Final Report Summary - CLEAN4YIELD (Contamination and defect control for increased yield for large scale R2R production of OPV and OLED) Executive Summary:While the first reporting period was mainly focussed on the development of technologies and equipment the second reporting period aimed at the transfer of the technology into prototypes and techniques, the integration of those into existing processes and R2R lines and last but not least the performance demonstration of said prototypes and techniques. The following prototypes and technologies have been built, integrated and successfully demonstrated:• Particle counter for foil, with front/backside separation, particle detection 500 nm – 10 µm (Dr. Schenk)• Particle counter for glass substrate, particle detection range 300 nm – 10 µm (Dr. Schenk)• EasyInspect layer homogeneity inspection, resolution +/- 2% of layer thickness (Dr. Schenk)• Ultra fast inline Ellipsometer/Reflectometer (Horiba) with index matching roller for transparent flexible substrates (Teknek)• RollAndDetect scatterometry based particle detector, particle range <100 nm – 500 nm (TU Delft)• steady Thermography and Thermography for substrates moving up to 10m/min (DCG)• LBIC and new contacting system for inspecting on moving substrate (Risø DTU)• New sets of elastomers and adhesives for contact cleaning in Vacuum, including vacuum compatible operating system (Teknek)• New sets of elastomers and adhesives for highly efficient contact cleaning (Teknek) • Line cleaner for efficient inline machine cleaning (Teknek)• Local and full area µPlasmaPrint (InnoPhysics) • Local, ultra fast, contact free cleaning with CO2 cleaning (TNO)• Self repair of electrical defects in devices (TNO)• General Prevention plan, including process and equipment design and way of working procedures (whole consortium)• Airturns and airtables (IBS)• Narrow gap contact free full area cleaner (IBS)• Integration extension frame (Coatema)• Clean-on-demand film ST520 (DTF)• Hot knurled film (DTF)• Device repair by laser treatment (Orbotech)Project Context and Objectives:While nanotechnology was originally limited to small areas of a few cm2, the quest for lower costs has been the latest years the drive for developing processes utilising larger substrate sizes at increasing throughputs. A typical example is the flat panel display industry where the push to larger gen size and faster processing has resulted in a significant cost reduction. The next challenge here is the move to smaller feature sizes. Large area processing at high speeds is optimal when using roll-to-roll (R2R) processing, able to deliver the ultimate cost reduction. Flexible innovative thin film devices, like organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs) for lighting, photo voltaic (PV) and organic photo voltaic (OPV) modules, organic circuitry, printed electronics and thin film batteries, are currently developed using this kind of processing. OPV and OLED for lighting are almost mature to the market. OPV pilot lines are already employing R2R technology based on solution processing. For OLED lighting R2R processing is still in the research state. Here current pilot production uses vacuum deposition on glass substrates. In the near future, a switch to foil on carrier substrates is expected as a first step towards R2R production. Reliable inspection is a significant part in the production environment. It assures the quality and is ultimately determining the yield and by that the cost. That is true for S2S but especially holds for R2R. R2R only makes sense when the individual process steps have already high yields. The reason behind is that a complete roll is processed and no rejects can be removed from the line before the processing is completed. For similar processes and process yields, the scrap cost for R2R produced products will be always higher compared to S2S produced products as the costs for these new emerging applications are dominated by the materials bill. So, increasing yield is reducing production costs. To increase yield and product quality, to reduce waste and thereby cost, monitoring and cleaning as well as repair and preventive machine design and handling-procedures are essential.The overall objective of Clean4Yield is the development and demonstration of nano-scale detection and inspection techniques, high-efficient cleaning techniques as well as repair technologies and prevention techniques for large area substrates. High-end barrier foils and the integrated production of OLED and OPV devices will serve as the carrier applications.Clean4Yield will develop methods, which will increase yield and improve performance and operational device lifetimes of these applications, but will be applicable for other large-scale production technologies of other nano layer applications on glass and flexible substrates, e.g. in the field of printed electronics. Clean4Yield will develop not only processes but it will also deliver tools and integrate those in existing pilot and research coating lines. The multidisciplinary nature of this objective requires a European approach. The whole value chain has to be considered and new technologies need to be developed. Clean4Yield combines and draws expertise from the particular research areas of universities, institutes, and industry. This consortium convenes the outstanding experts in their fields from leading European industry and academic groups and covers the whole value chain. The participation of future manufactures of high quality foil, moisture barrier foil, OLED lighting panels and OPV modules ensures a prompt transfer of the results of Clean4Yield into real production. The success of this project will bring a complete supply chain solution within the EU boundaries, with a number of EU based global market leaders forming major links within the chain.Clean4Yield will be developing techniques for the large area of 30 cm wide substrates with a speed of up to 10 m/min. While the laboratory standard of 30 cm wide has been chosen as a workhorse, special attention will be given to ensuring easy up-scaling to larger substrates.Project Results:results per partner:01 – TNOTNO has developed a local cleaning unit (LCU) for the localised removal or particles down to 100 nm. The LCU is both capable of ultra-short exposure cleaning and continuous cleaning of a limited area, making it a versatile tool for R2R and S2S applications. The LCU is still a laboratory prototype.- KNOWLEDGEFor a research organisation as TNO in general and especially for Holst Centre with its open innovation concept the development of better understanding of OLED, OPV and barrier production processes and equipment as well as the related yield control are highly valuable. In general TNO has deepened its expertise – also with support of the consortium members – in the following fields:• Contamination and defect prevention by machine design and way of working protocols• Web handling and Electrostatics• Failure mechanisms in OLED and OPV• Particle adhesion, transport and removal• Repair strategies for defective devices• Optical inspection technologies • Atmospheric plasma deposition- DEVELOPED TOOLSTNO will also function as an end-user to the tools and technologies developed by consortium members. The research S2S and R2R lines at Holt Centre (Barrier, OLED, OPV, printed metal structures, displays) and within the Solliance project (CIGS-PV, OPV) will benefit from the integration of the Clean4Yield results. The research will be improved and sped up by installation of inspection tools. Cleaning, prevention and repair techniques will improve the yield and quality of experiments and will lead to better performance of demonstrator devices.02 – CoatemaThe whole consortium discussed the prevention of damages and yield reduction in technical meetings under several aspects (see Deliverable 4.4 Final Prevention plan).These aspects were reducing particle contamination, improved yield, WoW-Procedures, Maintenance, handling of chemistry and pre-treatment of substrates and finally recommendations for processing. Based on that general view Coatema realized with the Partners the integration of several metrologies at the R2R Process line at HOLST.These metrologies were (see Figure x):• Ellipsometer with HORIBA• CMOS Camera with Dr. Schenk• Scatterometer with TU Delft• Particle Counter with Dr. Schenk• Contact rollers with TEKNEKTo enable full functionality of the novel metrologies and to reduce film damage and particle generation Coatema integrated novel components like IBS Air turns and IBS air table into the integration frameCoatema will use the integration frame as reference for the successful upgrade of existing R2R-process lines. Further demonstration of the novel metrologies for industry can be organized on request and in cooperation with the Partner HOLST03 – Dr. SchenkDr. Schenk has