Kateeva, Inc.

Other

Eliyahu Vronsky

Alexander Sou-Kang Ko

Conor Francis Madigan

Justin Mauck

Nahid Harjee

Shandon Alderson

Sass Somekh

Robert B Lowrance

Christopher R Hauf

Lucas David Barkley

Gregory Lewis

Karl Mathia

Christopher Buchner

Eugene Rabinovich

Manoocher Birang

Michael A Miller

Aleksey Khrustalev

Valerie Gassend

Alexey Stepanov

Digby Pun

Prahallad Iyengar

Stephen Mark Smith

Christopher E Todd

Najid Harjee

The present teachings relate to various embodiments of a hermetically-sealed gas enclosure assembly and system that can be readily transportable and assemblable and provide for maintaining a minimum inert gas volume and maximal access to various devices and apparatuses enclosed therein. Various embodiments of a hermetically-sealed gas enclosure assembly and system of the present teachings can have a gas enclosure assembly constructed in a fashion that minimizes the internal volume of a gas enclosure assembly, and at the same time optimizes the working space to accommodate a variety of footprints of various OLED printing systems. Various embodiments of a gas enclosure assembly so constructed additionally provide ready access to the interior of a gas enclosure assembly from the exterior during processing and readily access to the interior for maintenance, while minimizing downtime.

Gas enclosure assembly and system

An ink jet process is used to deposit a material layer to a desired thickness. Layout data is converted to per-cell grayscale values, each representing ink volume to be locally delivered. The grayscale values are used to generate a halftone pattern to deliver variable ink volume (and thickness) to the substrate. The halftoning provides for a relatively continuous layer (e.g., without unintended gaps or holes) while providing for variable volume and, thus, contributes to variable ink/material buildup to achieve desired thickness. The ink is jetted as liquid or aerosol that suspends material used to form the material layer, for example, an organic material used to form an encapsulation layer for a flat panel device. The deposited layer is then cured or otherwise finished to complete the process.

Fabrication of thin-film encapsulation layer for light-emitting device

The disclosure relates to a method and apparatus for preventing oxidation or contamination during a circuit printing operation. The circuit printing operation can be directed to OLED-type printing. In an exemplary embodiment, the printing process is conducted at a load-locked printer housing having one or more of chambers. Each chamber is partitioned from the other chambers by physical gates or fluidic curtains. A controller coordinates transportation of a substrate through the system and purges the system by timely opening appropriate gates. The controller may also control the printing operation by energizing the print-head at a time when the substrate is positioned substantially thereunder.

Method and apparatus for load-locked printing

An ink printing process employs per-nozzle droplet volume measurement and processing software that plans droplet combinations to reach specific aggregate ink fills per target region, guaranteeing compliance with minimum and maximum ink fills set by specification. In various embodiments, different droplet combinations are produced through different print head/substrate scan offsets, offsets between print heads, the use of different nozzle drive waveforms, and/or other techniques. Optionally, patterns of fill variation can be introduced so as to mitigate observable line effects in a finished display device. The disclosed techniques have many other possible applications.

Nozzle-droplet combination techniques to deposit fluids in substrate locations within precise tolerances

The present teachings disclose various embodiments of a printing system for printing substrate, in which the printing system can be housed in a gas enclosure, where the environment within the enclosure can be maintained as a controlled printing environment. A controlled environment of the present teachings can include control of the type of gas environment within the gas enclosure, the size and level particulate matter within the enclosure, control of the temperature within the enclosure and control of lighting. Various embodiments of a printing system of the present teachings can include a Y-axis motion system and a Z-axis moving plate that are configured to substantially decrease excess thermal load within the enclosure by, for example, eliminating or substantially minimizing the use of conventional electric motors.

Printing system assemblies and methods

A method comprises processing a substrate in a gas enclosure to form a film on one or more portions of the substrate. The method further comprises, while processing the substrate, circulating gas along a circulation path through the gas enclosure. Circulating the gas may comprise flowing gas through an exhaust housing enclosing a printhead assembly housed in the gas enclosure and filtering the gas flowing downstream of the printhead assembly from the exhaust housing.

Low-particle gas enclosure systems and methods

Apparatus and techniques are described herein for use in manufacturing electronic devices. such as can include organic light emitting diode (OLED) devices. Such apparatus and techniques can include using one or more modules having a controlled environment. For example, a substrate can be received from a printing system located in a first processing environment, and the substrate can be provided a second processing environment, such as to an enclosed thermal treatment module comprising a controlled second processing environment. The second processing environment can include a purified gas environment having a different composition than the first processing environment.

Techniques for thermal treatment of electronic devices

A printer deposits material onto a substrate as part of a manufacturing process for an electronic product; at least one transported component experiences error, which affects the deposition. This error is mitigated using transducers that equalize position of the component, e.g., to provide an 'ideal' conveyance path, thereby permitting precise droplet placement notwithstanding the error. In one embodiment, an optical guide (e.g., using a laser) is used to define a desired path; sensors mounted to the component dynamically detect deviation from this path, with this deviation then being used to drive the transducers to immediately counteract the deviation. This error correction scheme can be applied to correct for more than type of transport error, for example, to correct for error in a substrate transport path, a printhead transport path and/or split-axis transport non-orthogonality.

Guided transport path correction

The present teachings relate to various embodiments of an hermetically-sealed gas enclosure assembly and system that can be readily transportable and assemblable and provide for maintaining a minimum inert gas volume and maximal access to various devices and apparatuses enclosed therein. Various embodiments of an hermetically-sealed gas enclosure assembly and system of the present teachings can have a gas enclosure assembly constructed in a fashion that minimizes the internal volume of a gas enclosure assembly, and at the same time optimizes the working space to accommodate a variety of footprints of various OLED printing systems. Various embodiments of a gas enclosure assembly so constructed additionally provide ready access to the interior of a gas enclosure assembly from the exterior during processing and readily access to the interior for maintenance, while minimizing downtime.

Growing community of inventors

Los Altos, CA, United States of America

Eliyahu Vronsky