Patent Grant
10651404
The present invention relates to transparent conductive film-equipped glass substrates and methods for manufacturing the same.
In relation to plasma displays, electroluminescent devices, and the like, it is known that a transparent conductive film for use as an electrode is formed on a transparent substrate, such as a glass substrate, and the transparent conductive film is subjected to patterning by laser (Patent Literatures 1 and 2).
In the case of organic electroluminescent devices or the like, in order to increase the light extraction efficiency, an underlying glass layer having a higher refractive index than the glass substrate may be provided between the glass substrate and the transparent conductive film.
[PTL 1]
JP-A-2007-207554
[PTL 2]
JP-A-2006-267834
The inventors have found a problem that when the underlying glass layer is provided, the transparent conductive film or the underlying glass layer is likely to be discolored or damaged during patterning of the transparent conductive film by laser.
An object of the present invention is to provide a transparent conductive film-equipped glass substrate that, during patterning by laser of a transparent conductive film formed on an underlying glass layer, can prevent the transparent conductive film or the underlying glass layer from being discolored or damaged, and a manufacturing method thereof.
A transparent conductive film-equipped glass substrate according to the present invention is a transparent conductive film-equipped glass substrate including a glass substrate, an underlying glass layer provided on the glass substrate, and a transparent conductive film provided on the underlying glass layer and subjected to patterning by laser, the underlying glass layer has an absorptance of a wavelength of the laser lower than the transparent conductive film and higher than the glass substrate, a patterned region formed by removing part of the transparent conductive film by the patterning by laser includes a first linear portion, a second linear portion, and a connecting portion connecting between the first linear portion and the second linear portion, the first linear portion and the second linear portion form an angle of 120° or less with each other, and the connecting portion has a radius of curvature of 0.5 mm or more.
Examples of the underlying glass layer include those containing bismuth-based glass.
Examples of the underlying glass layer include those having a higher refractive index than the glass substrate.
An example of the laser that can be used is femtosecond laser.
Asperities are preferably formed on a surface of the glass substrate on which the underlying glass layer is provided.
The transparent conductive film-equipped glass substrate according to the present invention is used, for example, as a glass substrate for an organic electroluminescent device.
A manufacturing method according to the present invention is a method that enables the manufacture of the above transparent conductive film-equipped glass substrate according to the present invention, the method including the steps of: producing the glass substrate on which the transparent conductive film before being subjected to the patterning is formed on the underlying glass layer; and applying the laser to the transparent conductive film to scan the first linear portion, the connecting portion, and the second linear portion in this order or reverse order with the laser, thus forming the patterned region.
According to the present invention, during patterning by laser of a transparent conductive film formed on an underlying glass layer, the transparent conductive film and the underlying glass layer can be prevented from being discolored or damaged.
Hereinafter, a description will be given of a preferred embodiment. However, the following embodiment is merely illustrative and the present invention is not limited to the following embodiment. Throughout the drawings, members having substantially the same functions may be referred to by the same reference characters.
Formed in the transparent conductive film 3 is a patterned region 10 formed by removing part of the transparent conductive film 3 by patterning using laser. The transparent conductive film 3 is divided by the patterned region 10 into a first electrode 4 and a second electrode 5.
The transparent conductive film-equipped glass substrate 6 according to this embodiment can be used, for example, as a glass substrate for an organic electroluminescent device. When it is used as a glass substrate for an organic electroluminescent device, an organic electroluminescent layer is provided on the top of the transparent conductive film-equipped glass substrate 6. Light emitted from the organic electroluminescent layer due to the production of luminescence in the organic electroluminescent layer passes through the transparent conductive film 3 and the glass substrate 1 and is then extracted to the outside. The underlying glass layer 2 is provided between the transparent conductive film 3 and the glass substrate 1 in order to increase the extraction efficiency of light emitted from the organic electroluminescent layer.
To be specific, generally, the organic electroluminescent layer has a refractive index nd of about 1.8 to 1.9, the transparent conductive film 3 has a refractive index nd of about 1.9 to 2.0, and the glass substrate 1 normally has a refractive index nd of about 1.5. Therefore, if the underlying glass layer 2 is not provided, the difference in refractive index between the glass substrate 1 and the transparent conductive film 3 is large, so that light from the organic electroluminescent layer is reflected at the interface between the glass substrate and the transparent conductive film 3 and thus cannot efficiently be extracted to the outside.
When, as in this embodiment, the underlying glass layer 2 is provided between the glass substrate 1 and the transparent conductive film 3 to bring the refractive index nd of the underlying glass layer 2 close to the refractive index nd of the transparent conductive film 3, the above-mentioned light reflection can be reduced, so that the light can be efficiently extracted to the outside. Therefore, the underlying glass layer 2 is generally made of a glass having a higher refractive index nd than the glass substrate 1, for example, having a refractive index of 1.8 to 2.2. Examples of such a glass include bismuth-based glasses. The bismuth-based glasses include glasses containing 10% by mole or more Bi2O3 in a glass composition.
Specific examples of compositions of the bismuth-based glasses include a glass containing, in % by mole, 10 to 35% Bi2O3, 20 to 35% B2O3, over 5 to 35% SiO2, 0 to 10% Al2O3, 0 to 10% ZnO, and 1 to 8% ZrO2, and a glass containing, in % by mole, 10 to 35% Bi2O3, 20 to 35% B2O3, 21 to 45% SiO2+Al2O3, 0 to 10% ZnO, and 0.1 to 10% ZrO2. Herein, “SiO2+Al2O3” means the sum of the contents of SiO2 and Al2O3.
