• Transactions of Materials Processing
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.156-159
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• 2009

Slot coating has been wide spread in photo-resist coating on the glass for liquid crystal display. Die in slot coater consists of manifold and land. Material comes in inlet of the die and flow into the manifold and then flow out through the land. The coating thickness variations along the die length depend upon inside of die design such as manifold and die land. However the coating thickness variations along the moving direction(coating direction) of the coater depend upon the operational conditions of coater as well as die lip design. The coating behaviors including atmospheric air have been investigated in this study. Die geometries considered in this study were nozzle gap and length of the die lip. Coating gap and coating speed were the variables fur coating operational conditions. When the nozzle gap and length of die lip increased climbing effect of PR on the downstream die lip was reduced. Subsequently uniformity of coating thickness improved. Uniformity of coating thickness also enhanced as coating gap and coater speed increased. The uniformity of coating gap was related to the velocity vector distributions on the coating surface.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Manufacturing Process Engineers
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• v.12 no.5
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• pp.23-29
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• 2013

Recent advances in printing technology have increased the productivity of the roll-to-roll (R2R) printing process for printed circuitry. In the R2R printed electronics, characteristics of printed and coated layers are one of the most important issues that determine the functional quality of final products. The slot-die technology can coat a large area with high uniformity using low-viscosity materials; determining the process parameters is important to obtain excellent coating qualities. In this study, a viscocapillary model was used to predict qualities of coated layers and patterns. On the basis of analysis results, a novel meta model was derived using design of experiment methodology to improve accuracy. Sensitivity analysis was performed to define major parameters in R2R slot-die coating process. The coating speed was found to most significantly affect the coated layer thickness and was easily controlled. The performance of the proposed model is verified through experimental studies. Based on the statistical analysis results, R2R slot die process can be optimized to guarantee a desired thickness.

• Journal of the Semiconductor & Display Technology
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.32-37
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• 2023

For the potential applications in large-area OLED lightings, hydrogen fuel cells, and secondary batteries, we have performed an intermittent coating of high-viscosity polydimethylsiloxane using roll-to-roll slot die coater. During intermittent coating, dead zones inevitably appear where the thickness of PDMS patch films becomes non-uniform, especially at the leading/trailing edge. To reduce it, we have coated the PDMS patches by varying the process parameters such as the installation angle of the slot die head, coating speed, and patch interval. It is observed that the PDMS solution flows down and thus the thickness profile is non-uniform for horizonal intermittent coating, whereas the PDMS solution remaining on the head lip causes an increase in the PDMS thickness at the leading/trailing edges for vertical intermittent coating when the coating velocity is low. As the coating speed increases, however, the dead zone is shown to be reduced. It is addressed that the overall dead zone (the dead zone at the leading edge + the dead zone at the trailing edge) is smaller with horizontal intermittent coating than with vertical intermittent coating.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.31 no.6
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• pp.491-495
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• 2014

We developed a compact high-precision slot-die coating machine for thin-film deposition on a flexible substrate. For smooth and precise coating, air-bearing and linear motor system were employed to minimize velocity ripple. The gap control mechanism is specially designed to have repeatability of gap between nozzle and substrate under 1 ${\mu}m$. Due to extremely precise gap control, the machine can coat thin-films down to 50 nm with $200mm{\times}100mm$ size. A thin film of Ag nano-particle ink is coated for demonstration.

• Korea-Australia Rheology Journal
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.89-94
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• 2008

To satisfy good mechanical and optical properties of polymer-coated film products, it will be indispensable to elucidate the molecular orientation of polymer chains within coating liquids in coating flows. Using hybridized numerical method between computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and Brownian dynamics (BD) simulations can provide the useful information for the better quality control of coated films. Flexible polymer chains, e.g., ${\lambda}$-DNA molecules here, change their conformation according to the flow strength and the flow type. The molecular conformation within the coated film on the web or substrate is quite different, because the polymer chains experience the complicated flow strength and flow types in flow field. Especially in the slot coating flow, these chains are more extended by the extension-like flow field generated in the free surface curvature just beyond the downstream die region. Also, the polymer chain extension beneath the free surface can be affected by the die geometry, e.g., the coating gap, changing flow field.

• Journal of the Semiconductor & Display Technology
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.30-35
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• 2020

A microlens has been fabricated by various methods such as a thermal reflow, hot embossing, diamond milling, etc. However, these methods require a relatively complex process to control the microlens shape. In this work, we report on a simple and cost-effective method to fabricate a cylindrical microlens (CML), which can diffuse light widely. We have employed a slot-die head with the dual plate (a meniscus guide with a protruded μ-tip and a shim with a slit channel) for coating of a narrow stripe using poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA). We have shown that the higher the coating gap, the lower the maximum coating speed, which causes an increase in the stripe width and thickness. The coated PMMA stripe has the concave shape. To make it in the shape of a convex microlens, we have applied the thermal reflow method. When the stripe thickness is small, however, its effect is negligible. To increase the stripe thickness, we have increased the number of repeated coating. With this scheme, we have fabricated the CML with the width of 223 ㎛ and the thickness of 7.3 ㎛. Finally, we have demonstrated experimentally that the CML can diffuse light widely, a feature demanded for light extraction efficiency of organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) and suppression of moiré patterns in displays.

