Embodiments of the present disclosure relate to a mask plate, a method for manufacturing a mask plate, and an organic light-emitting device (OLED).
Organic light-emitting display devices have the advantages of self-luminescence, fast response, wide viewing angle, high brightness, bright colors, lightness and thinness, etc., and therefore become an important display technology. The organic light-emitting display device can be prepared by using ink jet printing, vapor evaporation and other methods. The vapor evaporation method has the advantages of simple operation, easy control of film thickness, easy realization of doping, etc. A mask plate is required in the process of preparing an organic light-emitting display device by using thin film evaporation, in order to evaporate a specific material at a specific location such as a pixel area. The mask plate usually includes a mask pattern, and the mask pattern is used as a mask during vapor evaporation, so as to form a corresponding thin film pattern on the substrate to be evaporated.
At least one embodiment of the present disclosure provides a method for manufacturing a mask plate, and the method comprises: providing a substrate; and forming a first opening portion and a second opening portion on the substrate by using an etching method. The first opening portion comprises a first edge and a second edge that extend linearly, an extending line of the first edge and an extending line of the second edge intersect at a first vertex to form a first corner of the first opening portion, the second opening portion is at the first corner and protrudes outward, and an edge of the second opening portion intersects with the first edge and the second edge, thereby communicating with the first opening portion, the first opening portion and the second opening portion are used for evaporation on a display area of an organic light-emitting device, and the second opening portion is used to compensate for a corner of the display area during evaporation.
In some examples, the etching method is wet etching, and the second opening portion is further configured to perform etching compensation for the first corner.
In some examples, a maximum vertical distance between the edge of the second opening portion and the extending line of the first edge ranges approximately from 40 to 60 microns.
In some examples, a maximum vertical distance between the edge of the second opening portion and the extending line of the second edge ranges approximately from 40 to 60 microns.
In some examples, the extending line of the first edge and the extending line of the second edge intersect substantially perpendicularly.
In some examples, the edge of the second opening portion intersects with the first edge at a first intersection point and intersects with the second edge at a second intersection point, and a distance between the first intersection point and the first vertex is approximately equal to a distance between the second intersection point and the first vertex.
In some examples, the etching method comprises exposure by using a photolithography mask plate, and the photolithography mask plate comprises a first pattern for forming the first opening portion and a second pattern for forming the second opening portion.
In some examples, a shape of the second pattern is a portion of a circle, a regular polygon, or an irregular polygon.
In some examples, a center of the circle is the first vertex.
At least one embodiment of the present disclosure further provides a mask plate, which comprises: a substrate and a first opening portion and a second opening portion formed on the substrate. The first opening portion comprises a first edge and a second edge that extend linearly, an extending line of the first edge and an extending line of the second edge intersect at a first vertex to form a first corner of the first opening portion, the second opening portion is at the first corner and protrudes outward, and an edge of the second opening portion intersects with the first edge and the second edge, thereby communicating with the first opening portion, the first opening portion and the second opening portion are used for evaporation on a display area of an organic light-emitting device, and the second opening portion is used to compensate for a corner of the display area during evaporation.
In some examples, a maximum vertical distance between the edge of the second opening portion and the first edge ranges approximately from 40 to 60 microns, and a maximum vertical distance between the edge of the second opening portion and the second edge ranges approximately from 40 to 60 microns.
In some examples, the extending line of the first edge and the extending line of the second edge intersect substantially perpendicularly.
In some examples, the edge of the second opening portion intersects with the first edge at a first intersection point and intersects with the second edge at a second intersection point, and a distance between the first intersection point and the first vertex is approximately equal to a distance between the second intersection point and the first vertex.
At least one embodiment of the present disclosure further provides an organic light-emitting device, which comprises: a display area and a peripheral area. The display area comprises a function layer, the function layer has a shape corresponding to the first opening portion and the second opening portion of the mask plate described above, and the function layer has a boundary of a corner of the second opening portion.
In some examples, the function layer comprises at least one of a hole injection layer, a hole transport layer, an electron injection layer, an electron transport layer, a capping layer, or a common electrode layer.
In order to more clearly illustrate the technical solution of the embodiments of the present disclosure, the drawings of the embodiments are briefly described in the following; it is obvious that the described drawings are only related to some embodiments of the present disclosure and thus are not limitative of the present disclosure.
In order to make objects, technical details and advantages of the embodiments of the present disclosure apparent, the technical solutions of the embodiments will be described in a clearly and fully understandable way in connection with the drawings related to the embodiments of the present disclosure. Apparently, the described embodiments are just a part but not all of the embodiments of the present disclosure. Based on the described embodiments herein, those skilled in the art can obtain other embodiment(s), without any inventive work, which should be within the scope of the present disclosure.
