Patent Application
20060250082
The invention is directed to improving the luminance and operating stability of phosphors used for full color ac electroluminescent displays employing thick film dielectric layers with a high dielectric constant. More specifically, the invention provides magnesium-oxide containing layers in contact with the phosphor layer to prevent phosphor degradation.
The thick film dielectric structure provides for superior resistance to dielectric breakdown as well as a reduced operating voltage as compared to thin film electroluminescent (TFEL) displays, as exemplified by U.S. Pat. No. 5,432,015. The thick film dielectric structure also enhances the amount of charge that can be injected in to the phosphor film to provide greater luminosity than can be realized from TFEL displays. Full colour thick dielectric electroluminescent displays are described for example in the Applicant's co-pending International Patent Application WO 2004/036961. These displays employ high luminance blue phosphor materials to directly illuminate blue sub-pixels and colour conversion materials to down-convert the blue light to red or green light for the red and green sub-pixels. A preferred blue phosphor material for use in thick film dielectric electroluminescent displays is europium activated barium thioaluminate.
Thick film electroluminescent displays fully meet the luminosity and colour spectrum capability of cathode ray tube (CRT) based displays. However, the operating stability still falls short of that provided by CRTs.
Magnesium oxide layers have been used in organic electroluminescent displays to protect organic electroluminescent displays from ambient moisture and magnesium oxide layers have been used in thin film structures for displays such as those described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,429,303, 4,547,702, 4,849,674, 5,319,282, 5,466,990, 5,190,333, 6,087,766, 6,023,258, 6,111,353, 6,207,302, 6,147,456, 6,414,442, and U.S. Patent Applications 2003/0073042 and 2004/0159903, but have not been reported for use in inorganic electroluminescent displays to provide chemical isolation between the inorganic phosphor film and adjacent dielectric layers, particularly thick film dielectric layers that are chemically complex and have a tendency to react with adjacent phosphor layers during display fabrication and subsequently during display operation.
Alumina layers have been used to provide a measure of chemical isolation between thick dielectric layers and phosphor layer, however, their effectiveness is reduced when the phosphor is deposited by sputtering rather than by evaporation. The phosphor sputtering process may subject the underlying thin dielectric layer with bombardment by energetic ions that may cause deterioration of the thin dielectric layer. Magnesium oxide has been used to coat phosphor powders used in colour plasma displays to protect the phosphor materials from the harsh environment of the UV-emitting pixel plasma.
There remains a need to provide further improvements to thick film dielectric electroluminescent displays that will further improve the luminance of phosphors provided therein and also extend their operating life with minimal degradation.
The present invention provides an improved operating life to a thin film alkaline earth thioaluminate phosphor doped with a rare earth activator species. The improved operating life is achieved by providing a magnesium oxide or magnesium oxide containing barrier layer directly in contact with the bottom portion of the phosphor. The magnesium oxide or magnesium oxide containing barrier layer is therefore positioned between the thick dielectric structure of the display and the phosphor layer so that it is in contact with the phosphor layer. In other aspects of the invention a second magnesium oxide or magnesium oxide containing barrier layer may be provided directly adjacent a top portion of the phosphor in proximity to the upper electrode used in the electroluminescent display.
The magnesium oxide or magnesium oxide containing layer of the invention acts as a barrier to chemical species that may cause a reduction in the luminance of the phosphor material.
In aspects of the invention, the magnesium oxide or magnesium oxide containing layer may comprise an additional element selected from, but not limited to, barium, aluminum and mixtures thereof.
According to an aspect of the present invention there is provided an improved phosphor structure for a thick dielectric film electroluminescent device, said structure comprising;
According to an aspect of the present invention there is provided an improved phosphor structure in a thick dielectric film electroluminescent device, said structure comprising;
According to still another aspect of the present invention is a phosphor laminate for use in a thick film dielectric electroluminescent display, said laminate comprising;
(a) a rare earth activated alkaline earth thioaluminate phosphor thin film layer;
(b) a magnesium oxide or magnesium oxide containing layer provided directly adjacent the bottom and in contact with said phosphor thin film layer; and
(c) a thick film dielectric layer adjacent a bottom surface of said magnesium oxide or magnesium oxide containing layer.
