KR20120043571A - System and method for encapsulation of oled - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: An organic light emitting diode thin film encapsulation system is provided to improve monomer usage efficiency by performing an organic film encapsulation process in atmospheric pressure. CONSTITUTION: A first transfer chamber(111) transfers a substrate. An atmospheric pressure organic film encapsulation apparatus(140) encapsulates an organic film on the substrate in atmospheric pressure. The atmospheric pressure organic film encapsulation apparatus comprises an organic film processing chamber, a support main body, and a monomer coating unit. The support main body supports the substrate by being arranged on the organic film processing chamber. The monomer coating unit spreads a monomer on the substrate as the organic film.

Description

OLD thin film encapsulation system and its method {SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR ENCAPSULATION OF OLED}

The present invention relates to an OLED thin film encapsulation system and a method thereof, and more particularly, an organic film encapsulation process can be performed at atmospheric pressure, so that a vacuum system is not required in the organic film encapsulation step, and monomer use efficiency is excellent. The present invention relates to an OLED thin film encapsulation system and method that can shorten the pumping time for an inorganic film process after film formation since the material is not deposited on other parts such as the chamber inner wall other than the substrate.

Organic Light Emitting Diodes (OLEDs) have a high response time with a response speed of 1ms or less, low power consumption, and self-luminescence, which provides a wide viewing angle. Have

These OLEDs can be manufactured at low temperature, manufactured in a similar manner to the existing semiconductor process technology, and their manufacturing processes such as pattern forming process, thin film deposition process, and encapsulation process are relatively simple, so they are attracting attention as the next generation display devices. I am getting it.

On the other hand, an OLED thin film encapsulation process is a process of sealing the circumference | surroundings of an organic light emitting element using an organic film or an inorganic film in order to protect the organic light emitting element of OLED from gas or moisture in air | atmosphere.

In order to encapsulate the organic film or the inorganic film along the circumference of the organic light emitting device, an adhesion method using a film may be used, or a deposition method using a deposition material may be used. The latter method is usually used.

In this case, only a single layer selected from an organic layer or an inorganic layer may be used. A single layer layer formed only of an inorganic layer has a low film forming speed and a high possibility of some defects due to a large stress of the layer, and is combined with particles of an organic light emitting device. There is a high possibility that defects such as pinholes are generated in the inorganic film. If the pinhole is left unattended, gas or moisture in the atmosphere may be introduced into the pinhole to shorten the life of the organic light emitting device.

On the other hand, the single layer film formed only of the organic film has the advantage of being easy to mold, but because the organic film itself may contain water, the inflow of gas or water may be better than that of the inorganic film. Therefore, it is difficult to completely block gas or moisture.

Accordingly, research on OLED thin film encapsulation systems that protect organic light emitting devices from inflow of gas or moisture by stacking multiple layers of organic and inorganic layers alternately in recent years has been actively conducted.

When the organic film is deposited on the organic light emitting device of the OLED by using such an encapsulation system, the organic light emitting device is disposed inside the chamber so that the organic light emitting device faces downward, and the monomer deposition unit provided inside the chamber toward the substrate ( The monomer depo-unit) is sprayed with a monomer in a vapor state.

In more detail, the liquid monomer is vaporized while passing through an ultra sonic nozzle, and vaporized vapor moves toward the monomer deposition source along a path heated to about 350 ° C. The deposition source injects the supplied monomer vapor to the substrate, and the material not deposited on the substrate is released to the outside before flowing to the chamber. The discharge to the outside uses a turbo pump connected to the lower portion, the monomer vapor is characterized in that the gas phase does not liquefy at atmospheric pressure below 10 ^-3 Torr.

However, in the conventional OLED thin film encapsulation system and method thereof, since the organic film encapsulation method is a vacuum deposition method, a vacuum system is required for encapsulation of the organic film, and the use efficiency of the material is low because the use efficiency of the material is 10% or less. In addition, since the monomer material adsorbed in the chamber other than the substrate is gradually evaporated, a lot of time for pumping to the base pressure for transferring the substrate to another chamber after the deposition of the monomer, for example, at least 40 minutes for the second generation substrate, that is, It takes a long time, there is a problem that the monomer deposition material is accumulated in the pump for the monomer (TMP), and after about three months of use, the pump must be completely disassembled and overhauled.

It is an object of the present invention that the organic film encapsulation process can be performed at atmospheric pressure, so that no vacuum system is required in the organic film encapsulation process, and the monomer use efficiency is excellent, and monomer materials are not deposited on other parts such as the chamber inner wall other than the substrate. Therefore, to provide an OLED thin film encapsulation system and method that can shorten the pumping time for the inorganic film process after film formation.

The object is, according to the present invention, a first transfer chamber for delivering a substrate; And an atmospheric pressure organic membrane encapsulation system for receiving the substrate from the first transfer chamber and encapsulating the organic layer on the substrate at atmospheric pressure.