developed two EasyInspect systems which are integrated in the R2R lines of TNO/Holst and Eight19. These systems are designed on the one hand for the detection of spatially limited coating defects and for the detection of mechanical defects and particles of a size > 10 µm and on the other hand to monitor layer thickness variations of a coated layer stack (OLED/OPV). The optical set up was designed according to the requirements of the inspection task. The transmission channel with higher optical resolution is used for the detection of small coating defects and mechanical defects like scratches while the reflection channel with lower optical resolution is used to monitor large area layer thickness variations. The system works on fast moving film and glass (substrate speed > 10 m/min) - sheet as well as continuous material. Typical coating defects like bubbles or streaks are often a spatial limited variation in the layer thickness and therefore can be detected as relative layer thickness change detected by line scan cameras. So the evaluation principle is similar to layer thickness evaluation and consequently both tasks are combined in one system. Layer thickness evaluation resp. monitoring of layer homogeneity over the full web width (300 mm in Clean4Yield, but easily upscalable) is based on grey values from the reflection channel of the inspection system. These qualitative measurements are calibrated and interpreted by means of data from the point measurements of the ellipsometer from Horiba which is combined via software interface. To enlarge the measuring range and the reliability of data a new 4-wavelength-illumination including electronics was developed. Furthermore the layer thickness evaluation algorithm was developed and implemented to software. The data of local defects and the thickness information are stored in a database. For the detection of small particle contamination in the range between 500 nm and 10 µm a particle counter prototype was designed and installed in the R2R-line at TNO/Holst. This inline particle detection works on fast moving (10 m/min) and flexible R2R material like bare foil (PET, PEN) and on foil with a coated layer stack. On glass sheets even the 300 nm particles can be detected. Not only particle contaminations like spheres, flakes or fibres but also mechanical defects like scratches or cracks can be detected and evaluated. Films often have a high density of contamination on their backside. The back side contamination has no influence on the functionality of OLEDs and OPV but is detected during the inspection with the standard particle counter from Dr. Schenk due to its large depth of focus. Thus differentiation between the top and the bottom surface of thin (100 µm) films was required and accordingly a particle counter prototype based on a new concept was developed, including a new autofocus based on a principle which works on fast moving and scattering material. As the task of TU Delft is the detection of particles < 500 nm this topic was worked on in close collaboration with TU Delft. The particle information of both technologies is combined via software interface and displayed in the user software resp. stored in the database of Dr. Schenk. Thus the complete defect information is easily accessible for the end user. The detection tools – both the inspection system and the particle counter – are designed to be integrated in a R2R-process and to be combined with cleaning and repair tools by providing these tools with the necessary defect information and the defect location on the material. Furthermore this information can be used as a feedback for a fast inline process and quality control. Already since many years the reduction of energy consumption is an important issue. With the drying up of energy sources alternative energy sources and the saving of energy gets into focus. Together with wind energy the exploitation of solar energy is on the way to take over a remarkable part of our energy supply. The development of new and cost effective production methods combined with increasing efficiency of the solar modules can push this development. Focusing on organic materials for solar panels (OPV) and roll-to-roll production systems Clean4Yield can therefore help to reach this goal.Consequently these developments also include the substitution of illuminations with high energy consumption (such as bulbs) by products with better efficiency. OLED is one of the promising solutions here. As the components and materials as well as the production methods for OLEDs are pretty similar to OPV, Clean4Yield covers both aspects. The results achieved in this project will help to make another step in saving energy for the future.04 – Riso DTULight beam induced current (LBIC) mapping is a common, though less utilized technique for mapping the electrical output of a solar cell over its surface using a laser that is scanned over it. Localized electrical defects can be identified because they contribute little or not at all to the electrical output and will therefore appear darker in the LBIC map image. One of the reasons for the limited use has been the comparative slow speed – typically some 25 mSec per pixel – leading to hours of measuring time to obtain a single image. This can still be tolerated for slow production techniques and when only a few samples in a production need to be studied. The Clean4Yield product however aims at the organic photovoltaic (OPV) production where the solar cells are printed/coated onto rolls of a plastic substrate at rates up to a projected 10 m/min (30 cm wide). In order to characterize electrical defects in OPV a new and much faster type of LBIC instrument was developed prior to the Clean4Yield project and it has been adapted for roll-to-roll (R2R) mapping of OPV modules as they are prepared on a roll of substrate plastic foil.The speed of acquiring an LBIC image have been increased by a factor of 10.000 so that standard sized solar cells can be imaged in a matter of seconds (or less) by development of new measurement methodology and custom electronics for signal processing.The standard (and commercial versions) have all been off-line instruments and one of the key issues in the Clean4Yield project has been how to incorporate it in to an R2R line. The main problem being how to make electrical contacts to individual solar cells (printed OPV) while the foil is moving at high speed. Several solutions based on either momentarily stopping the foil transport while measuring or using rotating electrical contacts have been developed. Either where not completely satisfactory limiting the measurement speed or creating electrical noise that partly reduced the LBIC image quality.Another technological breakthrough was then realized by recording the electrical signals from the solar cells through what is called a capacitive coupling method. Flat electrodes in the instrument in close proximity to the outer electrodes of the solar cell sense even minute changes in the electrical output rather than the absolute value. Electrical defects can therefore be detected by transient changes they produce. This novel method is especially suited for R2R measurements because no direct physical contact needs to be established to the solar cells. Later developments have been focused on increasing the measurement speed even further and making the method more robust reducing sensitivity to electrical noise and ambient light sources. This will make it even more suited as an in-line tool for R2R production of solar cells.The potential impact of the new LBIC technology that has been developed during the Clean4Yield project is that for the first time it is possible to apply this technique for roll-to-roll (R2R) processed solar cells. Next generation thin-film solar cells such as organic photovoltaics (OPV) and the novel Perovskite solar cells will require tools like this to detect electrical defects that occur as a function of the R2R processing methods and allow the operators to respond and rectify the production. Fast detection methods, such as this new ground-breaking LBIC method, are necessary for the development of a new industry based on R2R production of new generation solar cells that may be a vital element in a sustainable production of energy for our society.05 – DTFPrevention is better than cure. The concepts and prototypes for technologies developed in this work package aim to drastically reduce the cost and quality by getting it right from the start with process and product developments. Contamination of small particles can cause major defects and life time constraints on devices as is being proven experience and backed up by quantitative studies on the impact of particle size and type on device defects. In majority of cases this contamination can be avoided by preventing exposure of the sensitive surfaces to