1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to image sensor devices, and, more particularly, to a method for manufacturing the image sensor devices.
2. Relevant Background
Organic semiconductor materials are known in the art and have many potential advantages over traditional amorphous silicon-based semiconductor materials. Organic semiconductor materials can be used in the manufacture of image sensor devices. The organic chemicals used in the manufacturing process can be tailored to be sensitive to different frequencies ranging from ultraviolet to infrared. Chemical films produced with these organic chemicals have lower stress and lower processing temperatures, which can be advantageous when working with flexible substrates.
Manufacturing of individual organic diodes on a substrate to create photo-sensing arrays remains a challenge. Being able to deposit the individual films in a repeatable, robust, efficient, and relatively inexpensive manner is still extremely challenging for large-scale image sensor devices built on a glass or flexible substrate. It would therefore be desirable to provide a manufacturing method for an image sensor device that can overcome the above restrictions and limitations.
There are many methods of applying various Organic Photodiode (“OPD”) layers including slot-die coating, inkjet printing, spin-coating doctor blading, evaporation, and screen printing. Conventional approaches for the application of the OPD layers on a large-scale substrate use slot-die coating for the active layer, slot-die coating or evaporation for the top contact layer, and a combination of slot-die coating and chemical vapor deposition of the barrier layer. While many of these manufacturing techniques have shown successful results, they are still relegated to small-sized examples and are limited to one sensing array layout on the substrate.
Screen printing of organic photodiode layers, while generally viewed as not being an appropriate manufacturing technique, has many potential advantages over other methods of manufacturing large sensor arrays including the ones mentioned above. Unlike slot-die coating, the screens used in screen printing are easy to clean as well as to change from one production layout to another. Screen printing equipment and screen costs are cheaper than other equipment used for manufacturing OPDs. In addition, the method of manufacturing OPDs using screen printing techniques offers a repeatable, robust and cost efficient manufacturing process over other methods currently being used. Historically, screen printing of complex organic electronic arrays has been ignored due to perceived limitations of film thickness limits, uniformity, and resolution. The method of the present invention addresses these concerns at least in part by developing process recipes using screen printer screens that are matched to the viscosities of the chemicals being used.
According to an embodiment of the invention, a method of manufacturing an image sensor device includes providing a metalized thin film transistor layer form on a glass substrate; forming an inter-layer dielectric layer on the metalized thin film transistor layer; forming a via through the inter-layer dielectric layer; forming a metal layer on an upper surface of the inter-layer dielectric and within the inter-layer dielectric layer via for contacting the metalized thin film transistor layer; forming a bank layer on an upper surface of the metal layer and the inter-layer dielectric layer; forming a via through the bank layer; forming an electron transport layer on an upper surface of the bank layer and within the bank layer via for contacting an upper surface of the metal layer; forming a bulk hetero-junction layer on an upper surface of the electron transport layer; forming a hole transport layer on an upper surface of the bulk hetero-junction layer; and forming a top contact layer on an upper surface of the hole transport layer, wherein at least one of the bulk hetero junction layer or the top contact layer are applied using a screen printing technique.
The image sensor device and method of manufacturing is fully described below with various embodiments and examples, and is illustrated in the following drawings.
An Organic Photo-Diode (“OPD”) manufacturing process for an embodiment of the invention is described below with respect to drawing
Further, with respect to
According to the method of the present invention, one or both of the BHJ layer 138 or the TC layer 142 can be applied using screen printing deposition according to an embodiment of the method of the present invention.
For screen printing deposition of the BHJ layer 138, a screen would be loaded into a screen printer and chemically applied to the edge, or the beginning of the printed feature, as is explained in further detail below. Nominal speed for printing is 225 mm/s to 280 mm/s, the print gap is 4.5 mm and screen mesh count is 460 threads/cm.
For screen printing deposition of the TC layer 142, the screen used for the BHJ application would be removed from the screen printer and the screen used the TC layer would be loaded. The corresponding chemical would be applied to the edge, or the beginning of the printed feature, as is explained in further detail below. Nominal speed for printing is 250 mm/s to 300 mm/s, print gap is 4.8 mm and screen mesh count is 83 threads/cm.
A known method of applying the photoactive (“PAL”) layer in the photodiode (such as the BHJ layer 138) is to use slot-die coating. Slot-die coating uses a slit nozzle that forces chemicals between two pieces of stainless steel on the substrate. In between the two pieces of steel is a metal shim that allows only chemicals to be placed onto the substrate where it is open to flow.
The method of the present invention using a screen printer to apply the PAL layer, or the BHJ layer, as well as the TC layer offers many advantages over the other deposition methods for manufacturing OPD sensor arrays. The method of manufacturing OPD sensor arrays using screen printing techniques offers a repeatable, robust, and cost efficient manufacturing process over other method currently used. The screens are easy to clean as well as to change from one production layout to another. Screen printing equipment and screen costs are cheaper than other equipment used for manufacturing OPD sensor arrays.