Unless otherwise defined, all the technical and scientific terms used herein have the same meanings as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which the present disclosure belongs. The terms “first,” “second,” etc., which are used in the description and the claims of the present application, are not intended to indicate any sequence, amount or importance, but distinguish various components. Similarly, similar words such as “a”, “one” or “the” do not mean limitation to quantity, but mean that there is at least one. The terms “comprise,” “comprising,” “include,” “including,” etc., are intended to specify that the elements or the objects stated before these terms encompass the elements or the objects and equivalents thereof listed after these terms, but do not preclude the other elements or objects. The terms “connect”, “connecting” and the like are not limited to physical or mechanical connections, but may include electrical connections, regardless of whether the connections are direct or indirect connections. “On,” “under,” “right,” “left” and the like are only used to indicate relative position relationship, and when the position of the object which is described is changed, the relative position relationship may be changed accordingly.
The evaporation method is one of the commonly used methods for thin film deposition. In the thin film evaporation process, in order to form a thin film layer with a certain pattern, a mask plate needs to be used. Because the organic light-emitting diode display panel has a series of advantages such as self-luminous, low power consumption, high display brightness, wide viewing angle, fast response speed and so on, the organic light-emitting diode display panel is increasingly popular in the market. The organic light-emitting layer and the function layer in the organic light-emitting diode display panel, for example, can usually be formed by an evaporation method.
Due to the influence of the alignment accuracy of the mask plate and the evaporation shadow (EV shadow), the mask plate needs to be designed with a certain margin, and the design of the margin satisfies the following relationship: margin=alignment accuracy+evaporation shadow.
In the case where the shape of the display area of the display panel to be manufactured is, for example, a rectangle, the shape of the opening portion of the corresponding mask plate is also a rectangle. The mask plate can be made by a photolithography process using a metal plate, for example, by wet etching. However, wet etching may form rounded corners at the corners of the rectangular area due to the isotropic properties, so that the margin at the corners is significantly reduced compared to the straight-line segments of the rectangular area. Generally, in the case where the thickness of the mask plate is 100 microns, the radius R of the rounded corner caused by etching is about 150 microns; in the case where the thickness of the mask plate is 150 microns, the radius R of the rounded corner caused by etching is about 200 microns; and in the case where the thickness of the mask plate is 200 microns, the radius R of the rounded corner caused by etching is about 250 microns.
The effect of the etched rounded corners on the margin is illustrated in
At least one embodiment of the present disclosure provides a method for manufacturing a mask plate and the mask plate obtained thereby. The method includes: providing a substrate; and forming a first opening portion and a second opening portion on the substrate by using an etching method. The first opening portion includes a first edge and a second edge that extend linearly, an extending line of the first edge and an extending line of the second edge intersect at a first vertex to form a first corner of the first opening portion, the second opening portion is located at the first corner and protrudes outward, and an edge of the second opening portion intersect with the first edge and the second edge, thereby communicating with the first opening portion. The first opening portion and the second opening portion are used for evaporation on a display area of an organic light-emitting device, and the second opening portion is used to compensate for a corner of the display area during evaporation.
In the case where the mask plate obtained by the manufacturing method of the foregoing embodiments is used to manufacture an organic light-emitting device, the margin of the corner pixel can be increased to improve the evaporation uniformity of the display area, thereby improving the display quality of the display area.
Some other embodiments of the present disclosure also provide a photolithography mask plate for performing the above manufacturing method and forming the above mask plate. The photolithography mask plate includes a first pattern for forming the first opening portion and a second pattern for forming the second opening portion.
The various embodiments of the present disclosure are described below in combination with specific drawings.
At least one embodiment of the present disclosure provides a mask plate 100, as illustrated in
For example, the mask plate 100 may include a plurality of first opening portions 2 and a plurality of second opening portions 3, which correspond to each first opening portion 2, respectively. For example, each of the first opening portions 2 corresponds to a display area of a display panel to be manufactured, so that the mask plate 100 can be used for simultaneously manufacturing a plurality of display panels, which are, for example, display panels for the portable electronic device (e.g., a mobile phone, a smart watch, etc.). The shape of the first opening portion 2 is rectangular in this embodiment. The first opening portion 2 can also be designed in other regular or irregular shapes according to actual needs, such as an irregular shape with a protrusion in the middle of the top end.
In use, the mask plate 100 can be further combined with a frame to obtain an evaporation assembly. For example, the mask plate 100 can be welded to the frame at an edge portion (for example, a welding portion of the edge portion), and the frame provides support for the mask plate 100.
