Evaporation Printing of
Patterned Thin Films
May, 2013
ADVANTECH US INC
160 INDUSTRY DRIVE
RIDC PARK WEST
PITTSBURGH PA 15275 USA
www.advantechus.com
OUTLINE
• Introduction
• Company Overview and Key Staff
• Evaporation Printing of Patterned Thin Films Technology
– Show mask management
– Alignment registration
• Market Applications
– Active Matrix Display Backplanes
• ESL
• OLED
– Printed Electronics
• Fine Lines
• Embedded Components
• Facility Description
• Technology and Product Roadmap
Advantech US, Inc.
COPYRIGHT 2013
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Overview
ADVANTECH US INC
160 INDUSTRY DRIVE
RIDC PARK WEST
PITTSBURGH PA 15275 USA
www.advantechus.com
INTRODUCTION
1.
Fabricate patterned thin films with feature size down to five micron with alignment
accuracy better than one micron.
2.
Simple approach to printed electronics thin film fabrication using additive
manufacturing called evaporation printing
–
–
–
Utilizes vapor deposition of evaporable metals, oxides and semiconductor materials through
a shadow mask
Nearly any substrate
Roll-to-roll capable
3.
Simple, fast, low cost, efficient and green technology
4.
Usage of multiple shadow masks combined with precision alignment enables multilayer fabrication of arrays including embedded TFTs, capacitors and resistors
5.
Active matrix backplanes for OLED and ePaper displays have been fabricated and
demonstrated
6.
Fine line and passive and active component fabrication development ability underway
Advantech US, Inc.
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COMPANY OVERVIEW
• Founded by Dr. Peter Brody
– active matrix display backplane pioneer
– Winner of numerous awards including Draper Prize in 2012
• Developed alternative to photolithography-based microcircuit
manufacturing
– Display backplanes matrices – OLED and ePaper
– Fine lines for chip packaging
– Passive and active components
•
•
•
•
•
Funded by private equity and successful entrepreneur family
Technology has been proven
Scaling up low volume in-line beta tool
Developing production process
Business model
– Sell products to prove process and tool
– Sell process equipment; License Technologies
Advantech US, Inc.
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MANAGEMENT & KEY STAFF
ADVANTECH TALENT BASE IS CONSIDERABLE
Sr. Management:
 CEO Whit Little, MBA, Edinburgh (Scotland). An experienced financial & operational
officer in both technology startups and manufacturing.
 VP Blake Brocato, with 30 years in thin film deposition with Seagate Technology and others.
 VP Scott Lauer, EE and MBA, University of Pittsburgh 17 years in control systems and automation, with
Rockwell Automation and II-IV, Inc. A licensed professional engineer.
Key Technical Staff:
Tom Ambrose PhD, material physics (Johns Hopkins). Expert in thin film deposition methodologies.
Brian Bucci, PhD mechanical engineering (Pitt) with precision equipment experience
Prashin Sharma, mechanical eng’g MS degree (Carnegie-Mellon. Former researcher in micro-nano tooling.)
Chuck Harrigal, EE (Penn State). Multiple industry experience in embedded hardware/software development.
John Shelapinsky, ME (CMU), MBA (CMU). Prior electro- and optics-mechanical designer.
Jeff Conrad , Over 30 years experience with vacuum deposition equipment.
Tim Cowen, Over 30 years experience in shadow-mask vacuum deposition.
Advantech US, Inc.
CONTINUED
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MANAGEMENT & KEY STAFF
AMAX’S TALENT BASE IS CONSIDERABLE (CONTINUED)
Contracted Senior Staff:
Poohsan Tamura, optical sensing PhD (Arizona). expert in optical sensing, metrology and inspection.
 Vladimir Brajovic, PhD in Robotics, Carnegie Mellon. Broad research & applications expertise in
computational imaging, algorithms and architecture.
 Nebojsa Janković, PhD Professor University of Nis, Serbia Faculty of Electronic Engineering (EF) Department
of Microelectronics
 Bud Smith, mechanical engineer with MBA from MIT. Prior Booz-Allen consultant & senior executive/CEO
in process control, microprocessing and tool manufacturing. University of Pittsburgh business faculty.