other, possibly contaminated, materials (air, equipment, roller surfaces, etc. (see Preliminary Prevention Plan report). To investigate surface modifications of rollers and substrates for reduction in contamination, a range of concepts have been explored to avoid contamination.DTF’s core strength has been employed with the development of an inherently clean substrate surface and subsequent process technologies to maintain this level of cleanliness. This substrate has been manufactured and presented to the SiN coating process in reel form and successfully coated by exposing the virgin PET surface only moments prior to deposition. This lead to successful reproduction of the lab experiments with A4 sheets at concept stage. Encouraging barrier performance results of WVTR’s of < (7±4)· 10-6g/m-2.day have been measured with the Ca test. Further work is focussed on improving the consistency of the protection foil and flatness of the substrate.Once a clean substrate surface has been created and coated, the challenge is to prevent subsequent contamination. Further contact with surfaces is ideally to be avoided and web transport with air turn and air table surfaces has been proven to be viable with prototype solutions with no visible increase in contamination levels or damage to substrate surface as long as no particles are trapped in air gap.Knurling is a web handling technology to allow winding of non-slip surfaces. This has been developed specifically for the flexible electronic processes to withstand higher temperatures in ovens with a hot knurling process. A prototype is has been manufactured by Kampf GmbH and tests have been carried out with DTF and Holst to compare the collapse of the knurl after heat treatment to the conventional cold knurled technology. Tests have proven successful on standard PET films showing little to no collapse.The development of new surfaces for reduced abrasion when transporting rolls has been investigated with an experimental rig which allowed a controlled slip of film with fragile coating over a roll surface with different properties. The aim was to learn the impact of roll surface energy and roughness on abrasion. It proved to be difficult to independently change the surface properties and proved equally difficult the make the method developed for measuring surface contamination reproducible. As it was obvious that if slip can be avoided in the process, the chances of abrasion can be drastically reduced, the focus of efforts have been put onto best practice technologies as developed in the PET film business to prevent slip (eg through minimising web tension differentials, web wrinkling, wrap angles). This has been summarised in the Preliminary Prevention Plan and Final Prevention Plan. The development of surfaces has been finalized with an attempt to improve the abrasion test reproducibility with a range of coatings and test conditions. It is proving difficult to define a suitable coating for accelerated testing purposes.Further best practices have been developed for minimisation of contamination with guidelines for clean room operation, transport and packaging of reels, management of static charging of surfaces, incorporating of cleaning techniques, operation and design of ovens, equipment design for minimising abrasion and front side contact.When front side contact cannot be avoided the use of air bearing technology from IBS has been explored and implemented with air turn rollers and tables.The main outcome for DTF is the development of a new product which may contribute to a breakthrough in the development of flexible electronic devices through means of a functional substrate allowing a significant cost reduction in the production of such devices. Press releases, multiple presentations and workshops have been held held at range of conferences and exhibitions in Europe/ US and Asia resulting in a healthy response from the market encouraging further development to a commercially viable product. Process developments and best practices developed with this project are being exploited in DTF’s manufacturing process and end-users handling our substrates.06 – HoribaDuring Clean4Yield project, Horiba input plays a role in the inspection activities. The instrument developed during the project having the role of simultaneously :- inspecting inline deposited film homogeneity on a moving web- inspecting material quality through the determination of its optical propertiesOne can notice that the techniques in use involve together a powerful signal processing performances together with a significant modelling work. In first half of the project, two tasks, respectively scientific and technical were developed in parallel :- Investigation of optical properties for a large family of thin film materials that are used in OPV or OLED devices. The building of such database is fundamental for the future use of the instrument as the list of materials potentially usable in flexible electronics is limitless.- Development of new hardware and software including multiple diagnostic environment (Spectroscopic Ellipsometer, Spectroscopic Reflectometer and DrSchenk Inspection system) for integration inline of a new acquisition and modelling engine for fast controls on moving web.Around M18, there has been a decision to overcome with an inherent difficulty related to modelling flexible substrates. This has been the use of a specially coated roller which role was to erase an unwanted optical contribution. This roller was supplied by Teknek partner. During last year of the project, Horiba team has been working on integration of the tools on two existing pilot lines, respectively at Holst center and at Eight19. It has been completed by training the new users.The integration period was also the period of validation for both the Teknek roller and the data exchange software with DrSchenk Inspection System.07 – IBSboth offline and in working roll2roll lines. In such air tables, vacuum grooves are used to pull the supported web towards the air bearing, improving stiffness and stability at a given fly height. For stationary foils, at optimal settings, < 5 μm local flatness and 15 μm deviation over 200 mm foil width was realized on a 50 μm thick PET foil. For moving foils vibrations were reduced from over 200 μm to below 9 μm (peak to peak). Foil speed was further shown to have no significant influence (up to 5m/min).The web stability demonstrated may be exploited in the following applications:• Supporting the film at locations where the web tension is low and/or the distance between two subsequent rollers is large, to prevent sagging• Damping vibrations in the film for (optical) inspection • Flattening and stabilizing the film in out-of-plane direction at location of printing/coating stations Demonstration has been realised in a roll2roll line used to develop novel inspection equipment for webs: including a novel scatterometry system (by TU Delft) and a high resolution particle detector (by Dr Schenk). A precondition for both techniques is a very stable web. For the particle detector, where the system must look through the web, an air table was placed either side for stabilisation. With the air tables operational, particle counting was possible for particles down to 500nm. For the scatterometer, even higher stability was required and measurements were carried out immediately above the air table. In this case measurement of particles of 100nm was made possible.A fundamental study of the performance of air turns has been completed both offline and inline - mapping parameters including fly height control versus web tension, stiffness and foil form deviations. Stiffness of the order of 1e6N/m has been observed indicating high stability and zero risk of foil contact with the surface under normal web operation. Folds in the foil were demonstrated to be straightened out as they passed over the air turn. Lateral forces acting on the foil due to misalignment of air turns were assessed as at sub-Newton level, confirming alignment as no more critical than for standard rollers.The potential to extend the capability of air turns for web steering has been proven. Retrofitting these in an industry standard steering unit to avoid front contact, the speed and range was increased while the steering accuracy was maintained. Particle contamination levels resulting from air turns was assessed as negligible. The mechanical design was optimized for easier installation and alignment in roll2roll frames. Significantly reduced static build up has been proven, as compared to traditional rollers.Not only do the above technologies avoid issues of contamination and damage; ultra-low friction also enables high resolution motion and excellent repeatability to support precision overlay.The technologies proven provide critical capability for next generation roll-to-roll manufacturing. The