Fabrication of Viewing Angle Direction Brightness-Enhancement Optical Films using Surface Textured Silicon Wafers

Abstract

We demonstrate a low-cost, superbly efficient way of etching for the nano-, and micro-sized pyramid patterns on (100)-oriented Si wafer surfaces for use as a patterned master. We show a way of producing functional optical films for the viewing angle direction brightness-enhancement of Lambertian LED (light emitting diode)/OLED (organic light emitting diode) planar lighting applications. An optimally formulated KOH (Potassium hydroxide) wet etching process enabled random-positioned, and random size-distributed (within a certain size range) pyramid patterns to be developed over the entire (100) silicon wafer substrates up to 8" and a simple replication process of master patterns onto the PC (poly-carbonate) and PMMA (poly-methyl methacrylate) films were performed. Haze ratio values were measured for several film samples exhibiting excellent values over 90% suitable for LED/OLED lighting purposes. Brightness was also improved by 13~14% toward the viewing angle direction. Computational simulations using LightTools<TEX>$^{TM}$</TEX> were also carried out and turned out to be in strong agreement with experimental data. Finally, we could check the feasibility of fabricating low-cost, large area, high performance optical films for commercialization.