Furthermore, when, as in this embodiment, asperities are formed on the principal surface 1a of the glass substrate 1, light reflection at the interface between the underlying glass layer 2 and the glass substrate 1 can be reduced, so that the light can be more efficiently extracted to the outside. The glass substrate 1 having asperities formed on the principal surface 1a thereof can be produced, for example, by subjecting a glass plate having a flat surface to processing, such as sandblasting, sol-gel spraying or etching. Alternatively, the above glass substrate can be produced by subjecting a glass plate to press forming using a die having asperities formed on the surface or by roll-forming molten glass using a roll having asperities formed on the surface.
The surface roughness Ra of the principal surface 1a is, for example, preferably within a range of 0.05 to 2 μm and more preferably within a range of 0.05 to 1.5 μm. If the surface roughness Ra of the principal surface 1a is too small, a sufficient light extraction efficiently may not be able to be achieved. On the other hand, if the surface roughness Ra of the principal surface 1a is too large, a sufficient light extraction efficiently may not be able to be achieved and the thickness of the underlying glass layer 2 may have to be increased than necessary.
Examples of the transparent conductive film 3 that can be used include thin films of composite oxides having electrical conductivity, such as indium tin oxides (ITO), aluminum zinc oxides (AZO), indium zinc oxides (IZO), and fluorine-doped tin oxides (FTO). Indium tin oxides are particularly preferably used.
No particular limitation is placed on the type of the glass substrate 1 so long as it does not reduce the light extraction efficiency.
In the present invention, the transparent conductive film 3 is patterned by laser to remove part of the transparent conductive film 3, thus forming the patterned region 10. The laser that is used is a laser as to the wavelength of which the transparent conductive film 3 has a high absorptance. For example, an ITO film exhibits high absorptance of wavelengths of 1000 nm or more. Therefore, the ITO film can be patterned using laser having a wavelength of 1000 nm or more to partly remove the ITO film by laser irradiation, thus forming a patterned region 10.
As described previously, the inventors have found that, during patterning by laser of the transparent conductive film 3 to remove part of the transparent conductive film 3 by laser irradiation, the transparent conductive film 3 or the underlying glass layer 2 may be discolored or damaged. They have found that such discoloration or damage is likely to occur particularly at corners at which the scanning direction of the laser changes to a perpendicular direction. They also have found from studies on the reason for this that when the laser scanning direction changes to a perpendicular direction, the scanning speed decreases, the laser irradiation time thus becomes relatively long, so that heat is accumulated at the portions to discolor or damage the portions. Furthermore, they have found that because the underlying glass layer 2 also has a high absorptance of the wavelength of the laser, the above phenomenon occurs.
Therefore, in the present invention, the underlying glass layer 2 has an absorptance of the wavelength of the laser lower than that of the transparent conductive film 3 and higher than that of the glass substrate 1. The absorptance of the underlying glass layer 2 as to the wavelength of the laser is preferably within a range of 10 to 60% of that of the transparent conductive film 3 and more preferably within a range of 10 to 30% thereof.
No particular limitation is placed on the wavelength of the laser so long as the transparent conductive film 3 has a high absorptance of the wavelength. The wavelength of the laser is, for example, preferably 1000 nm or more, more preferably 1300 nm or more, and still more preferably 1500 nm or more. No particular limitation is placed on the upper limit of the wavelength of the laser, but the wavelength of the laser is generally not more than 2000 nm.
The laser is preferably sub-10-picosecond pulse laser, more preferably subpicosecond, ultrashort pulse laser, and particularly preferably laser laser. By the use of laser having such a short pulse width, a multiphoton absorption phenomenon is generated, so that patterning can be achieved without diffusing heat to the surrounding portions.
The spot diameter of the laser is preferably within a range of 20% to 100% of the width of the patterned region and more preferably within a range of 50% to 100% thereof.
The laser is generally applied in the direction of thickness of the transparent conductive film 3 (z direction) from the transparent conductive film 3 side.
As shown in
The patterned region 10 shown in
As shown in
Furthermore, the patterned region 10 also includes a first linear portion 16 extending in the x direction and the first linear portion 16 and the second linear portion 12 are connected by a connecting portion 17. Moreover, the patterned region 10 also includes a first linear portion 18 extending in the x direction and the first linear portion 18 and the second linear portion 14 are connected by a connecting portion 19.
The patterned region 10 further includes a second linear portion 21 extending in the y direction and the second linear portion 21 and the first linear portion 16 are connected by a connecting portion 22. Furthermore, the patterned region 10 also includes a second linear portion 23 extending in the y direction and the second linear portion 23 and the first linear portion 18 are connected by a connecting portion 24.
The connecting portion 13 connecting between the first linear portion 11 and the second linear portion 12 is formed into an arc in this embodiment. In the present invention, the radius of curvature of the connecting portion 13 is 0.5 mm or more. The radius of curvature of the connecting portion 13 is preferably 1.0 mm or more. Since the radius of curvature of the connecting portion 13 is within the above range, the transparent conductive film 3 and the underlying glass layer 2 can be more effectively prevented from being discolored or damaged. If the radius of curvature of the connecting portion 13 is too large, the patterned region may be difficult to form. Therefore, the radius of curvature of the connecting portion 13 is preferably not more than 5.0 mm and more preferably not more than 3.0 mm.
In contrast, when as shown in
Although the description of the connecting portion 13 has been given with reference to
Although the description with reference to
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015-047169 | Mar 2015 | JP | national |
| Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/JP2016/050470 | 1/8/2016 | WO | 00 |
| Publishing Document | Publishing Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| WO2016/143366 | 9/15/2016 | WO | A |
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| Number | Date | Country | |
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| 20180351116 A1 | Dec 2018 | US |
