ITO Patterning
DIRECT LASER PATTERNING OF COATINGS ON DISPLAYS – AS A SHOP service OR AS A LASER product-
Laserod is proud to be in the forefront of patterning which is laser etching a pattern on displays such as a touch screens. Basically, these are circuit patterns so electrical signals go where they are intended. Other terms for this process are laser structuring and laser scribing. The etched/scribed circuit patterns are applied to a thin coating of Transparent Conductive Oxide (TCO) on a substrate of glass or plastic film. Examples of TCO are Indium Tin Oxide (ITO), carbon nanotubes, and thin gold coatings. TCO coated glass and plastic are typically used in flat panels, windshields, architectural windows, photovoltaics, and touch screen displays. They are laser cut by us down to 10 micron laser cut width. For large area removal we simply overlap the ablated 10um spots at high laser repetition rates and at high beam speed to remove large areas of the coatings without damage to the underlying glass or PET substrates.
APPLICATIONS:
- LC and touch-screen displays
- Single Step Patterning of ITO:PET or ITO:glass by laser lithography
- All thin film coatings on glass or plastic substrates are easily laser patterned
- Solar panels
- Cell phones and digital cameras
- Interdigitated electrodes
- Jet plane cockpit window
- Carbon nanotube coatings (CNT)
- RFID tags
- Silver nanowire coatings (Ag NW)
CHARACTERISTICS:
- Fast – Clean
- Single step process, maskless
- Dry etching process, environmentally “green”
- Tin Oxide (TO) Coatings
- Amorphous Silicon (a-Si) Coatings
- Gold (Au) Coatings
- Chrome (Cr) Coatings
The conventional method of dry patterning is a photographic process called photolithography involving the steps of photoresist coating, exposure, developing, wet chemical etching, stripping and baking. By contrast, we employ a direct write laser which is a single-step, dry ablative etching process performed in ambient conditions, thereby replacing the numerous photolithographic process steps with one quick laser ablation operation. Other names for conventional photolithography are wet processing and chemical etching.
We call our version of laser lithography Direct (or dry) Laser Processing (DLP).
Lithography by Laser Ablation
In our continued efforts to stay at the forefront of laser machining technology, Laserod has developed technology that allows us to expertly perform direct write (dry laser lithography) by laser ablation — typically of ITO thin films on glass or plastic substrates. The abbreviations are ITO:glass & ITO:PET.
Direct write by laser ablation is a state-of-the-art laser operation used in patterning ITO coated glass and plastic which offers fast, large or small area patterning with little or no environmental impact. We have handled ITO:glass plates up to 1.6m x 1.6m and ITO:PET sheets. We are working on roll-to-roll (web) processing.
Being on the leading edge of laser machining technology, Laserod introduced new high speed laser patterning systems for ITO on glass or plastic. These innovations we call DLP for Direct Laser Processing.
Some of the remarkable highlights of DLP:
- The ability to direct write ITO on glass or plastic at speeds up to an 5m/sec.
- We dry ablate TCO/ITO at laser spot sizes down to 10 microns with field size at 0.25m x 0.25m. A field size on the order of 1.6m x 1.6m causes the laser spot size to increase to approximately 100um.
- Straight, clean laser lines with no pinhole side effects and no lateral etching, yielding high quality results.
- Removal of ITO can exhibit little or no laser-burn damage to the glass or PET substrate.
- Our Class 100 clean room assures the highest quality workmanship.
Value added benefits of selecting Laserod Inc. include:
- Customized system specs tailored around your application-this ensures optimal laser patterning performance
- We augment your efforts throughout the entire product development cycle, from R&D to prototyping to low volume production
- Cutting edge products and services at competitive rates
Dry DLP replaces traditional wet etch operations and requires no mask. And, since there is no heating of the substrate, there is no chance of substrate burning. DLP uses no chemicals, no vacuum, and laser created debris and laser burn are minimized.
For more information on this interesting technology, view the following brochures and presentation:
TRADE LITERATURE – CATALOGS:
You can read more about the DLP and dry laser patterning ITO by visiting our ITO Details page.
Please contact our staff if you would like to know more about this technology or how Laserod can improve the accuracy and turn times of your projects.
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