‘Non-laser lift off’ equipment that replaces LLO (Laser Lift Off) equipment, which is one of the main equipment for flexible OLED process, has been developed. It is expected that this new equipment will greatly reduce cost as laser source that is used for LLO equipment is very expensive.
LAN Technical Service recently developed non-laser de-bonding equipment and is introducing this technology to South Korean and other foreign panel manufacturers that are either producing flexible OLEDs or about to produce flexible OLEDs.
Flexible OLED uses ductile polyimide (PI) substrate. Film-type substrate is produced by applying PI resin on top of a carrier glass and applying high temperature through PI curing equipment. Carrier glass and PI film are then separated by depositing RGB (Red, Green, Blue) pixels on top of this film substrate, going through front-end process such as encapsulation process that protects from air and moisture, and irradiating laser with LLO equipment.
If non-laser de-bonding equipment is used, PI curing process that makes films by applying high temperature to PI resin is not needed anymore. Panel manufacturers do not have to make their own PI film substrates but receive them from outside film manufacturers.
If non-laser de-bonding equipment is used instead of LLO equipment that uses excimer laser or DPSS (Diode-Pumped Solid-State) as its laser source, one can reduce its production cost as it does not have import laser source from outside anymore.

Photo Image
<A picture of separating polyimide film from a carrier glass by using LAN Tech’s non-laser de-bonding equipment. (Picture = LAN Tech)>

LAN Technical Service also considered attaching PI film on top of a carrier glass without using separate organic adhesives. It applied its patented technology that attaches PI film on top of a carrier glass by applying silicon on a carrier glass and using ion beam in a high-vacuumed state. By doing so, strength of bonding can be adjusted and PI film can be detached from a carrier glass at room temperature.
LAN Technical Service invested about 10 years to develop this technology that utilizes Silicon. Although it was planning to develop this technology that replaces substrate glass of rigid OLED, it changed its plan and decided to use it to replace LLO equipment due to growth of flexible OLED markets.
LAN Technical Service was established in 1985 and it has been supplying various LCD equipment including encapsulation equipment for PM (Passive Matrix) OLED.
“We had carried out a performance test using PI film by working with two or three major global material manufacturers.” said a representative for LAN Technical Service. “We are informing global panel manufacturers about technical skills and stability of our technology as it is a new technology that was not available before.”
Recently South Korean and foreign industries and universities have researched into technologies that either apply new laser source to LLO equipment or do not use laser.
“Although it is not at a level of commercialization, R&D has been very active on simplifying LLO process such as importing laser source and reducing cost and time to maintain laser source from a medium or long-term perspective.”
Staff Reporter Bae, Okjin | withok@etnews.com