Here, the atmospheric pressure organic membrane encapsulation apparatus, the organic membrane process chamber in the atmospheric pressure state; A support body disposed in the organic film processing chamber to support the substrate; And it may include a monomer coating unit for applying the monomer as the organic film on the substrate on the support body.

The monomer coating unit may be a slit coater for forming the monomer by a slit coating on the substrate.

The slit coater may include a pair of first and second blocks coupled to each other with a predetermined spacing so that discharge holes through which organic materials for organic film deposition are formed are formed in an end region; An organic material injection line provided in one of the first and second blocks and injecting the organic material into an internal space between the first and second blocks; A gas discharge line provided in one of the first and second blocks and discharging gas generated in the internal space while the organic material is discharged; And a gap adjusting member coupled to any one of the first and second blocks to adjust a gap of the discharge hole.

The apparatus may further include a substitution chamber disposed between the atmospheric pressure organic membrane encapsulation device in an atmospheric pressure state and the first transfer chamber in a vacuum state to replace atmospheric pressure and vacuum.

A load lock chamber provided on one surface of the first transfer chamber and loaded with the substrate; An inorganic film encapsulation device for forming an inorganic film on the substrate; And an alignment chamber disposed between the first transfer chamber and the inorganic film encapsulation device to align the substrate.

A buffer chamber disposed on one surface of the first transfer chamber; And an additional second transfer chamber disposed opposite the first transfer chamber with the buffer chamber therebetween.

The electronic device may further include an unload lock chamber disposed on at least one surface of the second transfer chamber and unloading the substrate on which the organic layer and the inorganic layer are alternately formed.

The first and second transfer chambers may have a polygonal structure.

The load lock chamber, the three atmospheric pressure organic membrane encapsulation devices, and the three inorganic membrane encapsulation devices may be disposed on each side of the first transfer chamber having an octagonal structure, and the two unload lock chambers may be The second transfer chamber may have a rectangular structure, and may be disposed on a selected outer surface of the second transfer chamber, and the buffer chamber may be disposed in common on one surface of the first transfer chamber and on one surface of the second transfer chamber.

The load lock chamber, the two atmospheric pressure organic membrane encapsulation devices, and the two inorganic membrane encapsulation devices may be disposed on each side of the first transfer chamber having a hexagonal structure, and the one atmospheric pressure organic membrane encapsulation device. And one inorganic membrane encapsulation device and two unload lock chambers may be disposed on each side of the first transfer chamber having a hexagonal structure, and the buffer chamber may be disposed on any one surface of the first transfer chamber. It may be disposed in common on either side of the second transfer chamber.

The load lock chamber, the two atmospheric pressure organic membrane encapsulation devices, and the two inorganic membrane encapsulation devices may be disposed on each side of the first transfer chamber having an octagonal structure, and the one atmospheric pressure organic membrane encapsulation device. And one inorganic membrane encapsulation device and two unload lock chambers may be disposed on each side of the first transfer chamber having an octagonal structure, and the buffer chamber may include any one surface of the first transfer chamber and the It may be disposed in common on either side of the second transfer chamber.

On the other hand, according to the present invention, the transfer chamber in the atmospheric pressure state; A load lock displacement chamber disposed adjacent to the transfer chamber, the substrate being loaded while replacing atmospheric pressure and vacuum; An atmospheric pressure organic film encapsulation device which receives the substrate from the transfer chamber and seals the organic film on the substrate at atmospheric pressure; An inorganic film encapsulation device disposed adjacent to the transfer chamber to form an inorganic film on the substrate; An alignment displacement chamber disposed between the transfer chamber in an atmospheric pressure state and the inorganic membrane encapsulation device in a vacuum state to replace atmospheric pressure and vacuum and align the substrate; And an unloading chamber disposed adjacent to the transfer chamber and unloading a substrate on which an organic film and an inorganic film are alternately formed.

Here, the transfer chamber may have a rectangular arrangement structure.

The load lock replacement chamber, three atmospheric pressure organic membrane encapsulation devices, six inorganic membrane encapsulation devices, and two unload lock chambers may be disposed along each side of the transfer chamber in a rectangular shape.

On the other hand, the object, according to the present invention, the step of introducing the substrate into the organic film processing chamber of atmospheric pressure; And encapsulating the organic film on the substrate in the organic film process chamber.

Here, the encapsulation of the organic layer may be a step of applying a monomer to the substrate by a slit coating.

Loading the substrate before introducing the substrate into the organic film processing chamber; And encapsulating the inorganic layer after the encapsulation of the organic material in the substrate.

The method may further include aligning the substrate before the sealing of the inorganic layer.

The method may further include an unloading step of unloading the substrate on which the organic layer and the inorganic layer are alternately formed.

According to the present invention, the organic film encapsulation process can be performed at atmospheric pressure, so that no vacuum system is required in the organic film encapsulation process, and the monomer use efficiency is excellent, and since the monomer material is not deposited on other parts such as the inner wall of the chamber other than the substrate, After film formation, the pumping time for the inorganic film process can be shortened.