Clean4Yield consortium contributes to maintain and increase scientific and technological leadership of Europe in the fields of inline Detection/Inspection, Substrate cleaning and equipment design and by that in the field of organic electronics. The developed air bearing technology has proven to be a key enabler for the latest state-of-the-art development on metrology and inspection. The Clean4yield project partners dr. Schenk, TU Delft have stated that the developed web stabilisation was essential to enable their technology development; without this it wouldn’t have been possible.Non-contact web transport has been proven in real R2R systems at Eight19 and Coatema. The developed non-contact web steering showed a significant performance improvement and the ability to avoid contact on the sensitive front surface.New, high effective non-contact cleaning technologies have been developed, enabling a high particle removal without contacting the surface. The newly developed methods and technologies have been integrated and demonstrated in both sheet2sheet and R2R production processes showing their efficiency. The cleaning technology can easily be adapted for large-area production technologies.Knowhow has been developed for modelling and simulation creating a fundamental basis for developing a range of products for R2R non-contact handling and sheet/R2R non-contact cleaning. This is an essential step in achieving the challenging market development goals.New market potentials have been opened up in collaboration with the partners e.g. contactless steering, adhesives, improved materials such as removing sag, latter to be explored further. Significant know how was gained through development of a dedicated particle inspection system to assess cleaning capability.Market opportunities are foreseen related to:• Inspection technology & equipment manufacturers • Cleaning technology & equipment manufacturers • Repair technology & equipment manufacturers • Prevention technology & equipment manufacturers • Full R2R lines manufacturers• Substrate producers & supplier• Barrier foil producer & supplier• OPV & OLED producers & supplierThe integrated approach of Clean4Yield will allow IBS to enter new markets by moving further up or down the full value chain. The developed technology will enable the reduction of cost of equipment manufacturers and their customers through preventative approaches. The market opportunity is expected by IBSPE for this new technology to be even larger than the current flat panel display conveyors. IBSPE expects the air bearing technology for non-contact transport of film and/or thin substrates to have a market size of approx. 2 M€/year for Europe only. Non-contact cleaning is expected to have a market size of 2–5 M€/year. The developed technology is expected to have a long life time; expanding over 10 years.08 – Teknek Particles of contamination such as dust or process debris are a major cause of defects in any coating process whether it is painting a door in the home or coating a very thin functional coating for the manufacture of OLEDs. Removing particles from surfaces is difficult and it is even more difficult when the particles are sub-micron in size. During this project Teknek have developed a range of special elastomers which are particularly targeted to remove the types and sizes of particles which cause defects in the thin functional coatings which form the layers in OLED and OPV devices. There are specific elastomers for the different applications within the manufacturing process. These elastomers can be used in different ways such as being made into rollers to integrate into Teknek’s well established contact cleaning equipment. Different forms of elastomer have also been developed.Foreground 1 Nanocleen cleaning elastomer – This elastomer is specifically targeted at removing nanometer sized particles without affecting the surface energy of the substrate so enabling high yield from the subsequent coating processes. It can be incorporated into all of Teknek’s different types of equipment which are suitable for use in all solution coating and laminating applications.Foreground 2 UTF cleaning elastomer – This elastomer is specifically for removing sub-micron particles from thin films or substrates with coatings which are sensitive to damage. It can also be incorporated into all Teknek equipment.Foreground 3 Vacuum compatible cleaning elastomer – Under high vacuum, outgassing of chemicals can occur and traditional cleaning rollers are highly subject to outgassing. Teknek have developed a special form of the Nanocleen roller which does not outgas under vacuum but will still remove particles on the film being processed. In order to make this new elastomer able to be used in a high vacuum environment a completely new range of equipment had to be developed all components of which had to be completely vacuum compatible. It is mainly used to clean the base film at unwind before deposition.A second vacuum compatible elastomer, Teknek’s Panel compound, has been identified which is specifically used to remove flakes of Silicon Nitride from films at rewind within the vacuum chamber but after vacuum deposition.Foreground 4 Cleaning mat – An new cleaning elastomer which could be manufactured into a sheet has been developed. This sheet is attached to the front edge of the web of film to be coated and it passes through the coating line contacting all the surfaces which the film will contact and removing any particles from these surfaces. This prevents particles from building up on process rollers and then transferring to the surface of the film being coated and causing defects.Foreground 5 Cleaning pad – This is a small foam backed elastomer pad supports on a handle which is used to remove particles from a small area of substrate. Its main use will be in research facilities where tests are carried out. It can also be used to clean small areas after repair activities.Foreground 6 Hand rollers – during the project it was found that Teknek Panel elastomer is the form of a hand held roller was extremely efficient at cleaning all the surfaces, especially the drum and shield, within the vacuum chamber during maintenance between deposition runsDefects caused by particles result in significant quantities of scrap materials. Depending on the stage of the process at which the scrap is generated it can be very difficult to recycle. In any coating and laminating process particles are the single largest cause of scrap. Removal of particles has significant benefits in conserving material resources and is reducing the impact of waste disposal.Contact cleaning is a very environmentally method of removing particles as compared to the more traditional methods of brush and vacuum and wet cleaning. Wet cleaning uses large amounts of water and chemicals which have to be disposed of after the cleaning process is complete. And both wet cleaning and vacuum systems use significant amounts of energy.With contact cleaning the only item requiring disposal is the sheet of adhesive used to collect the particles but these adhesive sheets are all biodegradable so reducing the environmental impact. For R2R contact cleaning equipment there is no energy use at all as the machine is driven by the web running through it while for sheet application the energy consumption is very low, just sufficient to power a 24V motor.Until this project resulted in a range of elastomers which can remove small particles from sensitive substrates without damage and without changing the surface properties of the substrate, there was no viable method of reducing the particle induced defects in OLED and OPV production. In these processes the particles causing defects are small, because of the thickness of the coatings. Also many of the coatings are sensitive to moisture and scratching which rules out the use of wet or vacuum cleaning systems.The range of cleaning equipment into which Teknek have incorporated these new elastomers has the potential to save manufacturers significant amounts of revenue through waste reduction while conserving material and energy resources to reduce environmental impact. The equipment will also enhance the commercial viability of new technologies such as OLED and OPV and may speed up the introduction of these environmentally friendly products.09 – InnoPhysicsFor contact-free cleaning the atmospheric pressure plasma method has been adopted within the Clean4Yield project, which is suitable to address chemical contamination from monolayers to a few nanometers and small organic particles. Plasma pre-treatment as (pre)cleaning technology for the removal of organic contamination is well established and is exploited by various commercially active providers. Mostly these setups provide only full area or low resolution fixed pattern treatment. Local and selective cleaning