Systems and Methods for Drying Patterned OLED Formulations
AssigneeKateeva, Inc.
InventorsConor F. Madigan, Alexander Sou-Kang Ko
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A drying chamber for drying a substrate patterned with display areas wetted by OLED materials dissolved or suspended in a volatile carrier liquid and separated from one another by dry boundary regions. A mask adjusts drying rate of the carrier liquid during vacuum extraction using vapor-transmissive areas opposite the wet areas and vapor-barrier regions opposite the dry boundary regions, or by confining the wet areas collectively in a chamber volume small enough to quickly saturate with the carrier liquid before vacuum extraction.
Claims19
A drying chamber comprising:
- a substrate support disposed within an enclosure, the substrate support having a support surface;
- a mask having vapor-transmissive areas and vapor-barrier regions disposed across the support surface of the substrate support within the enclosure at an adjustable distance from the support surface;
- a gas source coupled to the enclosure;
- and
- a vacuum source coupled to the enclosure.
A method for drying a substrate having wet areas wet with a carrier liquid separated by dry boundary regions, the method comprising:
- orienting a mask relative to the substrate, the mask having vapor-transmissive areas and vapor-barrier regions;
- and
- drawing the carrier liquid from the wet areas of the substrate through the vapor-transmissive areas of the mask.
A drying chamber comprising:
- a substrate support to support a substrate having wet areas separated by dry boundary regions, the wet areas including a volatile carrier liquid that exhibits a carrier-liquid vapor pressure;
- a gas-distribution mechanism defining a process space of a process-space volume over the substrate, wherein the process-space volume approaches saturation of a vapor of the volatile carrier liquid within five minutes;
- and
- a vacuum source to draw the vapor of the volatile carrier liquid from the process space.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.