1 is a schematic structural diagram of an OLED thin film encapsulation system according to a first exemplary embodiment of the present invention and an OLED in which 10 layers of organic and inorganic layers are alternately deposited through the method.
2 is a block diagram of an OLED thin film encapsulation system according to a first embodiment of the present invention.
3 is a schematic configuration diagram of an atmospheric pressure organic membrane encapsulation device.
4 is a configuration diagram of an OLED thin film encapsulation system according to a second exemplary embodiment of the present invention.
5 is a configuration diagram of an OLED thin film encapsulation system according to a third exemplary embodiment of the present invention.
6 is a configuration diagram of an OLED thin film encapsulation system according to a fourth exemplary embodiment of the present invention.
7 is a variant of the slit coating.

In order to fully understand the present invention, the operational advantages of the present invention, and the objects achieved by the practice of the present invention, reference should be made to the accompanying drawings which illustrate preferred embodiments of the present invention and the contents described in the accompanying drawings.

Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in detail by explaining preferred embodiments of the present invention with reference to the accompanying drawings. Like reference numerals in the drawings denote like elements.

1 is a schematic structural diagram of an OLED thin film encapsulation system according to a first exemplary embodiment of the present invention and an OLED in which 10 layers of organic and inorganic layers are alternately deposited through the method.

Referring to this figure, an OLED (1, organic light emitting diode, OLED) manufactured through an OLED thin film encapsulation system according to an embodiment of the present invention is provided on a substrate 2 and a substrate 1. An organic light emitting element 3 is stacked.

The substrate 2 is a glass substrate. The organic light emitting element 3 has a laminated structure of an anode, three organic layers (hole transport layer, light emitting layer, electron transport layer) and a cathode. When an organic molecule receives energy (which is an excited state), it tries to return to its original state (base state), which has the property of emitting the received energy as light. In the organic light emitting element 3, when a voltage is applied, holes (+) injected from the anode and electrons (−) injected from the cathode recombine in the light emitting layer. At this time, the organic molecules are excited to emit light.

In this way, OLED (1) is displayed by using the property that the organic material emits light when the voltage is applied, and the characteristics of emitting R (Red), G (Green), B (Blue) depending on the organic material on the organic light emitting device (3) It implements full color.

On the other hand, as described above, since the organic light emitting device 3 can be easily damaged by the air or moisture in the air, its lifespan problem may arise, to solve this, alternate organic and inorganic membranes as shown in FIG. By laminating a plurality of layers, the organic light emitting element 3 is protected from inflow of gas or moisture.

Referring to FIG. 1, a total of 10 organic layers and inorganic layers are alternately stacked through an OLED thin film encapsulation system according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention. That is, the first organic film, the first inorganic film, the second organic film, the second inorganic film, the fifth organic film, and the fifth inorganic film are deposited from the organic light emitting element 3 in order and in layers.

In detail, the first inorganic layer completely surrounds (encapsulates) the first organic layer, and then the second organic layer partially surrounds the first inorganic layer, and then the second inorganic layer completely surrounds the second organic layer. It can be seen that the films are deposited in sequence.

However, in the process of repeatedly encapsulating the organic film and the inorganic film as shown in FIG. 1, in the case of the prior art, the organic film has been particularly carried out in a vacuum atmosphere. In other words, in the prior art, the organic film encapsulation method was a vacuum deposition method.

When the organic film encapsulation method is applied in a vacuum deposition method as described above, a vacuum system is required for the organic film encapsulation, and the use efficiency of the monomer is low because the use efficiency of the material is 10% or less, and the substrate Since the monomer material adsorbed in the other chamber is gradually evaporated, pumping to the base pressure for transferring the substrate to another chamber after the film deposition takes a long time, for example, at least 40 minutes for the second generation substrate, The monomer deposition material accumulates in the pump (TMP), causing various problems such as the need to completely disassemble and overhaul the pump after about three months of use.

Thus, in the present embodiment, the organic film encapsulation method, which has been advanced by the vacuum deposition method, is performed in an atmospheric pressure atmosphere to solve various problems in the prior art.

The OLED thin film encapsulation system of this embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS. 2 and 3 as follows.

2 is a configuration diagram of an OLED thin film encapsulation system according to a first embodiment of the present invention, Figure 3 is a schematic configuration diagram of an atmospheric pressure organic membrane encapsulation device.

Referring to these drawings, the OLED thin film encapsulation system of the present embodiment includes a first transfer chamber 111 for transferring the substrate 2 (see FIG. 1) and a substrate 2 from the first transfer chamber 111. Atmospheric pressure organic membrane encapsulation device 140 for encapsulating the organic film on the substrate 2 at atmospheric pressure, not a vacuum atmosphere.

The first transfer chamber 111 serves to transfer the substrate 2 along its circumferential direction. The interior of the first transfer chamber 111 may be formed in a vacuum atmosphere.

As such, the first substrate handling robot 110a is provided inside the first transfer chamber 111 so that the first transfer chamber 111 may transfer the substrate 2. The first substrate handling robot 110a may be applied as a robot having an articulated arm capable of rotating and advancing at a corresponding position.