using plasma on a micrometer scale is an unique approach. The new atmospheric pressure µPlasmaPrint technology from InnoPhysics allows full area as well as local plasma treatment on demand. The µPlasmaPrinting system is based on digital information, which means if detection methods are able to register the position of an area that needs treatment this digital information can be used and synchronised with the plasma printer to address the registered area. As part of the clean4Yield project InnoPhysics has improved the resolution of the µPlasmaPrint head from 100 micrometer diameter to 40 micrometer diameter plasma channels. This leads to an improvement of the typical spot sizes for cleaning from 300 to 100 micrometer diameter on plastic foils. For local cleaning purposes a number of standard chemistries have demonstrated to be suitable and applicable for local cleaning actions, as it can be concluded from cleaning tests of a wide variety of polymer substrates and a set of cleaning chemistries. In addition, cleaning of a conductive polymer (PEDOT) layers and photo-active layers (PAL) has been demonstrated.Within Clean4Yield a roll-to-roll (R2R) compatible solution of the technology has been developed with a single µPlasmaPrint head and successfully demonstrated its capability to execute local cleaning actions at a web speed up to 10 metres per minute on 30 cm wide web. The demonstrator can however only execute a maximum number of cleaning actions since the single print head needs to be moved across the web to the registered cleaning site. Strategies and methods for scaling up to even faster web speeds and wider webs have been investigated using multiple heads and/or print head concepts that span the full web width. Of the latter, a lab prototype for full web width cleaning has been created at successfully demonstrated the proof-of-concept. In addition, within Clean4Yield the µPlasmaPrint technology has been used to investigate moisture barrier repair strategies. The most viable barrier repair is the repair of the uppermost barrier once the device is finished. The repair of a bottom barrier could be viable as well, thereby preventing the defect to penetrate in the subsequently processing steps of active layers and top barrier. Implementation of the repair strategy for the uppermost barrier is in addition not envisioned to be executed in-line on the R2R system, but as a standalone repair station.The repair strategy envisioned would entail 1) a registration of the defect 2) addressing the area with the digital µPlasmaPrint head and 3) deposit the material locally with plasma enhanced chemical vapour deposition, which should lead to coverage of a defect with a siliconoxide-like or siliconnitride-like coating thereby repairing the defect and, hence, achieve a prolonged life time of the OPV/OLED device. The materials under evaluation do show siliconoxide-like and siliconnitride-like compositions. Since siliconoxide and siliconnitride are today’s preferred choice as barrier materials the match between the deposited material and host barrier material should be good, particularly in terms of optical behaviour. The repair action should not lead to optically visible inhomogeneities. Furthermore by µPlasmaPrint the deposition is well controlled and thin (<100 nm) coatings can be placed spot-wise (100-200 micrometer spot-size) at any given (registered) location. The developed types of coatings still show crosslinking which means that, even with specific plasma post treatment, the films are polymeric and not ceramic as would be expected for high quality silicon-oxide, silicon-nitride or silicon-oxynitride. At the end of the project, unfortunately no signs of improved barrier properties or barrier repair capability by any of the plasma-printed films have been observed in the Ca pad tests. From analysis of the composition of the films it is suspected that the density of the polymeric coatings is not sufficient to reduce the water vapour or oxygen transmission rate. Hence, the state-of-the-art materials deposited with digital µPlasmaPrint are not (yet) suitable for barrier repair application, although, it should be noted that during the course of the project it has been questioned whether Ca pad test is sufficiently representative as the barrier test. Future experiments using other plasma gas compositions and deposition temperatures may eventually lead to sufficiently high quality coatings that can be used for the barrier repair purposes.In the case that future experiments will lead to materials with sufficient barrier repair capability, the digital on-demand µPlasmaPrint technology has demonstrated the capability to execute the desired barrier repair strategy.The µPlasmaPrint technology of InnoPhysics is a unique and highly innovative enabling technology for applications in printed, organic electronics and biosensors. As a globally unique local surface tailoring enabling technology, that combines the benefits of digital printing with the versatility of plasma processing, the low cost µPlasmaPrint technology could potentially enable a variety of novel bio(-med) sensors and print electronics devices to make the next step to commercialization, which are meant to solve a number of societal challenges related to health care costs, energy consumption and CO¬2 emmission. The introduction of next generation bio(-med) sensors will lead to reduction of health care costs and the introduction of printed, organic electronic devices will lead to low-power consumption alternatives for present day electronic devices, which leads to reduced energy consumption and, thus, CO2 emmission. The technology is a new addition to the ever growing new digital manufacturing options device manufacturers can select from, which will bring the future of digital fabrication as envisioned in many roadmaps one step closer. Being an additive technology µPlasmaPrint can lead to the replacement of presently used multi-step processes, thereby in many cases reducing the energy consumption and replacing environmentally unfriendly processes. The project results have been presented at various national, European and international symposia and workshops. In addition InnoPhysics organized its own workshop to bring together the user community of microplasmas for local surface engineering from the printed electronics and biomedical application fields to present the capabilities of the technology and to the discus the key process options for these application fields. The improved resolution of the µPlasmaPrint head has been incorporated in the standard print head and is being supplied as replacement to the installed base and new customers. The results of the developed cleaning and deposition processes are going to be captured in Technical Notes which are demonstrations of the capabilities of μPlasmaPrint.10 – PhilipsPhilips is the leader in lighting worldwide. Philips has also been on the forefront of OLED industrialization ever since the first lighting tiles were shown to the public. Philips has headquartered its OLED activities in Aachen (Germany). Also located in Aachen is the world’s largest OLED production facility. Just recently, a new production line has been added – an investment of 40 Million Euro – which will enable faster and cheaper production of OLED lighting tiles of the latest generation at an acceptable yield. Philips has clear commercial outlet for the exploitation of the project results of the Clean4Yield project, The two-fold aim of the Clean4Yield project – developing solutions for yield increase for rigid sheet to sheet production as well as for roll to roll production – gives also a double benefit for Philips as the end-user of these solutions.The technologies developed within Clean4Yield have reached a state, which make most of them ready to use or close to industrial usability.Philips actually uses sheet to sheet technology for the production of OLED panels. In this scope, Philips has assessed the project results for particle detection, cleaning, defect detection and laser repair. In particular the particle counter, elastomer and contactless cleaning, IR detection and laser repair have reached a state that these technologies can be used in industrial sheet to sheet production of OLEDs without major development effort. The decision whether to use these technologies mainly depends on the expected cost savings, which is a matter of the true market size. Roll to roll production of OLEDs is still in the development state, but offers advantages when it comes to real mass production of flexible OLEDs. The project has given valuable insights in the challenges and possible solutions for this future production technology. From this point of view, the results of the Clean4Yield project will serve as a pre-development and will be of high value by the time when Philips will switch to roll to