According to still another aspect of the present invention is a phosphor laminate in a thick film dielectric electroluminescent display, said laminate comprising;
(a) a rare earth activated alkaline earth thioaluminate phosphor thin film layer;
(b) a magnesium oxide or magnesium oxide containing layer provided directly adjacent the bottom and in contact with said phosphor thin film layer; and
(d) a thick film dielectric layer adjacent a bottom surface of said magnesium oxide or magnesium oxide containing layer.
In aspects, the phosphor laminate may further comprise a layer of barium titanate between (b) and (c). In still further aspects of the invention a layer of silicon nitride, aluminum nitride and/or alumina can be provided directly adjacent and in contact with the surface of the magnesium oxide or magnesium oxide containing layer that is not in contact with the phosphor layer. In still other aspects, the phosphor laminate may further comprise a further layer of barium tantalate in between the barium titanate and aluminum oxide layers.
According to still another aspect of the present invention is a phosphor laminate for a thick dielectric film electroluminescent device, said laminate comprising:
According to still a further aspect of the present invention is a thick film dielectric electroluminescent device comprising:
According to another aspect of the present invention is a thick film dielectric electroluminescent device comprising:
According to yet a further aspect of the present invention is a thick film dielectric electroluminescent device comprising:
In further aspects, the device may comprise an optional barium titanate layer adjacent the thick film dielectric layer. In still further aspects the device may comprise a layer of silicon nitride, aluminum nitride and/or alumina directly adjacent and in contact with the surface of the magnesium oxide or magnesium oxide containing layer that is not in contact with the phosphor layer. Still in other aspects, the device may further comprise a layer of barium tantalate in between the aluminum nitride and/or alumina layer and the barium titanate layer.
Other features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description. It should be understood, however, that the detailed description and the specific examples while indicating embodiments of the invention are given by way of illustration only, since various changes and modifications within the spirit and scope of the invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art from said detailed description.
The present invention will become more fully understood from the detailed description given herein and from the accompanying drawings, which are given by way of illustration only and do not limit the intended scope of the invention.
The present invention is a thin film thioaluminate based phosphor layer where the phosphor thin film layer is in direct contact with magnesium oxide or magnesium oxide containing layer. As such, the magnesium oxide or magnesium oxide containing layer is situated between the phosphor thin film layer and a dielectric layer.
In aspects of the invention, the thin film thioaluminate based phosphor layer is used in or provided for a thick film dielectric electroluminescent device (display). As such the magnesium oxide or magnesium oxide containing layer is situated between the phosphor thin film layer and the thick film dielectric layer.
The magnesium oxide or magnesium oxide containing layer 18 is provided with a thickness of about 20 nm to about 50 nm (and any range therebetween as is understood by one of skill in the art such as 21 nm to 49 nm, 25 nm to 45 nm, etc.) and should be directly adjacent and in direct contact with the lower portion of the phosphor thin film layer 20 such that it is positioned between the phosphor thin film layer 20 and the thick film dielectric layer 16. The layer can be substantially of magnesium oxide or in aspects contain other elements as for example those contained in the adjacent phosphor film or other adjacent layers. As such, additional elements contained in the magnesium oxide containing layer may be for example, but not limited to, barium, aluminum and mixtures thereof.
Careful selection of the materials composition of the layers in contact with the magnesium oxide or magnesium oxide containing layer avoids dielectric breakdown and chemical or electrochemical reaction of the magnesium oxide or magnesium oxide containing layer with adjacent layers. The selection can be made by incorporating the magnesium or magnesium oxide-containing layer into a thin film laminate so that it is in contact with the proposed adjacent thin film layers, subjecting the laminate to the process conditions for fabricating a display device and then applying appropriate voltage waveforms across the device to determine the stability of the laminate under conditions anticipated within the device during operation. Such determination is readily done by one skilled in dielectric strength characterization and electrochemical characterization measurements.
The magnesium oxide or magnesium oxide containing layer 18 may be deposited using any suitable vacuum deposition methods that are compatible with the processes used to deposit and anneal the phosphor thin film layer 20. In aspects, the method may be sputtering using a magnesium oxide target using a low pressure argon sputtering atmosphere or reactive sputtering from a magnesium target conducted in a low pressure oxygen containing atmosphere.