In the present embodiment, the first transfer chamber 111 has an octagonal structure, and different kinds of chambers 121 to 123 and 125 are provided on outer surfaces thereof.

In this regard, a load lock chamber 121 in which the substrate 2 is loaded is provided on one surface of the first transfer chamber 111 having an octagonal structure. The substitution chamber 122, the alignment chamber 123, the substitution chamber 122, the buffer chamber 125, and the alignment adjacent to the first transfer chamber 111 along the clockwise direction with respect to the load lock chamber 121. The chamber 123, the alignment chamber 123, and the substitution chamber 122 are disposed.

That is, three displacement chambers 122 are provided at positions spaced apart from each other along the circumferential direction of the first transfer chamber 111, and three alignment chambers 123 are also provided between the substitution chambers 122. The buffer chamber 125 is provided on the surface. Of course, this arrangement structure is only one example, and the scope of the invention need not be limited to the shape and structure of the drawings.

The load lock chamber 121 is a chamber in which the substrate 2 is loaded toward the first transfer chamber 111. When the substrate 2 to be deposited is introduced from the outside by a separate transfer robot (not shown) disposed outside the system, the load lock chamber 121 substantially changes the environment therein with the first transfer chamber 111. The same temperature, pressure, and vacuum are used.

The load lock chamber 121 may have a single layer structure along the vertical direction, or may have two or more multilayer structures. The latter case corresponds to a structure that can lead to higher yields per unit time.

The replacement chamber 122 is disposed between the atmospheric pressure organic membrane encapsulation device 140 in the atmospheric pressure state and the first transfer chamber 111 in the vacuum state to replace the atmospheric pressure and the vacuum. That is, when the substrate 2 is transferred from the side of the first transfer chamber 111 to the substitution chamber 122, the substitution chamber 122 maintains a vacuum atmosphere, but between the first transfer chamber 111 and the substitution chamber 122. When the gate valve is closed, the vacuum formed in the replacement chamber 122 is released. In this state, the gate valve between the replacement chamber 122 and the atmospheric pressure organic membrane encapsulation device 140 is opened, and the substrate 2 is guided toward the atmospheric pressure organic membrane encapsulation device 140 in the atmospheric pressure state. In the present embodiment, since three replacement chambers 122 are provided, three atmospheric pressure organic membrane encapsulation devices 140 are also provided correspondingly. The atmospheric pressure organic membrane sealing device 140 will be described later.

The alignment chamber 123 is disposed on the outer surface of the first transfer chamber 111 to be adjacent to the substitution chamber 122. In the present embodiment, one alignment chamber 123 is separated from the others and two alignment chambers 123 are adjacent to each other, which is just one example, and the scope of the present invention is limited to the structure thereof. There is no need.

The alignment chamber 123 is disposed between the inorganic film encapsulation device 130 and the first transfer chamber 111 forming an inorganic film on the substrate 2.

As described with reference to FIG. 1, since the organic film and the inorganic film should be alternately encapsulated, the OLED thin film encapsulation system of the present embodiment includes an inorganic film encapsulation device for forming an inorganic film on the substrate 2 in addition to the atmospheric pressure organic film encapsulation device 140 ( 130 is provided. In particular, considering that the organic and inorganic membranes are alternately encapsulated, the atmospheric pressure organic membrane encapsulation device 140 and the inorganic membrane encapsulation device 130 are provided in the same number, but there is a significant difference in the organic film encapsulation time and the inorganic film encapsulation time. If there is a more time-consuming device may be more. This is optional.

In the present embodiment, the inorganic membrane encapsulation device 130 is advanced by a device called a sputter as shown in FIG. 2.

Sputter is a device for depositing (filming) an inorganic film on the substrate 2 by a sputtering method. Unlike the atmospheric pressure organic membrane encapsulation device 140, gas is injected in a vacuum state, while a target is a material material, and on the other side, an inorganic film deposition target substrate (2) is applied, and a voltage is applied therebetween. And the deposition process is performed in the manner of radio frequency (rf) and intermediate frequency (mf). When a voltage is applied, the gas is ionized, accelerated by the voltage, and hits the target. At this time, the material of the target sticks out and grows on the substrate 2 on the opposite side, thereby forming an inorganic film. Reactive sputtering may be performed by adding reactive gases such as oxygen and nitrogen to prepare oxide and nitride thin films.

As described above, the first transfer chamber 111 has an octagonal structure, one load lock chamber 121 on one side of the outer surface, and the replacement chamber 122 and the alignment chamber on six of the remaining surfaces. Since 123 is arranged three by one, one side remains. On the remaining side, the buffer chamber 125 is disposed. The buffer chamber 125 is a place where the substrate (not shown) on which deposition of the organic film and the inorganic film is completed is waited for unloading as it is.

In the present embodiment, an additional second transfer chamber 112 is disposed opposite the first transfer chamber 111 on the opposite side of the first transfer chamber 111 with the buffer chamber 125 therebetween.