 Joshua Ziff, nuclear eng’g (Purdue) &MBA (Carnegie-Mellon). Ex-CEO of Bridge Semiconductor.
 Jean Nagy, Accounting (Penn State) and CPA. Prior Arthur Andersen auditor, and
financial/operations director at GlaxoSmithKline.
Advantech US, Inc.
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Technology Overview
ADVANTECH US INC
160 INDUSTRY DRIVE
RIDC PARK WEST
PITTSBURGH PA 15275 USA
www.advantechus.com
ADVANTECH US TECHNOLOGY
Evaporation Printing
Additive process
Vacuum Deposition
Fine Metal Foil
Shadow Masks
(thermal and/or e-beam)
High and Low
temperature materials
+
Sub 1 mil
aperture Masks
Advantech US, Inc.
+
1 mm Alignment
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Multiple Steps
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MATERIALS
• The range of materials is extensive, including pure metals, precious metals,
standard alloys, oxides, nitrides, and fluorides. “Anything Evaporable”
Sample Evaporable Materials*
Metals
Oxides
Semiconductor
Aluminum Oxide
Tellurium
Copper
Nichrome
Nickel
Nickel/Vanadium Silicon Dioxide
IGZO
Aluminum
Titanium
CdSe
Gold
Silver
Indium
Tin
ITO
ZnO
* non-exhaustive list. Contact us about your specific material
Advantech US, Inc.
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Proprietary Shadow Mask Management
Fine metal foil (electro-formed) with distinct aperture features (cut outs)
 Nearly any shape imaginable: squares, circles, etc.
Current Mask Design specs:
All feature sizes less than 1 mil (25 microns)
•
•
•
•
•
•
Shadow mask thickness: 10 - 20 mm
Feature trace size: <10 mm
Feature spacing : ~20 mm
Mask fixed to rigid frame (held taut)
Mask cleaning: wet etch process
Mask lifetimes (> 2 years)
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Proprietary Precision Alignment
Test Procedure: Align, Deposit, Remove sample and document alignment 10 times
Goal: Prove repeatable alignment
1st Deposition
Results:
Advantech US, Inc.
10th Deposition
Independent alignments repeatable to within 1 micron
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SMALL METAL LINE FEATURES
Minimum feature size : <10 mm
30 mm
Minimum feature spacing: ~20 mm
15 mm
Any type of substrate
(rigid glass or flexible plastic)
Advantech US, Inc.
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Evaporation Precision
Advantech US
Amax Evaporation Printing™
Position Accuracy
+/- 1 micron
Feature Tolerance
+/- 2 microns
Smallest Feature Size
< 10 microns
Mask Size
370mmx470mm (G2.5) currently
Concept
Flexible Multi-Chamber In-Line Manufacturing
Masks
Oxides
Exit Loadlock
Masks
Semiconductor
Etch Clean
Entrance
Loadlock
Masks
Metals
Masks and deposited materials can be configured for specific end-user
requirements
•Modular
•Quick change product by changing masks
•Loadlocks to eliminate particles
•Low volume production runs
•Reduce material cross contamination
•Add chambers = increase throughput
•Improve substrate cleanliness
•Can make many configurations of passive
and active components
Advantech US, Inc.