roll production. Here especially the prevention results specifically found for a roll to roll machine are of high value, but also dedicated measurement techniques for moving webs. Also the above mentioned technologies are already in a state that they can be used for roll to roll technologies as well.Finally, the project results perfectly fit the ongoing development within the FlexOFab project. Here technologies for flexible OLED manufacturing on a sheet to sheet base are developed. Especially the particle detection and cleaning technologies of Clean4Yield are a major step in the process development for flexible OLEDs. For the future, it will be necessary to combine the project results from development and production perspective. For the process development, it will be necessary to really determine the possible yield increase. As an example, the yield impact by using elastomer cleaning instead of traditional wet cleaning could not be evaluated within the project, because the particle detection was developed in parallel. Therefore, the particle counter could not be used for the assessment of the cleaning efficiency. The same holds for prevention techniques within the project. From the production perspective, the way of working has to be optimized to reduce manual handling steps. For example, IR detection and laser repair has to be combined to one single system, which will detect the defect, repair it by laser and directly measures the final OLED quality. Solving these tasks will be a clear benefit for future OLED production within the EU. This holds not only for the current sheet to sheet and the future roll to roll technologies, but also for the new technologies developed within the FlexOFab project.OLEDs change the way people experience and interact with lighting already today. In addition OLED lighting significantly reduces energy consumption compared to traditional technologies like halogen lighting or TL lamps. OLEDs can be used in general lighting as well as automotive lighting. They will not compete with LED, but rather be complementary in segments where homogeneous, glare-free lighting on larger areas is required. The efficacy of the current “Brite FL300 OLED” produced by Philips already exceeds the efficacy of standard TL lamps by far. The use of OLEDs will help reducing energy costs significantly. Additionally, OLEDs offer lighting opportunities, which cannot be met by standard techniques, because of the flat, homogeneous and glare-free design. This will also change the way, homes, offices, lobbies etc. will be illuminated in the future. Rather than “hiding” the light source in a luminaire, OLEDs themselves can serve as luminaires either in a “design” fashion or just as a simple lighting area.The results of the project first will help to produce these OLEDs cost efficiently by increasing the production yield. Additionally, using elastomer cleaning or contactless cleaning will also help in reducing water and energy consumption. By this, the results give an ecological benefit. The same holds for IR detection and laser repair: While increasing yield and saving costs, these processes also will help in reducing production waste in terms of failed products. In this way, the ecological and economical benefit is in saving organic material, ITO and glass.Roll to roll technology will help in reducing transport costs first from the substrate supplier to the OLED fab, secondly from the fab to the customers. Thin flexible glass already reduces weight by a factor of seven compared to glass sheets, while thin plastic foils even reduce weight much more. From this perspective, the results of the Clean4Yield project have a clear ecological and economical benefit again.12 – Eight19Organic photovoltaic (OPV) technology has the potential, when scaled to large volumes, to generate electricity from the sun’s radiation at the lowest installed cost of any photovoltaic technology. Furthermore, it can be readily manufactured in a thin, flexible, lightweight and robust format and with a broad range of design options that enable a wide variety of new markets for energy generation that are inaccessible to conventional silicon solar technology. Recently, single junction organic solar cells have achieved over 10% efficiency for the first time and there is now an opportunity to scale up the technology to meet real commercial applications. “off-grid solar” and “energy harvesting”, two emerging growth markets where OPV offers unique benefits. Longer term volume markets include building-integrated photovoltaics (BIPV), where OPV is differentiated by semitransparency and flexibility, along with its superior low light performance and low cost volume manufacture. Lightweight OPV films could provide further advantages in a reduction of the balance of systems (BOS) costs related to the installation.It has been shown that solution based roll-to-roll processing can be highly efficient in terms of capital equipment and labour use, so that in large volume production the total product costs are dominated by the materials costs.The functional layers of an OPV modules are only several tens to hundreds of nanometres thick. The requirements on the layer qualities are high and therefore a low number of defects in these thin films is essential fo rhigh performance and high yield.The Clean4Yield project as adressed these challenges with the workstreams: Prevention, cleaning and detection. As outcome of the “Prevention and cleaning” activities, Eight19 has developed and implemented several measures to minimize the origination of defects. These are:• Development of new working procedures• Web transport using air baerings• Inplemantation of new cleaning equipment developed by Teknek• Modification of the Roll-to-Roll machine to minimize contaminationThe outcome of the work on “Detection” will allow Eight19 to further improve the quality of the product and increase the yield. • An in-line camera system developed by Dr Schenk has been implemeted. This systems alows for the detection of particle and coating defects. It also allows to map the thickness variation of individual coatings. • An in-line ellipsometer developed by Horiba has been implemented. This allows to accuratey measure the absolute thickness of individual layers of a thin film stack. Coupled with the camera system by Dr Schenk it will enable to measure the abolute film thickness over large areas. • A thermaographic imaging system for the detection of electrical shunts, predominately caused by defects has been tested and assesed as a highly useful tool.14 – DCGThe main task of DCG Systems GmbH in the project Clean4Yield was the development of a roll-to-roll (R2R) process integratable Lock-in Thermography (LIT) system for the fast detection of electrical defects in organic LEDs (OLEDs) and organic photovoltaic solar modules (OPV) under inert atmosphere conditions.LIT is a measurement technique where an optical (for OPV only) or an electrical excitation source (for OPV and OLED) is periodically stimulating the device with a rectangular shaped signal, while at the same time measuring locally resolved the resulting temperature fluctuations of the device surface with an IR camera. A computer converts the temperature fluctuations to a false-colour map of the device. Electrical defects are visualized as lighter areas or spots corresponding to a larger temperature fluctuation. The big advantages of the LIT method are no disturbing background in the result images, due to the averaging effect a high SNR and a high spatial resolution which can be adjusted by changing the excitation frequency.However, during the project, we must realize that LIT is not the best method for fast moving foils in a R2R process. One big disadvantage of LIT in a R2R process is that only complete Lock-in periods are possible, at least one period must be performed and no excitation prior to the measurement is possible. The max. usable excitation frequency is limited by the heat diffusivity in the material. Plastic foils have low heat diffusivity and therefore the max. excitation frequency is also low. Test measurements have shown that the max. excitation frequency for the in Clean4Yield used foils is in the range of approx. 