The second transfer chamber 112 has a structure substantially the same as that of the first transfer chamber 111 in that a second substrate handling robot 110b is disposed therein and transfers a substrate in which an organic film and an inorganic film are alternately formed. Has the function. However, in the present embodiment, there is only a difference in appearance in that the first transfer chamber 111 has an octagonal structure while the second transfer chamber 112 has a hexagonal structure.

The unload lock chamber 124 is provided on the outer surface of the second transfer chamber 112 to unload the substrate on which the organic film and the inorganic film are alternately formed. In the present embodiment, the unload lock chamber 124 is provided at two outer surfaces of the second transfer chamber 112, but the number and position thereof may be appropriately changed according to the process situation.

Meanwhile, the atmospheric pressure organic film encapsulation device 140 serves to encapsulate the organic film in the substrate 2 transferred from the first transfer chamber 111. The atmospheric pressure organic membrane encapsulation device 140 of this embodiment forms a significant difference from the conventional one in that the encapsulation process of the organic membrane is performed at atmospheric pressure instead of a vacuum atmosphere.

As such, when the organic film encapsulation process is performed at atmospheric pressure, no vacuum system is required in the organic film encapsulation process, the monomer use efficiency is excellent, and since the monomer material is not deposited on other parts such as the inner wall of the chamber other than the substrate 2, There are various advantages such as shortening the pumping time for the inorganic film process after film formation.

As shown in FIG. 3, the atmospheric pressure organic membrane encapsulation device 140 includes an organic membrane process chamber 141 in an atmospheric pressure state and a support body disposed in the organic membrane process chamber 141 to support the substrate 2. 142 and a monomer application unit 150 for applying a monomer as an organic film to the substrate 2 on the support body 142. In this embodiment, the monomer coating unit 150 is applied as a slit coater 150 for depositing a monomer by a slit coating on the substrate (2).

An embodiment of the slit coater 150 will now be described with reference to FIG. 3. Of course, the structure of FIG. 3 and the description thereof are merely one example, which is not necessarily limited to the scope of the present invention.

The slit coater 150 includes a pair of first and second blocks 151 and 152 coupled to each other with a predetermined spacing so as to form a discharge hole 150a through which organic materials for organic film deposition are discharged. .

In the present embodiment, since the slit coater 150 is manufactured with two first and second blocks 151 and 152, the number of blocks is made three or four or more, and the discharge port (not shown) is made. It is possible to have a simple and simple structure compared to the existing technology that has been adjusting the gap of the discharge port while moving the block related to the gap control of the) to a separate actuator.

When the first and second blocks 151 and 152 are coupled to each other, the first and second blocks 151 and 152 may be provided to have a substantially rectangular block structure during side projection, and only the discharge port 150a may have an overall trapezoidal block structure protruding forward.

That is, the area of the discharge hole 150a formed by the combination of the first and second blocks 151 and 152 has a structure that protrudes a predetermined length more than other surfaces. The protruding shape of the area of the discharge hole 150a is enlarged as shown in FIG. It has a truncated triangular cross-sectional shape. As described above, since the protruding shape of the discharge port 150a has a truncated triangular cross-sectional shape, the fine developer application can be performed.

Of course, unlike the drawings, the protruding shape of the discharge port 150a may be formed to have a general triangular cross-sectional shape instead of a truncated triangular cross-sectional shape, but in this case, a sharp end may be easily broken, or safety due to a sharp point In the present embodiment, the tip is machined to produce a truncated triangular cross-sectional shape, since it may be possible to provide an accident such as an accident occurrence.

In the first block 151, an organic material injection line 153 into which an organic material is injected into the internal space 150b between the first and second blocks 151 and 152, and the injected organic material is discharged through the discharge port 150a. At the same time, a gas discharge line 154 through which gas generated in the internal space 150b is discharged is provided. Of course, unlike the drawing, the organic material injection line 153 and the gas discharge line 154 may be provided in the second block 152.

The internal space 150b into which the organic material is injected by the organic material injection line 153 is provided in a form in which its volume gradually decreases toward the discharge port 150a. Therefore, a large amount of organic material may be concentrated toward the discharge port 150a. Accordingly, the phenomenon in which the organic material is not discharged to the discharge port 150a due to vortex generation of the organic material may be prevented.

In addition, a plurality of O-Rs (O / R) are provided around the organic material injection line 153 and the gas discharge line 154 so that the organic material injection line 153 when the slit coater 150 is coupled to the surrounding structure. ) And leakage of gas discharge line 154 area.

The second block 152 is provided with a gap adjusting member 156 for adjusting a gap of the discharge hole 150a. The second block 152 is formed with a cutout 155 that is cut in a direction crossing the direction in which the organic material is discharged at a position adjacent to the discharge port 150a. The cutout 155 is used as a space to which the user approaches for adjusting the gap adjusting member 156.