• Journal of the Semiconductor & Display Technology
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.70-76
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• 2021

A cylindrical microlens (CML) has been widely used as an optical element for organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs), light diffusers, image sensors, 3D imaging, etc. To fabricate high-performance optoelectronic devices, the CML with high aspect ratio is demanded. In this work, we report on facile solution-based processes (i.e., slot-die and needle coatings) to fabricate the CML using poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA). It is found that compared with needle coating, slot-die coating provides the CML with lower aspect ratio due to the wide spread of solution along the hydrophilic head lip. Although needle coating provides the CML with high aspect ratio, it requires a high precision needle array module. To demonstrate that the aspect ratio of CML can be enhanced using slot-die coating, we have varied the molecular weight of PMMA. We can achieve the CML with higher aspect ratio using PMMA with lower molecular weight at a fixed viscosity because of the higher concentration of PMMA solute in the solution. We have also shown that the aspect ratio of CML can be further boosted by coating it repeatedly. With this scheme, we have fabricated the CML with the width of 252 ㎛ and the thickness of 5.95 ㎛ (aspect ratio=0.024). To visualize its light diffusion property, we have irradiated a laser beam to the CML and observed that the laser beam spreads widely in the vertical direction of the CML.

• Korea-Australia Rheology Journal
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.209-215
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• 2006

Recent research results on viscocapillary models of various pre-metered coating flows such as curtain, slide, and slot coatings have been reviewed in this paper. Such one-dimensional models have been simplified from two-dimensional Navier-Stokes equations for viscous coating flows with free surfaces, using integral momentum balances and lubrication approximation. It has been found that these viscocapillary models is capable of predicting flow dynamics in various coating systems, providing the good agreement with results by 2-D models.

• Journal of the Semiconductor & Display Technology
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.69-74
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• 2019

The aim of this work is to investigate the effect of the microtip length in a slot-die head on coating of a fine poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(4-styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS) stripe. To this end, we have employed a meniscus guide with a 150-㎛-wide microtip and performed roll-to-roll slot-die coatings by varying its length between 500 ㎛ and 50 ㎛. When the microtip length is 150 ㎛ or shorter, we have observed three unexpected phenomena; 1) though the solution spreads much wider than the microtip width, yet the coated stripe width is almost the same as the microtip width, 2) the stripe width decreases, but the stripe thickness is rather increased with increasing coating speed at a fixed flow rate, 3) we obtain stripes much narrower than the microtip width at high coating speeds. It is due to the fact that 1) the meniscus is not well controlled by a short microtip, 2) the main stream of solution from the outlet is very close to the substrate and thus the distributed solution along the head lip merges with the main stream, and 3) the solution is not spread over the entire microtip end at high coating speeds, causing a tiny wobble in the meniscus. Using the 150-㎛-wide and 250-㎛-long microtip, we have fabricated 153-㎛-wide and 94-nm-thick PEDOT:PSS stripe at the maximum coating speed of 13 mm/s. To demonstrate its applicability in solution-processable organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs), we have also fabricated an OLED device with the fine PEDOT:PSS stripe and obtained strong light emission from it.

• Journal of the Semiconductor & Display Technology
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.61-65
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• 2015

We have fabricated poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) : poly(4-styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT : PSS) thin films using a slotdie coater for the applications of OLED lightings. It is demonstrated that the properties of slot-die coated PEDOT : PSS films are comparable with those of spin-coated ones. Namely, the average and peak-to-peak roughness of the slot-die coated 50-nm-thick PEDOT : PSS film are measured to be as low as 0.247 nm and 1.3 nm, respectively. Moreover, we have obtained excellent thickness uniformity (~1.91%). With the slot-die coated PEDOT : PSS films, we have fabricated green phosphorescent OLED devices. For comparison, we have also fabricated OLED devices with spin-coated PEDOT : PSS films. Both show almost no discrepancy in device performance. The power efficiency (25.4 lm/W) and emission uniformity (77%) of OLEDs with slot-die coated PEDOT : PSS films are shown to be slightly lower than those (27.3 lm/W, 80%) of OLEDs with spin-coated PEDOT : PSS films at the luminance of 1,000nit, increasing the feasibility of using a slot-die coating process for the fabrication of large-area OLED lighting sources at a competitive price.