The UK’s Centre for Process Innovation (CPI) is running a pilot of Beneq’s roll-to-toll atomic layer deposition (ALD) system. The system, which CPI acquired in 2014, is being used to prepare for producing ultra-barrier films for flexible solar cells, OLEDs and quantum dot films at a lower cost.
The pilot process has been in operation for seven months. The results are so far said to be ‘very encouraging’. The CPI’s vacuum coating technology specialist, Alf Smith, said, “Barrier performance has been excellent at the lower line speeds we started at, and [we] have progressed now to higher line speeds while retaining the barrier performance. We have some way to go to meet our ultimate targets, but we see every possibility of reaching them in the coming months. Our intention is to continue optimising the barrier performance as well as the productivity…while investigating the additional requirements for obtaining robust final products for both barrier films and directly encapsulated flexible devices”.
