Manufacturing flexible light-emitting polymer displays withconductive lithographic film technology

Abstract

We report on a new low-cost manufacturing process for flexibledisplays that has the potential to rapidly expand the market into areasthat have traditionally been outside the scope of such technology. In thispaper we consider the feasibility of using offset-lithography to depositcontacts for polymer light-emitting displays. We compare and contrastmanufacturing criteria and present a case study detailing our initialresults. It is expected that these developments will stimulate furtherprogress in multilayer device fabrication.Cheap, flexible conductive interconnects have the potential to findapplications in a wide variety of device structures. For the morechallenging exploitation areas in multilayer devices, such as displays, itwas found that the properties of conductive lithographic films were not optimalin their current form. Three parameters (conductivity, surface roughnessand surface work function) were identified as critical to devicefabrication. Calendering and electroless plating were investigated asmethods to improve these properties. Both methods aimed to modify thesurface roughness and conductivity, with the plating study also modifyingthe work function.