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AMAX MINILINE™
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Build Examples
ADVANTECH US INC
160 INDUSTRY DRIVE
RIDC PARK WEST
PITTSBURGH PA 15275 USA
www.advantechus.com
E-Paper
Shadow Mask Steps
6 total process build steps
PROPRIETARY AND CONFIDENTIAL
miniLineTM ESL Backplane Build
Optical Micrograph
50 mm
GateOver
Oxide
Crossover
Straps
pre-patterned
Source/Drain
semiconductor
substrate
Leads
Gate
/Top
Cap
metal
Cap/Cross
Oxide
Pixel Layout
TFT Build
Shadow Mask Steps
7 total process build steps
PROPRIETARY AND CONFIDENTIAL
AM-OLED TFT Circuit Build Example
2 transistor - 1 capacitor (2T/1C) active matrix array
Array specs: 960 x 240 pixels - 115 mm diagonal
Feature size is ~ 15 um with a
alignment
Metal
Gate
better than 1 um
V Data
G
V Trigger
Source Gate Oxide Drain
Glass substrate
Field Effect Transistor Cross Section
PROPRIETARY AND CONFIDENTIAL
T1
S
C
V DD
Semiconductor
Oxide
D
D
G
T2
S
Output
Pad
TFT Circuit
PrePatterned
Substrate
1
2
3
4
VData
1
VDD
VTrigger
2
PROPRIETARY AND CONFIDENTIAL
5
6
7
Oxide
Deposition
1
2
3
4
1
2
PROPRIETARY AND CONFIDENTIAL
5
6
7
1
Oxide and
Semiconductor
1
2
3
4
1
2
PROPRIETARY AND CONFIDENTIAL
5
6
7
2
Al and Ni
contacts
1
2
3
4
1
2
PROPRIETARY AND CONFIDENTIAL
5
6
7
3
Gate Oxide
1
2
3
4
1
2
PROPRIETARY AND CONFIDENTIAL
5
6
7
4
Ni and Al
strap
1
2
3
4
1
2
PROPRIETARY AND CONFIDENTIAL
5
6
7
5
Cap Oxide
1
2
3
4
1
2
PROPRIETARY AND CONFIDENTIAL
5
6
7
6
Top Gate
1
2
3
4
1
2
PROPRIETARY AND CONFIDENTIAL
5
6
7
7
Sub Pixel
2
1
3
4
5
VData
Output
Pad
RED
GREEN
T2
1
VDD
Cap
VTrigger
T1
250 um
83.3 um
2
6
PROPRIETARY AND CONFIDENTIAL
BLUE
7
Chip Carrier
Shadow Mask Steps
3 total process build steps
PROPRIETARY AND CONFIDENTIAL
CARRIER WITH DIE
Start
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Finish
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MASK 1
Mask 1
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LAYER 1
Mask 1
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MASK 2
Mask 2
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LAYER 2
Mask 2
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MASK 3
Mask 3
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LAYER 3: BUILD COMPLETE
Mask 3
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Markets
ADVANTECH US INC
160 INDUSTRY DRIVE
RIDC PARK WEST
PITTSBURGH PA 15275 USA
www.advantechus.com
MARKET APPLICATIONS
• End-user target markets
– Active Matrix backplanes
• ePaper displays
• OLED displays
– Printed Electronics
• Electronic shelf labels (ESL) - segmented
• Fine lines
• Embedded active and passive components
Advantech US, Inc.
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Active Matrix backplanes
Vdd Vdd
Vdata
Vgate
C
T1
T2
Vcom
2T/1C circuit
Mask layout
Final device
Note: Device fabrication in a single vacuum chamber (6 different deposition steps)
Advantech US, Inc.
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DISPLAY EXAMPLES – AMOLED
250 microns
R G B
83 microns
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EPAPER EXAMPLES: ACTIVE MATRIX ESL
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PRINTED ELECTRONICS
Beyond Backplanes
• Fine Lines
• Embedded Components
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FINE LINES – MICROLINES™
• New opportunity beyond display backplanes
• Exploit ability to manufacture small feature sizes on
a variety of substrates
• Chip Carriers need finer lines
– Miniaturization – space, weight and power
– High speed transfer rates
– Reduce number of PCB layers
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SEM OF MICROLINES CONNECTED TO VIAS
standard 10 mil via pads with 100 micron and 70 micron
traces and a 50 micron space.
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SEM OF MICROLINES CONNECTED TO VIAS
4 mil pads with 2 mil vias connected with 1 mil lines
Advantech US, Inc.
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MICROLINES
8 mm
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MICROLINES (CONT’D)
5 micron lines
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ACTIVE AND PASSIVE COMPONENTS
• Discrete components fabricated on substrates:
– Resistors
– Capacitors
– Transistors
– Diodes
– Antennas
Advantech US, Inc.