0.5Hz to 1.0Hz. In the case of e.g. 0.5Hz the duration of one Lock-in period is 2s. In 2s, assuming 10m/min foil movement, the foil is moving 33cm. However, the field of view of the camera is only 6 cm in direction of movement. For LIT measurements it would be necessary that the camera records the whole 33cm in direction of movement. One other big disadvantage is that LIT needs a very accurate excitation (temporal and areal). For moving targets, this is very complicated in the case of optical excitation and almost impossible with electrical excitation.Therefore, we have decided to perform standard IR thermography in the case of the inline-capable system and to use LIT whenever the devices are not moving. After every 250µm movement of the foil, the inline-capable system records one 640 x 256 pixel image (pixel resolution 250µm/pixel, field of view 160mm x 65mm). For improving the SNR always 256 images are averaged. Prior to the averaging, the image mismatch is compensated via software.Prior to the project, there was no IR camera available on the world market, which was fast enough and at the same time sensitive enough for the R2R application in this project. Therefore we had to check which new IR detectors are available on the world market. We have found two novel very sensitive IR detectors (one with 640 x 512 pixels and the other one with 1280 x 1024 pixels). Comparative measurements have shown that the novel 640 x 512 IR detector was much more sensitive. Based on this IR detector, we have successfully developed a very sensitive and fast IR camera system. For demonstrating the inline capability of the system, we had to move the organic devices very accurately with a speed of up to 10 m/min. Therefore, we have used a 4 m long linear positioning system which can move with up to 12m/min and reconstructed the system that it gives a TTL level signal every 25 µm of movement. The best suited start point of the excitation is 2 to 3 s prior to the IR measurement. In the case of electrical excitation, the excitation stays switched on also during the approx. 0.3 s lasting measurement. In the case of the optical excitation, the excitation stays switched on during the measurement, too. However the optical excitation does not illuminate the area, where the IR images are taken. After the IR measurements of an area are completed, the software is compensating the image mismatch and averages the IR images. After that, another software performs the image processing and detects and localizes the electrical defects in the foils. Afterwards the software informs about location, amplitude, area and integral value of the electrical defects. The integral value is roughly proportional to the dissipated power of the electrical defect. With the knowledge of these values, the end user can decide if the electrical defect should be repaired or not. If yes, the defect parameters are given to the repair unit. In the project Clean4Yield, Orbotech and TNO have repaired the electrical defects by laser heat treatment. Measurements prior to and subsequent to laser repair have shown that the dominating electrical defects could be eliminated in all cases by laser repair. And the IV curve could be significantly improved in all cases. Some of the repaired OLED devices started illuminating after repair. However, in some cases new electrical defects appear after laser-repair at different positions. Up to now it is not clear what the reason is for that behavior. Our main technical work in the project C4Y can be summarized as follows: 1. Development of a fast and sensitive IR camera suited for inline Lock-in IR thermography and IR thermography.2. Development of image processing algorithm for the detection and localization of electrical defects.3. Development of software, which automatically compensates the mismatch of IR images.4. Development of IR camera based system which is fast enough to localize electrical defects in fast and continuously moving devices like e.g. organic foils.Due to the project Clean4Yield we had additional work in our RD division and therefore employed one additional full-time person in October 2012. This person will permanently stay in our company after the project. In the last time we had to realize that the need for IR camera based test equipment in the organic electronics and PV market is growing much slower than expected. Today we assume that we will sell the first in-line system for organic devices in 2016 or 2017. Therefore, the main focus of our company has shifted to other topics. For example, we are developing an inline system for the detection and localization of delaminations and voids in sintered and/or soldered areas of power devices like e.g. IGBTs with IR cameras. For this purpose very fast and sensitive IR cameras and image processing software are necessary, too. Fortunately we can partly use the in the project C4Y developed equipment and software for this topic. This keeps us ahead in terms of very fast and sensitive IR camera systems. When the market for inline R2R systems of organic devices will be big enough in the future, we have a good starting position. Our expectations of the market potential of inline IR camera based test equipment is unchanged at approx. 5 to 10systems per year, however some years later than expected prior to the project.15 – TU DelftTU Delft has been responsible for the design, construction and test of a device that is able to detect particles of sizes ranging from 100 to 500 nm on a flat surface. Our technique goes beyond other optical imaging techniques where the resolution is limited to 500 nm when wavelength in the blue region of the spectrum is used. Our Rollanddetect device is based on a low power laser beam that is focussed on a surface and the detection is done at the far field. The main advantages of our technique as compared to other techniques such as atomic force microscope and scanning electron microscope is that our method is fast, non-invasive and can be applied directly in-line. In this way, the inspection of large areas can be done as the surfaces are being processed. It is also not necessary to use high power lasers or very short wavelengths which are equally harmful to both human beings and organic substances. Furthermore, thanks to the small spot size, it is possible to perform very local scan, which makes the device usable for samples with large roughness. In designing our device, we took into consideration several issues that were of importance for the end-product such as:- Laser source: a low power blue laser diode is used. The laser is coupled directly to an optical fibre that directs the light in a safe way to the device. The use of low power is not only advantageous as compared to other techniques that uses bright light sources regarding saving energy but is also essential in the application of inspection of plastic substrates as they can melt at high light power.- Fast detection: since the device has been designed to operate in-line, the detection speed should comply the speed of the roll-to-roll machines that is more than 1m/min. This high speed operation requires that the data flow and amount of post processing should be kept to a minimum so that the processing can be done with a simple computer. - Compactness: in order to make it easier to install the device in-line at the fabrication site, the device has been made compact and enclosed in a black box (dimensions of 45 cm(h)x20cm(w)x12.5cm(d)) to avoid laser reflections and be safe for human operators.The device has been integrated in the roll-to-roll machine at the Holst Centre in Eindhoven for tests. We have demonstrated the detection of contaminated particles down to 100 nm at a roll speeds of 0.3 m/min and 3 m/min. Unlike other particle counters, our technique also allows the determination of the position of the particle and as a consequence, cleaning procedures or defect repair can be combined in the process. We have also investigated the relation between the width in time of the detected signal and the siize of the detected particle in order to sort out the particle sizes. With some improvements that we recently have implemented in a test setup in the lab, we have demonstrated that localisation of the particle can be made with a precision that is much better than the wavelength of the light. With our Rollanddetect device, we are contributing to the development of new generation of particle counter/particle detectors that is applicable to large area surfaces combined to the detection of very small particles, in the range of 100 nm. This instrument can be used in several applications such as lithography, OLEDs and solar cells. The fact that the instrument can be very compact and be installed in-line will imply in reliable inspection at low cost.Our work has been presented in international conferences (Nanolight 2014 in Spain and European Optical Society Meeting in Germany, 2014) and at the Research Exhibition at TU Delft (2014). We have also published two scientific papers in renowned international journals: Optics Express 22, 13250(2014) and Physical Review Letters 114,103903(2015) and are planning to write another article for the journal Review of Scientific Instruments.After the project is ended we will move the scatterometer from the Holst center to the new VLAIR laboratories at TU Delft. These laboratories will open in 2016 and will have several measurement apparatus from the Imaging Physics Department. We are also planning to develop the scatterometer further