A part of the function of the magnesium oxide or magnesium oxide-containing layer is to minimize migration of oxygen or water into the phosphor material during device operation that may react with the phosphor material to cause performance degradation. Phosphor degradation may involve reaction of oxygen or water with the phosphor material to change the chemical composition of at least a portion of the phosphor material. The magnesium oxide or magnesium oxide-containing layer may reduce the rate of these reactions by acting as a barrier for oxygen or water originating from within the thick dielectric structure of the device. The magnesium oxide or magnesium-oxide-containing layer may also serve to nucleate the crystal grains of the phosphor layer when it is deposited in a favourable manner to improve its stability or it may act as a stress relief layer between the dielectric structure and the phosphor layer to minimize stress in the phosphor layer. It may also act to inhibit electrochemical reactions at the phosphor interfaces during operation when there is an electric potential across the phosphor layer and current flow across the phosphor layer.
Further, the magnesium oxide or magnesium oxide-containing layer may act to minimize chemical reactions between the phosphor layer and the underlying dielectric structure during phosphor deposition or subsequent phosphor heat treatment steps, particularly with the use of phosphor films deposited by sputtering. Sputtering of phosphor films is advantageous for manufacture relative to electron-beam or thermal evaporation methods due to its ability to facilitate improved thickness and chemical composition uniformity over large area display substrates, but these advantages are realized at the cost of increased reactivity of the display substrate during the phosphor deposition process. Substrate reactivity is a concern with thick dielectric electroluminescent displays since the high dielectric constant materials used for the thick dielectric layer are reactive in the low pressure hydrogen sulfide-containing atmosphere typically used to deposit sulfide phosphor films, particularly those based on barium thioaluminate compounds such as are used to provide a primary blue electroluminescent emission for full colour electroluminescent displays such as those taught in U.S. Patent Application 2004/0090402 (hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety). The high dielectric constant materials used for thick dielectric layers comprise perovskite structure oxides that have a tendency to lose oxygen at high temperature, particularly in chemically reducing atmospheres as the low pressure atmospheres typically used for sputtering, especially in the presence of hydrogen sulfide. This loss of oxygen changes the crystal structure of the dielectric material, causing a reduction in its dielectric constant and increasing its chemical reactivity during subsequent process steps and during device operation due to the presence of dangling bonds from metal atoms in the material. During the sputtering process, the deposition substrate is impacted by high energy atoms and ions generated from the sputtering plasma that cause the dielectric material to lose oxygen in a manner similar to that as a result of high temperature. Without being bound by theory, this phenomenon may be responsible for an observed lower luminance stability during life testing of electroluminescent devices with sputtered phosphor films as compared to that for similar devices with evaporated phosphor films. Again, without being bound by theory the insertion of a magnesium oxide or magnesium oxide-containing layer between the phosphor and the underlying perovskite-containing dielectric layers may reduce the loss of oxygen from the perovskite structure materials, minimizing or preventing a reduction in their dielectric constant and increasing their chemical and electrochemical stability during subsequent process steps and during device operation.
The thioaluminate phosphor for use in the invention in conjunction with the magnesium oxide or magnesium oxide containing layer is of the form ABxC1+3x/2:RE where A is one or more of Mg, Ca, Sr or Ba and B is at least one of Al or In and C is at least one of S or Se and may include oxygen at a relative atomic concentration that is less than 0.2 of the combined S and Se concentrations. RE is one or more rare earth activator species that generate the required light spectrum and is in aspects selected from Eu or Ce. The value for x is chosen so that 2≦x≦4. The phosphor film in aspects is selected from the group consisting of a europium activated barium thioaluminate wherein the ratio of aluminum to barium is between about 2 and 2.5, and in aspects between about 2.0 and 2.2. In other preferred aspects the ratio of aluminum to barium is between 2.5 and 4.0, in aspects between 3.0 and 4.0. In further aspects the phosphor composition further comprises magnesium with the ratio of the atomic concentration of magnesium to barium plus magnesium in the range of about 0.001 to about 0.2. In an aspect of the invention, the phosphor is BaAl2S4 activated with europium.
The present invention is particularly desirable for use in thick film dielectric electroluminescent displays where the thick dielectric structure comprises a lead magnesium niobate or lead magnesium niobate titanate (PNM or PNM-PT) sintered thick film layer with a smoothing layer of lead zirconate titanate (PZT) as taught in U.S. Pat. No. 5,432,015, and International Patent Applications WO00/70917 and WO03/056879 (the disclosures of which are hereby incorporated by reference).