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Technology Comparison for Active Matrix TFTs
a-Si
Poly-Si
Organic
ADV Technology
Circuit Type
n-type
n-type or ptype
n-type or p-type
n-type, p-type
possible
Stability (ΔVT)
Issue
More stable
than a-Si
More stable than
a-Si
More stable than
poly-Si
VT (uniformity)
High
Low
Low
High
Mobility (cm2/Vs)
0.5 – 1.0
30-100
1-5
50-100
Process Annealing
Temperature
No anneal
T > 650C
No anneal
T < 450C
Manufacturability
Mature
New
Not yet
New
Cost
Low
High
Maybe low
Low
Flexible substrate
Possible
Uncertain
Possible
Promising
Shadow Mask Capable
No
No
No
Yes
Drive Capacity (Ion)
Large W/L to
reduce VG
Small W/L at
small VG
Large W/L to
reduce VG
Small W/L at
small VG
PROPRIETARY AND CONFIDENTIAL
ACTIVE COMPONENTS – TFT (ESL)
Panel Summary
Average
St. Dev.
Vth (V)
1.52
1.03
Mobility (cm2/Vs)
69
29.19
Leakage Current (A)
2.97E-11
1.41E-11
Hysteresis (V)
4.79
1.05
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STEP COVERAGE
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CHARACTERISTIC IMPEDANCE (ZO) DATA
Minimum
Maximum
Average
4 mil
31.4
33.1
32.7
3 mil
39.6
41.4
40.3
2 mil
49.4
53.1
51.1
1.5 mil
58.4
63.9
61.5
1.0 mil
65.1
70.5
67.9
Line Parameters: 5000 Å Copper, 300 micron pitch
Substrate: 25 micron Kapton E
Sample Size: 10 sample lines measured per width
Test parameters: 1 MHz, Values in Ohms
 Test Measurements compare well with Wheeler Formulations for Microstrips
Advantech US, Inc.
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THICKNESS REQUIREMENTS
Skin Effect
100000
Material Thickness (microns)
10000
1000
100
Copper
Aluminum
Gold
10
Silver
Nickel
1
0.1
0.01
1
100
10,000
1,000,000
100,000,000
10,000,000,000
Frequency (Hz)
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PASSIVE COMPONENTS - RESISTORS
• Shown: test panel of resistors that are 1
mil wide connected to 1 mil lines.
• By changing the resistive material and
thickness, virtually any resistance from
fractional ohms to several megohms per
resistor is possible
25 microns (1 mil)
Advantech US, Inc.
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PRELIMINARY RESISTOR DATA (0.5 MIL WIDE)
Cu & NiCr Resistors on Kapton™
34
RESISTANCE (Ohms)
33
32
31
RESISTANCE
30
29
28
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
30.0 target
29.543 average
0.628 stdev
Resistor #
2.13% tolerance
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PASSIVE COMPONENTS - CAPACITORS
• Parallel Plate Capacitors made with the process.
• Devices were 100 square micron area with and a
dielectric layer of 3000 Å of Al2O3 with pad layers
of 1000Å Al.
• Random sample of 100 capacitors on panels
containing over 14,000 capacitors.
Average Measured Capacitance
(pF)
2.31pF
2.76pF
2.08pF
Advantech US, Inc.
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Tolerance
2%
3%
1%
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“BALLPARK” PRICING ESTIMATES
• Mask NRE: $1,500 to $35,000 per layer
– Dependent upon: Feature size, design complexity,
Overall dimensions
• Set-up/prep: $500
• Approx. $100/layer (affected by depo. time)
– Does not include substrate nor materials
• Testing Requirements –as required
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Advantech US Facility
Pittsburgh PA
ADVANTECH US INC
160 INDUSTRY DRIVE
RIDC PARK WEST
PITTSBURGH PA 15275 USA
www.advantechus.com
NEW FACILITY
Description:
21000 sqft Build Space
9000 sqft Clean Space (class 1000 and
10000)
5000 sqft test and development space (noncleanroom)
7000 sqft office space
Utilities
Electric: 500kva, 480v 208/120vac
Water/Sewage: Public
DI Water: Filtered inhouse
Liquid Nitrogen: 1000 gallon external
tank
Natural Gas: available (currently minor
usage)
Chilled Water: In
house
Advantech US, Inc.