With this configuration, the substrate 2 is introduced into the organic film process chamber 141 while the gap of the discharge port 150a is set in advance using the gap adjusting member 156 to support the body 142. Is supported on. At this time, unlike the prior art, it is not necessary to form the inside of the organic film process chamber 141 in a vacuum, and the process proceeds as it is under atmospheric pressure. After the substrate 2 is positioned, the organic material injected through the organic material injection line 153 is discharged through the discharge port 150a to form an organic film on the substrate 2.

An OLED thin film encapsulation method having such a configuration will be described below.

Assuming that the organic film is encapsulated before the inorganic film, first, the substrate 2 to be deposited is loaded into the first transfer chamber 111 through the load lock chamber 121. The first substrate handling robot 110a disposed in the first transfer chamber 111 receives the substrate 2 and transfers the substrate 2 to the substitution chamber 122.

In the replacement chamber 122, the vacuum formed on the first transfer chamber 111 is replaced with atmospheric pressure, and then transferred to the atmospheric pressure organic membrane encapsulation device 140.

When the substrate 2 is introduced into the organic film processing chamber 141 of the atmospheric pressure organic membrane encapsulation device 140 and supported on the support body 142, the organic material injected through the organic material injection line 153 is discharged ( The organic film is formed on the substrate 2 while being discharged through the 150a. At this time, the generated gas is discharged to the outside through the gas discharge line 154. On the other hand, during the organic film deposition process, the interior of the organic film process chamber 141 proceeds as it is under atmospheric pressure without forming a vacuum.

When the organic film encapsulation process is completed, the substrate is transferred into the first transfer chamber 111 through the substitution chamber 122, and then the first substrate handling robot 110a in the first transfer chamber 111 completes the deposition of the organic film. The substrate (not shown) is transferred to the alignment chamber 123.

The substrate reached in the alignment chamber 123 is aligned in the alignment chamber 123, and then transferred to the inorganic film encapsulation device 130, which is a sputtering device, where the inorganic film is encapsulated on the organic film. . At this time, unlike the atmospheric pressure organic membrane encapsulation device 140, the encapsulation process is performed in a vacuum atmosphere.

When the inorganic membrane process is completed, the organic membrane is encapsulated again on the inorganic membrane through the atmospheric pressure organic membrane encapsulation unit 140, and the like, as described above with reference to FIG. 1, the organic membrane and the inorganic membrane are repeatedly sealed.

Next, after all of the encapsulation processes are completed, the substrate on which the organic film and the inorganic film are alternately formed is directed to the second transfer chamber 112 via the buffer chamber 125 and then unloaded by the second substrate handling robot 110b. Unloaded to 124. This process is performed in parallel by multiple substrates.

According to the OLED thin film encapsulation system and method of the present embodiment having the structure and operation as described above, the organic film encapsulation process can be carried out at atmospheric pressure, unlike the conventional method, there is no need for a vacuum system in the organic film encapsulation process, and the monomer use efficiency is excellent. In addition, since the monomer material is not deposited on other parts such as the inner wall of the chamber other than the substrate, the pumping time for the inorganic film process after film formation can be shortened.

Meanwhile, the system structure of FIG. 2 may be changed in design depending on the manufacturer's clean room condition or production amount, which will be briefly described with reference to FIGS. 4 to 6.

4 to 6, only the arrangement structure will be described, and the specific role of the configuration will be referred to the first embodiment.

4 is a configuration diagram of an OLED thin film encapsulation system according to a second exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

In the second embodiment of FIG. 4, the OLED thin film encapsulation system employs a first transfer chamber 211 having a hexagonal structure and a second transfer chamber 212 having a pentagonal structure.

In this case, the load lock chamber 121, the two atmospheric pressure organic membrane encapsulation device 140, and the two inorganic membrane encapsulation devices 130 are disposed on five surfaces of the first transfer chamber 211 having a hexagonal structure. do. One atmospheric pressure organic membrane encapsulation device 140, one inorganic membrane encapsulation device 130, and two unload lock chambers 124 are disposed on four sides of the second transfer chamber 212 having a pentagonal structure. do. In this case, the buffer chamber 125 is disposed in common on the remaining surface of the first transfer chamber 211 and the remaining surface of the second transfer chamber 212.

The replacement chamber 122 is disposed between the first and second transfer chambers 211 and 212 and the atmospheric pressure organic membrane encapsulation device 140, and the alignment chamber 123 is disposed between the first and second transfer chambers 211 and 212 and the inorganic membrane. The structure disposed between the encapsulation device 130 is the same as the above-described embodiment.

5 is a configuration diagram of an OLED thin film encapsulation system according to a third exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

In the third embodiment of FIG. 5, the OLED thin film encapsulation system employs first and second transfer chambers 311 and 312 having an octagonal structure.

In this case, the load lock chamber 121, the two atmospheric pressure organic membrane encapsulation device 140, and the two inorganic membrane encapsulation devices 130 are disposed on five surfaces of the first transfer chamber 311 having an octagonal structure. do. One atmospheric pressure organic membrane encapsulation device 140, one inorganic membrane encapsulation device 130, and two unload lock chambers 124 are disposed on four sides of the second transfer chamber 512 having an octagonal structure. do. In this case, the buffer chamber 125 is commonly disposed on one surface of the first transfer chamber 311 and one surface of the second transfer chamber 312.