In order to more clearly illustrate the shape of the corner of the first opening portion 2 and the second opening portion 3,
Similarly, the first opening portion 2 may also include a second corner, a third corner, and a fourth corner that are the same as the first corner at other vertexes. For the sake of concise description, the description is mainly for the first corner, and the structure of other corners can be derived by analogy.
As illustrated in
For example, the edge of the second opening portion 3 intersects with the first edge 4 at a first intersection point 41, and intersects with the second edge 5 at a second intersection point 51. Therefore, the second opening portion 3 communicates with the first opening portion 2. In this example, the distance between the first intersection point 41 and the first vertex 6 is approximately equal to the distance between the second intersection point 51 and the first vertex 6, that is, the two portions of the second opening portion 3 are approximately symmetrical about the bisector of the first vertex 6. And considering the error of the actual processing, the present disclosure is not limited thereto. The distance between the first intersection point 41 and the first vertex 6 may not be equal to the distance between the second intersection point 51 and the first vertex 6.
For example, the extending line of the first edge 4 and the extending line of the second edge 5 intersect substantially perpendicularly, as illustrated in
In this embodiment, the second opening portion 3 extends outward relative to the first opening portion 2 in directions perpendicular to the first edge 4 and the second edge 5, respectively. In this embodiment, the edge of the second opening portion 3 is a combination of an arc part and a straight-line part, and the arc part passes through the first vertex 6. Considering the error of the actual processing, the present disclosure is not limited thereto. The arc part may not pass through the first vertex 6, it is only necessary to ensure that the radial distance between the first vertex 6 and the arc part is within 5 microns.
As illustrated in
Hereinafter, various exemplary shapes of the photolithography mask plate used for manufacturing the mask plate 100 by using the etching method are described in combination with
In order to simplify the description, the design of a second pattern 8 of the photolithography mask plate for forming the second opening portion is introduced below. The shape of a first pattern 7 of the photolithography mask plate is the same as the shape and size of the first opening portion 2 of the mask plate 100, and only a part of the first pattern 7 is illustrated here.
The shape of the second pattern 8 may be a portion of a circle, a regular polygon, or an irregular polygon. For example, as illustrated in
For example, as illustrated in
For example, as illustrated in
The above illustrates several examples of the shape of the photolithography mask plate used to manufacture the mask plate 100 by using the etching method. The above shapes are intended to form the second opening portion 3 so as to compensate for the rounded corners generated during etching the corner. Therefore, based on the inventive concept of the embodiments of the present disclosure, those skilled in the art can easily think of other shapes of the second pattern 8 extending outward and located at the corners of the rectangle.
Hereinafter, a method for manufacturing the mask plate 100 according to at least one embodiment of the present disclosure is described with reference to
First, as illustrated in
As illustrated in
As illustrated in
For example, the etching process is wet etching, and the second opening portion 3 can also be configured to perform etching compensation for the first corner of the first opening portion 2.
Finally, the photoresist pattern 9 is removed by a peel-off process, thereby forming the mask plate 100 illustrated in
Hereinafter, an organic light-emitting device 200 and a method for manufacturing the organic light-emitting device 200 according to at least one embodiment of the present disclosure are introduced with reference to
The organic light-emitting device 200 includes a display area and a peripheral area. The display area includes a function layer. The function layer has a shape corresponding to the first opening portion 2 and the second opening portion 3 of the aforementioned mask plate 100, and has a boundary of a corner of the second opening portion 3.
For example, the organic light-emitting device 200 is an organic light-emitting diode display device. The display device includes an active area, the active area includes a plurality of sub-pixels arranged in an array, and each sub-pixel includes an organic light-emitting diode and a driving circuit. The organic light-emitting diode has a cathode, a light-emitting layer, an anode, etc., and may further include a hole injection layer, a hole transport layer, an electron injection layer, an electron transport layer, a capping layer, etc., as required.
For example, in an embodiment of the present disclosure, the mask plate 100 may be used to form a certain function layer of the organic light-emitting device. The function layer is at least one of a hole injection layer, a hole transport layer, an electron injection layer, an electron transport layer, a capping layer, or a common electrode layer, such as the common electrode layer (common cathode layer). In this embodiment, the method for manufacturing the organic light-emitting device 200 by using, for example, the mask plate 100 is introduced.
As illustrated in
For example, as illustrated in
For other technical effects of the method provided in this embodiment, reference may be made to the technical effects of the mask plate described in the foregoing embodiments, which is not repeated herein.
The above are only specific implementations of the present disclosure, but the protection scope of the present disclosure is not limited thereto, and the protection scope of the present disclosure is subject to the protection scope of the appended claims.
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
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PCT/CN2019/112545 | 10/22/2019 | WO |