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DEPOSITION EQUIPMENT
Pilot Production
miniLine in-line process system
5 Chamber In-Line Process
Capable of up to 370x470mm substrates (currently 200mmx200mm)
Sputter/Etch Cleaning, Thermal, 4 e-beam
Expected TACT: 10 minutes
Custom sub-micron alignment stages (x,y,z, theta)
Research And Development
Acquired from Kodak in-line Deposition System
5 Process Chambers
E-Beam, Thermal, Sputter sources
Capable of 6” square substrates
Balzers-Kurdex Box Coater Deposition System
Single Chamber deposition, 8 inch substrate, 4 inch mask
Capable of 6 masks e-beam , thermal, etch
Orion 3000 High Vacuum Deposition System
Single Chamber Deposition, 8 inch substrate, 4 inch mask
Capable of 8 masks: e-beam, thermal, etch
Advantech US, Inc.
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Manufacturer
custom
Plasmatron
custom
custom
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PROCESS EQUIPMENT
Equipment
Manufacturer
Rapid Thermal Annealer
RGA on SCT Series Orion 3000 Deposition System
CVC Model 601 High Vacuum Sputtering Deposition System
Neslab Model HX-750 Refrigerated Circulation Chiller
Annealer
Temptronic RP350/TP2TD Hybrid
Sub-micron alignment stage(s)
FOG/AGF Bonding System
Ultratech Spin Rinse Dryer
Semi-tool Spin Rinse Dryer
Rite Trak Developer/coater
Laminator
Environmental Ovens
Spin Coater
Modular Process Technology Corp.
Sub 40c Freezer
ScienTemp
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Customized
Econoscope
Custom
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TESTING EQUIPMENT
Equipment
Manufacturer
Parameter Analyzer
Automatic Wafer Prober
Curve Tracer
Manual Prober
Meters for testing
Oscilloscope TDS 3054
Oscilloscope TDS 3055
LCR Meter HP 4284A
microscopes
Seiwa Optical PS-888 YAG Laser Station
Finescan 120L CMM
Hitachi S520 Scanning Electron Microscope
SUSS PA 300 Probe Station
Integral Vision Sharpeye Optical test station
Dektak 8 Profilometer
Value Tronics
Texas Instruments
Advantech US, Inc.
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Various
Tecktronix
Tektronix
HP
Various
Hitachi
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AUXILIARY EQUIPMENT
Equipment
Manufacturer
Glove Box Controller/Sensor for OLED processing
Dual Chamber Glove Box w/load lock for OLED
processing
General Eastern
Equipment for Technology &
Science Inc.
Vacuum Leak Detector
Laminar Flow Hood
Ultrapure Technology
Milling machine
Enco Manufacturing, Co.
Fisher Hamilton Safeaire flow hood 6' x 2'
Reynoldstech Wet bench
Advantech US, Inc.
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Roadmap
ADVANTECH US INC
160 INDUSTRY DRIVE
RIDC PARK WEST
PITTSBURGH PA 15275 USA
www.advantechus.com
COMPANY ROADMAP
• Phase I – Proof of Concept - Completed
– Demonstrated 60x80 mm (100 dpi) color OLED displays and
25x35 mm (70 dpi) dot matrix ePaper displays using active
matrix backplanes fabricated using evaporation printing in R&D
Fab
• Phase II – Characterize In-line Manufacturability –
Underway
–
–
–
–
Active matrix backplanes now being fabricated
Scale-up process
Validate performance, throughput, yield and cost assumptions
Identify modifications needed for production level equipment
• Phase III – Manufacturing - Future
– Design and build manufacturing tool for production
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LONG TERM VISION
•
•
•
•
Flexible substrates
Large area substrates
Higher resolution
Roll to roll manufacturing
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