Also in FIG. 5, the replacement chamber 122 is disposed between the first and second transfer chambers 211 and 212 and the atmospheric pressure organic membrane encapsulation device 140, and the alignment chamber 123 is arranged between the first and second transfer chambers. It is disposed between the (211,212) and the inorganic film encapsulation device 130, the structure thereof is the same as the above-described embodiment.

6 is a configuration diagram of an OLED thin film encapsulation system according to a fourth exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

In the present embodiment, unlike the above-described embodiments, a transfer chamber 411 having a rectangular arrangement structure is disclosed. The transfer chamber 411 maintains an atmospheric pressure unlike the above-described embodiments.

One side of the transfer chamber 411 is provided with a load lock replacement chamber 421 for loading a substrate while replacing atmospheric pressure and vacuum, and a pair of unload lock chambers on the other side of the transfer chamber 411 and one region of the long side. 424 is provided.

The load lock replacement chamber 421 applied in this embodiment has a function of replacing atmospheric pressure and vacuum in addition to the function of loading. The unload lock chamber 424 is a chamber in which the substrate on which the organic film and the inorganic film are alternately formed is unloaded, and the function thereof is as described above.

Five alignment replacement chambers 423 are provided at one side of the long side of the transfer chamber 411, and inorganic membrane encapsulation devices 430 as sputters are connected to the alignment replacement chambers 423, respectively. The alignment replacement chambers 423 are disposed between the transfer chamber 411 in the atmospheric pressure state and the inorganic membrane encapsulation device 430 in the vacuum state to replace the atmospheric pressure and the vacuum and align the substrate.

On the other side of the long side of the transfer chamber 411, three atmospheric pressure organic membrane encapsulation devices 440 are provided at both sides of one alignment replacement chamber 423 and the inorganic membrane encapsulation device 430. Atmospheric pressure organic membrane encapsulation device 440 receives the substrate as it is from the transfer chamber 411 in the atmospheric pressure state serves to seal the organic film on the substrate at atmospheric pressure. Unlike the three atmospheric pressure organic membrane encapsulation devices 440, six inorganic membrane encapsulation devices 430 are provided in this embodiment.

Even if such a structure is applied, the organic film encapsulation process can be performed at atmospheric pressure unlike in the prior art, so that a vacuum system is not required in the organic film encapsulation process, and the monomer use efficiency is excellent. Since it is not deposited on, it is possible to shorten the pumping time for the inorganic film process after film formation.

7 is a variant of the slit coating.

The slit coater 150 of the first embodiment described with reference to FIG. 3 can be applied not only to the first embodiment but also to the second to fourth embodiments.

In this case, the slit coater 250 may have a structure as shown in FIG. 7, deviating from the structure of FIG. 3. That is, it may have a trapezoidal block structure in which a central discharge port 250a is formed. As a result, the slit coaters 150 and 250 that may be applied to the first to fourth embodiments may be modified in various ways without departing from the shapes of FIGS. 3 and 7.

Of course, in some cases, a spray coating method may be applied in addition to the slit coating method. However, in the spray coating method, since patterning is difficult, a separate shadow mask should be used.

In addition to the spray coating method, a nozzle coating method, a screen printing method, an ink jet printing method, and the like may be applied.

In the above-described embodiment, the inorganic membrane encapsulation device has been described as a sputter, but this is only one example. Various equipments may be used as long as the inorganic membrane can be formed such as chemical vapor deposition (CVD), physical vapor deposition (PVD), ALD, EVAPORATOR, etc. Can be. Therefore, the inorganic membrane encapsulation device is not limited to the sputter.

In addition, in the above-described embodiment, the transfer chamber is introduced as about 5, 6, and 8 angles, but the transfer chamber may be manufactured with a polygonal structure except for 5, 6, and 8 angles within the applicable range.

In the above-described embodiment, the monomer coating unit is described as a slit coater for depositing monomers by slit coating. However, in addition to the slit coater, off-set printing and ink-jet printing are performed. Various methods such as may be applied.

It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and variations can be made in the present invention without departing from the spirit or scope of the invention. Therefore, such modifications or variations will have to be belong to the claims of the present invention.