In a first embodiment of the invention, shown in
A further embodiment of the invention is shown in
A further embodiment of the invention is shown in
A further embodiment of the invention is shown in
A further embodiment of the invention is shown in
It is understood by one of skill in the art that the device can be made in accordance with any of the embodiments described herein including combinations of the embodiments described herein and shown in the figures. For example, the device as shown in
The present invention is particularly directed towards improving the operating life of thick dielectric electroluminescent displays incorporating rare earth-activated alkaline earth thioaluminate phosphor materials, especially europium activated barium thioaluminate. While the detailed mechanism for stabilizing these phosphors is not understood, preventing oxygen or water from reacting with the phosphors may help ensure that the rare earth activator species remain dissolved in the crystal lattice of the host thioaluminate compounds. Reaction of the phosphor with oxygen or water may cause precipitation of aluminum oxide or aluminum hydroxide from the phosphor, causing the remaining material to become more barium rich. Stabilization of a particular crystal structure in the phosphor film may be dependent on minor deviations in the ratio of elements in the crystal structure from the stoichiometric ratio, which in turn is affected by exposure of the materials to oxygen or water that may originate from the processing atmosphere, or from the underlying dielectric structure.
The scope of the invention also includes methods used to deposit the magnesium oxide or magnesium oxide-containing layers of the invention. It extends to deposition processes for these materials that are carried out in a low pressure oxygen-containing atmosphere. Prior to deposition of the layers of the invention, it may be desirable to fully saturate the thick dielectric electroluminescent layers to stabilize them by ensuring that reduced metal species are not present. Examples of processes to deposit magnesium oxide are sputtering under an inert atmosphere from a magnesium oxide target or reactive sputtering of magnesium metal under an oxygen-containing atmosphere.
The following examples are provided to elucidate some of the preferred embodiments of the invention, but are not intended to be limiting in their scope.
This example serves to illustrate the performance and operating stability of devices of the prior art. A thick dielectric electroluminescent device incorporating thin film phosphor layers comprising barium thioaluminate activated with europium was constructed. The thick film substrate was comprised of a 5 cm by 5 cm glass having a thickness of 0.1 cm. A gold electrode was deposited on the substrate, followed with a lead magnesium niobate-titanate thick film high dielectric constant dielectric layer and a PZT smoothing layer in accordance with the methods exemplified in Applicant's co-pending International Patent Application WO 00/70917 filed May 12, 2000. A thin film dielectric layer consisting of barium titanate with a thickness of about 170 nanometers was deposited in accordance with the methods exemplified in U.S. Pat. No. 6,589,674 (the entirety of which is incorporated herein by reference). A second thin film layer consisting of barium tantalate with a thickness of 50 nanometers was deposited by a sputtering process on top of the barium titanate layer. A third thin film layer consisting of sputtered alumina with a thickness of 25 nanometers was deposited on the barium tantalate layer. A phosphor layer consisting of a 400 nanometer thick barium thioaluminate phosphor film activated with about 3 atomic percent of europium with respect to barium was deposited by electron beam evaporation onto the alumina layer according to the methods of U.S. patent application The phosphor had an atomic ratio of aluminum to barium of about 3.3 as measured by energy dispersive x-ray analysis (EDX) Following deposition the deposited phosphor was annealed in a belt furnace, first under air at a temperature of about 610 C for about 40 minutes and then under nitrogen at a temperature of about 720 C for 30 minutes Next a 50 nanometer thick aluminum nitride layer was sputter-deposited in accordance with the methods exemplified in U.S. Patent Application 2004/0170864, the entirety of which is incorporated herein by reference. Finally an indium tin oxide film was sputter deposited to form a second electrode on the device.
The device was tested by applying a 240 Hz alternating polarity square wave voltage waveform with a pulse width of 30 microseconds and an of amplitude 60 volts about the optical threshold voltage.
This example serves to illustrate the benefit of the invention. A device was constructed similar to that of example 1, except that a 37 nanometer thick magnesium oxide layer was sputter deposited on top of the alumina layer prior to phosphor deposition. The luminance data for this device tested under the same conditions as for the device of example 1 is also shown in
This example serves to illustrate the benefit of the invention to improve operating stability in an electroluminescent device with a different phosphor composition.
This example serves to show the effect of a magnesium oxide layer of the invention in a simplified device structure with different dielectric materials in contact with the magnesium oxide layer. A device similar to that of example 2 and example 3 was constructed, except that the alumina layer or both the alumina and barium tantalate layers were omitted from the structure of the device. The luminance data for the device without the alumina layer is shown by the open circles and for the device without the alumina and barium tantalate layers is shown by the solid diamonds in
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 60671460 | Apr 2005 | US |