The BHJ layer typically ranges from 200 nm to 2 um thick with the preferred thickness ranging from 300 nm to 400 nm. Uniformities for these thicknesses can be below 10%. These thicknesses and uniformities are easily deposited using slot-die coating, which is what most laboratory environments are using. Using a screen printer to apply a blanket coat between 200 nm to 500 um is not as easily achieved. One must use mesh screens with mesh counts between 195 threads/cm to 460 threads/cm. The openings allow limited chemical to flow through the screen. In addition, the thickness of the screen should be below 3 um. Lastly, the viscosity of the film must be optimized for the screens being used. Viscosities range from 30 cP to 150 cP. There are optimizing steps required to ensure the proper thickness and uniformity of the deposited film.
The printing recipe must have the correct printing squeegee speed, substrate-to-screen gap and squeegee print pressure. The printing speeds range from 100 thread/cm to 400 threads/cm with nominal speeds ranging from 225 threads/cm to 300 threads/cm. The squeegee print pressures range from 3 kg to 10 kg of pressure, with nominal pressures ranging from 6 kg to 8 kg of pressure. The other aspect to ensuring the correct thickness and uniformity is the screen-to-substrate gap. This distance can range from 0.2 mm to 6 mm, with nominal gaps between 3 mm and 5 mm.
The top contact layer, TC, uses similar guidelines outlined for depositing the BHJ layer. There are two things to consider when depositing this layer using a screen printer, and that is the material that is being used for the TC layer and the thickness of the TC layer. For silver nanowire, the film must be less than 700 nm to ensure greater than 75% of the light will be transmitted to the BHJ layer. The same screens used for the BHJ layer can be used for the silver nanowire deposition. The viscosity of the silver nanowire is different, approximately 225 cP.
Using transparent conductive ink as the TC layer requires different screens in order to achieve the correct film thickness. This film typically is thicker than silver nanowire, ranging from 0.800 um to 1.6 um. The nominal thickness is between 0.9 um to 1.2 um. This thickness is required to ensure sufficient conductivity of the TC layer. This material allows a greater percentage of light (˜90%) to be transmitted to the BHJ layer. The viscosity of transparent conductive ink is typically 26K cP.
The application of the BHJ layer, using a screen printer is achieved by forcing chemicals through a screen mesh with a squeegee and onto the substrate. The screen is comprised of an aluminum frames glued to a screen mesh. An emulsion is then applied onto the mesh, covering the areas that are not allowed to transfer the chemical to the substrate. An example of the mesh and squeegee is shown in
In
In
In
The screen 408 is much lighter than a comparable nozzle for a slot-die coater. The cost of the squeegee 412 as well as the cost of the screen 408 is much less than the cost for a comparable nozzle. As stated earlier, the printed layout can be changed by removing the screen from the tool, either by hand or by a tool suited to the width of the screen, and replaced it with a screen that has the new layout.
The film thickness can be controlled by several conditions, such as the speed in which the squeegee moves across the screen, the mesh count of the screen, and the viscosity of the screen. The quality of the film coat can also be controlled by the methods above, but also by the angle of the squeegee, the hardness of the squeegee, the distance of the screen with the substrate, and the pressure the squeegee applies to the screen as it moves across the screen.
Two known methods for depositing the TC layer are slot-die coating and evaporation. The approach of the present invention of depositing the TC layer using a screen printer over slot-die coating is the same as previously discussed with respect to the active layer. The approach of the present invention of screen printing over evaporation of the TC layer is that the films can be more light transparent. The most common evaporated TC layer material is silver. A silver film blocks over 60% of visible light between the frequencies of 450 nm and 850 nm at its thinnest conductive layer. The screen printer allows the use of other materials such as silver nanowire or transparent conductive ink to act as the TC layer. These materials are more transparent than evaporated silver while still providing sufficient conductivity to ensure the proper functionality of the photo diode array.
Slot-die coating allows the use of silver nanowire, transparent conductive ink, or a combination of the two materials. These materials advantageously allow 60% to 90% of the ambient light to pass through the layer and onto the PAL layer. Slot-die coating also allows the ability to use these materials mentioned; however, the disadvantages of slot-die coating are the same as has been previously discussed.
In conclusion, screen printing at least one of the active and top contact layers of organic photodiodes in a large sensor array offers several advantages over the prevailing manufacturing methodology. Screen printing equipment is cheaper than slot-die or other methods of deposition, such as inkjet printing. Screen printing allows for an easy product layout change over slot-die coating. Furthermore, the method of the present invention also provides a robust, repeatable, low-cost manufacturing process over the other methods of manufacturing organic photodiodes.
Although the invention has been described and illustrated with a certain degree of particularity, it is understood that the present disclosure has been made only by way of example, and that numerous changes in the combination and arrangement of parts can be resorted to by those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention, as hereinafter claimed.
The present application is a continuation-in-part of U.S. non-provisional patent application (“Copending Non-Provisional Application”), Ser. No. 15/237,447, filed on Aug. 15, 2016 and claims priority to U.S. provisional patent application (“Copending Provisional Application”), Ser. No. 62/386,999, filed on Dec. 18, 2015. The disclosures of the Copending Applications are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety.
Number | Date | Country | |
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62386999 | Dec 2015 | US |
Number | Date | Country | |
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Parent | 15237447 | Aug 2016 | US |
Child | 15369455 | US |