In-line and Real-time digital nano-characterization technologies for the high yield manufacturing of Flexible Organic Electronics

Project Information

RealNano

Grant agreement ID: 862442

DOI

10.3030/862442

Project closed

EC signature date 12 March 2020

Start date 1 March 2020

End date 31 August 2023

Funded under

• INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Leadership in enabling and industrial technologies - Advanced materials

Total cost

€ 4 978 750,00

EU contribution

€ 4 978 750,00

Coordinated by

ARISTOTELIO PANEPISTIMIO THESSALONIKIS
Greece

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - RealNano (In-line and Real-time digital nano-characterization technologies for the high yield manufacturing of Flexible Organic Electronics)

Reporting period: 2021-09-01 to 2023-08-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

OEs is one of the most rapidly emerging sectors of the Nano Science and Technology, that revolutionizes many industrial applications in (Lighting & Displays, Energy, Buildings, Transport, Photonics, Health, Wearables, IoT, etc) and developed in parallel with the R2R Printing and Vapour Phase Deposition Technologies for its products manufacturing. EU has invested during the last 15-20 years >1Β€ in the FP5-H2020 Programs, whereas the EU member states alone another 2B€ to build the Flexible and Printed Organic Electronics. Thus, OEs is a huge opportunity for EU industry to become a global leader in Equipment, Manufacturing, Automotive, Energy, Packaging, Electronics, Wearables, Health, IoT, etc.
However, the current OE industrial manufacturing processes cannot meet the wider commercialization demands on manufacturing speed, reliability, materials quality, final product efficiency and stability and reduced waste during processing. This is ascribed to the lack of process-adapted, fast, accurate and robust nanoscale analytical tools that could offer reliable quality control of materials/devices and cost effective fabrication for the quick market introduction of advanced products. Most conventional characterization have: a) destructive character (incl. material preparation, chemical treatment, cutting, polishing), b) ex-situ and decoupled operation with no interaction with the process, due to complex engineering, high cost, c) low acquisition/modelling speed (ms-hours, e.g SEM, TEM, AFM), and d) high costs (>100K€, depending on the tool).
The overall aim of RealNano is to develop a novel combination of multimodal, multi-scale, non-destructive and truly fast in-line and real-time nano-characterization tools, and smart modelling methodologies to revolutionize manufacturing of Organic Electronic devices, and which can be applied immediately for numerous industrial applications

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

During the project the inline tools have been developed and were integrated in roll-to-roll manufacturing pilot to production lines. Also, processing of devices using R2R and OVPD methods was laid out and the way to handle data and metadata during real production environment was specified.
Moreover, IPL and LBIC tools and also corresponding methodologies and optimizations for rapid and real time nano-characterization were developed. Some additional achievements include successful validation of performance of OVPD process, ex-situ measurements of nanolayers and devices, determination of silver electrodes thickness, characterization and optimization of the nanoparticles size during various fabrication steps. Implementation of the optical tools on the OVPD pilot line and acquisition protocols and methodologies for in-situ measurements have also been developed.
Furthermore, fabrication of flexible printed devices (OPVs, OLEDs, biosensors) by R2R techniques, optimization of layers’ thickness and materials were performed. In addition, optimization of fabrication processes, successful extraction of the optical properties of OPV and OLED materials and evaluation of the electrical performance devices were achieved. The upgrade of LBIC tool found to be able to lead to more accurate defect detection on the devices.
For the dissemination of RealNano results all the operational procedures and technical details with regards to the development and management of the project’s website were provided, along with an overview of its structure as well as information about Public Presentation, Logo and Social Media. Dissemination was performed by organization and participations in international events as well as on the connections with stakeholders from the academic, research and mainly industrial communities, networks, associations, other projects and clusters. Training activities were organized successfully by the RealNano consortium in order to ensure an appropriate transfer of knowledge and/or expertise to EU’s industrial entities for the innovations of the project. The developed innovations in in-line metrology control technologies and automated printed systems give the opportunity to RealNano partners to have access in a wide range of markets including printing electronics, printing and coating industry (paper, plastic).

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

1) RealNano advances on the improvement of the speed and accuracy of the characterization procedures for a wide range of nanomaterials (organic, polymer, inorganic, hybrid, small molecule, blends, nanoparticles) in the form of nanolayers, as well as the robustness of nanoscale testing of final devices during process and their manufacturing.
The RealNano rapid modelling and analyses of the recorded SE & RS spectra, will enable the characterization of the entire multilayer stack of the OE device without the need to stop the process and to cut smaller samples for ex-situ measurements. This will provide a significant reduction of the needed time to perform the characterization procedure in relation to the process time. The achieved speed of the RealNano tools will be sufficient to provide real-time characterization data from solution-based processes such as R2R printing and vacuum/gas transport processes.
Therefore, it is evident that RealNano will strongly contribute to a significant increase in industrial competitiveness of the EU characterization tools and manufacturing industry. Also, will have a significant impact in the nanofabrication industry of advanced materials and products for mass-market applications in the fields of OEs, Thin Films (e. g., functional films, antimicrobial coatings, barrier films), Electronics, Wearables, Energy, Automotive, Transport, Space, Health, IoT, etc.
2) In order to achieve a fast development and upscaling of novel nanomaterials and nanomaterial-based products (as OE devices and other complex shaped products with functional surfaces), cost-effective manufacturing with optimum utilization of resources (source materials, electricity), minimum waste, and reliability, translated in the homogeneity of the final properties of the nanomaterials and devices over large areas needs to be realized.
The RealNano tools and control platform will transform the existing technologies and equipment in sophisticated manufacturing platforms that will have the intelligence to make optimum use of their resources and to provide rapid and reliable high-volume manufacturing of high-quality products.
3) Finally, RealNano will strongly impact the manufacturing processes of OEs and other nanomaterials, by providing to the EU Industry the real-time tools and methodologies to control the quality of the manufactured products during their manufacturing by large scale process. This offers an unprecedented advantage to increase the performance and lifetime of products in combination to an optimum utilization of used resources. The information from the real-time nanocharacterization tools provided during the process will be used to control specific experimental parameters of the process, achieving large area homogeneity of properties and performance of the OPV and OLED devices. Moreover, this will reduce batch rejections, waste of materials, used resources as well as the trial-cases for new material batches and formulations.

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