layer, and the ITO coating layer 101 for surface activation. It is preferable to plasma-treat the surface. In this case, the plasma surface treatment may be performed by a plasma treatment process in which a gas such as argon, oxygen, or nitrogen is mixed or used alone.

The tie coating layer 102 or the metal seed layer 103 is formed by sputtering or vacuum deposition, and the conductive layer 104 is formed by electrolytic plating or electroless plating.

After fabricating the ITO metal laminate through the above process, the electrode may be formed by etching the conductive layer 104, the metal seed layer 103, and the tie coating layer 102 according to a predetermined wiring pattern.

Although the present invention has been described above by means of limited embodiments and drawings, the present invention is not limited thereto and will be described below by the person skilled in the art to which the present invention pertains. Of course, various modifications and variations are possible within the scope of the claims.

The following drawings, which are attached to this specification, illustrate preferred embodiments of the present invention, and together with the detailed description of the present invention serve to further understand the technical spirit of the present invention, the present invention includes matters described in such drawings. It should not be construed as limited to.

1 is a cross-sectional view showing the configuration of an ITO metal laminate according to the prior art.

2 is a cross-sectional view showing the configuration of an ITO metal laminate according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

Figure 3 is a table showing the results of measuring the etching properties and adhesion properties according to the alloy ratio and thickness of the tie coating layer in FIG.

<Description of Major Reference Marks in Drawings>

100: base film 101: ITO coating layer

102: tie coating layer 103: metal seed layer

104: conductive layer

Claims (10)

Base film; An ITO coating layer formed on the base film; A tie coating layer formed on the ITO coating layer and made of a nickel (Ni) -chromium (Cr) alloy; And And a metal layer formed on the tie coating layer. The tie coating layer is ITO metal laminate, characterized in that the content ratio (wt%) of chromium (Cr) in the nickel (Ni) -chromium (Cr) alloy is 5% or more and less than 20%. The method of claim 1, wherein the metal layer, A metal seed layer stacked on the tie coating layer; And And a conductive layer plated on the metal seed layer. 3. The method of claim 2, And the metal seed layer and the conductive layer are made of copper or a copper alloy. The method of claim 1, The base film is an ITO metal laminate, characterized in that the polymer transparent film. delete delete The method of claim 1, The thickness of the tie coating layer is 30 kPa or more, less than 200 kPa ITO metal laminate. (a) preparing a base film of a polymer material having an ITO coating layer formed thereon; (b) forming a tie coating layer of a metal component on the ITO coating layer; (c) forming a metal seed layer on the tie coating layer and plating a conductive layer on the metal seed layer; And (d) etching the conductive layer, the metal seed layer and the tie coating layer according to the wiring pattern. The method of claim 8, wherein in step (a), Plasma treating the surface of the base film; Coating ITO on the plasma treated surface to form an ITO coating layer; And Plasma treatment of the surface of the ITO coating layer; electrode formation method of an ITO metal laminate. The method of claim 8, wherein in step (c), A method for forming an electrode of an ITO metal laminate, characterized in that the metal seed layer is formed by sputtering or vacuum evaporating copper or a copper alloy, and the conductive layer is formed by electroplating or electroless plating copper or a copper alloy.

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