in order to obtain fast detection at large areas and investigate the limits of detection of the instrument as for example the minimum detectable particle size given a certain wavelength and laser power. To this end, we have been contacting national and international institutes and companies in order to apply for future projects.16 – OrbotechA repair method has been developed which deals with OLED or OPV device at the final stages of the manufacturing, when the device is already encapsulated. First an inspection step is required in order to identify defects in the device, in particular electrical short defects which in the case of an OLED device results in low illumination (or total absence of illumination). The thermal inspection method provides also the position of the electrical defects for further use in the repair process. The latter is performed by a direct laser process which takes place by focusing a laser beam through the transparent window onto the active layer in order to selectively isolate the defect and restore the device into full power illumination. The same repair process can be done for defective OPV devices to restore their photovoltaic efficiency.Following the lock in thermography (LIT) inspection, the defect’s coordinates are acquired accurately by registration target, allowing precise location to the laser process.In order to achieve an accurate pattern of the laser ablation, fast steering mirrors (FSM) are being used to follow closely around the defect for isolation. Using the FSM technique results in a rapid ablation process (several milliseconds per isolation pattern).For the ablation process a short pulse laser ablation is used (nanoseconds pulses) avoiding collateral damage. The actual laser spot size on the samples are very small (several microns) for minimal damage to regimes which are not intended to get ablated.The repair process is verified by a closed loop operation, meaning that the ablation process is followed by measurement of the device’s illumination after repair.17 - RolicFor ROLIC, the results and the commercially exploitable foreground are derived from ROLIC’s efforts relating to the development and the application of the organic formulations which are part of the barrier stack. These formulations and coatings are providing the function of a planarization and water adsorbing layer.Relating to these organic layers, the yield and final quality of a barrier foil depends on the carefully customized chemical formulation, adjusting the relevant material parameters, such as viscosity, evaporation rate in vacuum, surface tension, rheological behaviour, optical transparency, mechanical properties and UV-curing performance. The application of these coatings inside an evacuated system has also been posing some significant technical challenges which needed adjustment of the formulations and a newly designed material feeding system. The quality of these coatings with regard to defect free coatings (bubble free, no voids, no strings, no edge beads, continuous material feeding into a vacuum system) as well as homogeneity of the coating across and along the substrate length are a directly measurable and visible quality parameter and subject to customer specifications (e.g. thickness variations). In order to achieve this quality level, it has been found that clearly defined operating procedures related to the preparation of the formulation (like degassing, mixing procedures, viscosity adjustment) are required. For the material feed/delivery system (pumping the organic formulation from an environment of atmospheric pressure into a system which is under vacuum), equipment changes and adjustment/engineering of the material feeding system (pumps, valves, reservoirs, filters) had to be developed and it’s reproducibility and processing window was shown.As for the handling of the substrate respectively the final coated foil, ROLIC’s has shown the impact of manual versus automatic handling in between processing modules on our S2S cluster tool. The impact on yield comparing manual handling versus automated handling of is massive and deserves utmost attention in designing production equipment.It has become obvious during the duration of the C4Y program that for improving yield in a R2R process, the contact free handling of the coated side and the cleaning of the foil backside and even of the liners before winding are crucial for consistent quality and high yield. In a R2R process, the handling is normally automated by the web process, but avoiding particles throughout the complete R2R process is mandatory. Again this can be addressed by proper equipment design and will be part of our exploitation strategy since avoiding defects by tight process control is always easier than detecting or repairing.As ROLIC is targeting to produce and sell barrier-foils made in a R2R process, we will implement findings and outcome of the C4Y program on three levels:• Equipment design• Material choices for organic coatings• Targeting the right customersIf ROLIC decides to invest in large R2R equipment, we will use the following learnings from the C4Y program for equipment design: 1: Ellipsometry system for inline inspection of SiN thickness developed by Horiba 2: Teknek rollers will be used with the recommended design and positioning in the R2R tool3: The use of a modular system approach as supplied by Coatema is taken in consideration since it provides maximum flexibility for a pilot production lineFor market entrance and commercialization of first barrier-foils, we target an application which requires a maximum of a WVTR of 1*E-4; e.g. for encapsulation of OPV modules (Organic Photovoltaic) and other applications with the same requirements for WVTR. This slightly lower requirement will allow us to get pilot production experience for small to medium volumes without the need of maximum quality and highest performance levels. During this ramp-up phase, we will continue to fine tune processing parameters to improve yield and quality, this is the first step into the market and therefore the most critical milestone.Detection of defects as part of quality assurance is fundamental for commercialization of barrier foils. As far as the proposed AOI inspection systems (AOI = Automatic Optical Inspection) are concerned, the results of the C4Y program do not yet provide a technical solution which can be used on a commercial pilot line. Main reason here are speed of the system over the full width of the foil versus cost of the proposed AOI systems. There is a need for a fast and cost efficient 100% in-line optical inspection method that will capture cosmetic defects over 300nm and we continue to investigate optical inspection tools for in-line AOI. The general assumption is that the introduction of OE devices like OLED’s for display and for lighting, and thin flexible OPV foils will have a positive impact on electrical energy consumption and, since most components of these devices are from organic raw materials, create a more sustainable and environmentally more beneficial technology route for the future.Potential Impact:The Clean4Yield project brings together commercial and research partners from Europe and Israel to tackle this most pressing issue in organic electronics – ensuring high enough yields for cost-effective manufacturing. This will lead to increased yield, better performance, longer operational device lifetimes and reduced production costs. The focus is on developing stable, reliable techniques that will be the foundation for the mass production of OLED, OPV and moisture barrier foil, but also for other thin film technologies on rigid and flexible substrates.R2R production of high-end thin film applications requires breakthroughs on many aspects, in particular concerning materials, process technologies and design. Clean4Yield will result in production-integrated methods for the detection of contaminations of particles and nano-objects as well as coating defects in nano-scaled layers, allowing an accurate process monitoring as needed for high-end thin film and nano technology. New, high effective cleaning technologies will be developed, enabling a high particle removal for both atmospheric and vacuum processing. Furthermore new equipment design and processing procedures will be developed, guaranteeing a cost effective production of ultra-thin functional layers on flexible substrates. The enhanced detection technology will facilitate the development of repair technologies The new developed methods and technologies will be integrated R2R production process for OLED, OPV, and high-end moisture barrier layers on flexible substrates. List of Websites:www.clean4yield.eucoordinator: Juliane Tripathi, j.tripathi@tno.nl; Juliane.Tripathi@outlook.com2nd coordinator: Pim Groen pim.groen@tno.nl Related documents final1-pictures-for-public-report.pdf