110a: first substrate handling robot 110b: second substrate handling robot
111: first transfer chamber 112: second transfer chamber
121: load lock chamber 122: replacement chamber
123: alignment chamber 124: unload lock chamber
125: buffer chamber 130: inorganic film sealing device
140: atmospheric pressure organic membrane encapsulation device 141: organic membrane process chamber
142: support body 150: monomer coating unit

Claims (20)

A first transfer chamber for transferring a substrate; And
And an atmospheric pressure organic film encapsulation device for receiving the substrate from the first transfer chamber and encapsulating the organic film on the substrate at atmospheric pressure. The method of claim 1,
The atmospheric pressure organic membrane sealing device,
An organic film processing chamber at atmospheric pressure;
A support body disposed in the organic film processing chamber to support the substrate; And
And a monomer coating unit for coating the monomer as the organic film on the substrate on the support body. The method of claim 2,
The monomer coating unit is an OLED thin film encapsulation system, characterized in that the slit coater for forming the monomer by a slit coating on the substrate. The method of claim 3,
The slit coater,
A pair of first and second blocks coupled to each other with a predetermined spacing so as to form discharge holes through which organic materials for organic film deposition are discharged in an end region;
An organic material injection line provided in one of the first and second blocks and injecting the organic material into an internal space between the first and second blocks;
A gas discharge line provided in one of the first and second blocks and discharging gas generated in the internal space while the organic material is discharged; And
And a gap adjusting member coupled to any one of the first and second blocks to adjust a gap of the discharge hole. The method of claim 1,
And a substitution chamber disposed between the atmospheric pressure organic membrane encapsulation device in an atmospheric pressure state and the first transfer chamber in a vacuum state to replace atmospheric pressure and vacuum. The method of claim 1,
A load lock chamber provided on one surface of the first transfer chamber and loaded with the substrate;
An inorganic film encapsulation device for forming an inorganic film on the substrate; And
And an alignment chamber arranged between the first transfer chamber and the inorganic film encapsulation device to align the substrate. The method of claim 6,
A buffer chamber disposed on one surface of the first transfer chamber; And
And an additional second transfer chamber facing said first transfer chamber with said buffer chamber interposed therebetween. The method of claim 7, wherein
And an unload lock chamber disposed on at least one surface of the second transfer chamber and unloading a substrate on which an organic film and an inorganic film are alternately formed. The method of claim 8,
And the first and second transfer chambers have a polygonal structure. 10. The method of claim 9,
The load lock chamber, the three atmospheric pressure organic membrane encapsulation devices, and the three inorganic membrane encapsulation devices are disposed on each side of the first transfer chamber having an octagonal structure,
The two unload lock chambers are arranged on a selected outer surface of the second transfer chamber having a hexagonal structure,
The buffer chamber is an OLED thin film encapsulation system, characterized in that disposed on any one surface of the first transfer chamber and any one surface of the second transfer chamber. 10. The method of claim 9,
The load lock chamber, the two atmospheric pressure organic membrane encapsulation devices, and the two inorganic membrane encapsulation devices are disposed on each side of the first transfer chamber having a hexagonal structure,
One atmospheric pressure organic membrane encapsulation device, one inorganic membrane encapsulation device, and two unload lock chambers are disposed on each side of the first transfer chamber having a hexagonal structure,
The buffer chamber is an OLED thin film encapsulation system, characterized in that disposed on any one surface of the first transfer chamber and any one surface of the second transfer chamber. 10. The method of claim 9,
The load lock chamber, the two atmospheric pressure organic membrane encapsulation devices, and the two inorganic membrane encapsulation devices are disposed on each side of the first transfer chamber having an octagonal structure,
One atmospheric pressure organic membrane encapsulation device, one inorganic membrane encapsulation device, and two unload lock chambers are disposed on each side of the first transfer chamber having an octagonal structure,
The buffer chamber is an OLED thin film encapsulation system, characterized in that disposed on any one surface of the first transfer chamber and any one surface of the second transfer chamber. Transfer chamber at atmospheric pressure;
A load lock displacement chamber disposed adjacent to the transfer chamber, the substrate being loaded while replacing atmospheric pressure and vacuum;
An atmospheric pressure organic film encapsulation device which receives the substrate from the transfer chamber and seals the organic film on the substrate at atmospheric pressure;
An inorganic film encapsulation device disposed adjacent to the transfer chamber to form an inorganic film on the substrate;
An alignment displacement chamber disposed between the transfer chamber in an atmospheric pressure state and the inorganic membrane encapsulation device in a vacuum state to replace atmospheric pressure and vacuum and align the substrate; And
And an unloading chamber disposed adjacent to the transfer chamber and unloading a substrate on which an organic film and an inorganic film are alternately formed. The method of claim 13,
And said transfer chamber has a rectangular arrangement structure. The method of claim 14,
The load lock replacement chamber, the three atmospheric pressure organic membrane encapsulation devices, the six inorganic membrane encapsulation devices, and the two unload lock chambers are arranged along each side of the transfer chamber in a rectangular shape. Encapsulation system. Introducing the substrate into the organic film processing chamber at atmospheric pressure; And
And encapsulating the organic film on the substrate in the organic film processing chamber. The method of claim 16,
Sealing the organic film, the OLED thin film encapsulation method, characterized in that the step of applying a monomer to the substrate by a slit coating (slit coating). The method of claim 16,
Loading the substrate before introducing the substrate into the organic film processing chamber; And
And encapsulating the inorganic film after the step of encapsulating the organic material in the substrate. The method of claim 18,
And aligning the substrate before the sealing of the inorganic film. The method of claim 16,
And an unloading step of unloading the substrate on which the organic film and the inorganic film are alternately formed.

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