High Barrier Film Vacuum Coating Equipment - Packaging Material Life Extension Solutions

Application of high-barrier materials

High-barrier film has actually long appeared in daily life, the current polymer high-barrier materials are mainly used in food and drug packaging, electronic device packaging, solar cell packaging, OLED packaging. Food and drug...

1. Food and pharmaceutical packaging

Food and pharmaceutical packaging is currently the most widely used field of high barrier materials. The main purpose is to prevent oxygen and water vapor in the air from entering the package to make food and medicine deterioration, and greatly reduce its shelf life.
For food and pharmaceutical packaging in general, the barrier requirements are not particularly high, the water vapor transmission rate (WVTR) and oxygen transmission rate (OTR) of the barrier materials should be less than 10g/m2/day and 100cm3/m2/day respectively.

2. Packaging of electronic devices

The rapid development of modern electronic information, people put forward higher requirements for electronic components, to the portable, multi-functional development. This puts forward higher requirements for electronic device packaging materials, both with good insulation, but also to be able to protect it will not be corroded by the outside world of oxygen and water vapor, but also has a certain degree of strength, which requires the use of polymer barrier materials.
General electronic device barrier requirements for packaging materials for water vapor transmission rate (WVTR) and oxygen transmission rate (OTR) to be lower than 10-1g/m2 / day and 1cm3/m2 / day, respectively.

3. Solar cell encapsulation

As solar energy is exposed to the air all year round, the oxygen and water vapor in the air are easy to produce corrosion on the metallization layer outside the solar cell, which seriously affects the use of solar cells. So it is necessary to use high barrier materials for encapsulation of solar cell components, which not only makes the service life of the solar cell is guaranteed, but also enhances the impact strength of the battery.
Solar cells on the encapsulation material barrier requirements for water vapor transmission rate (WVTR) and oxygen transmission rate (OTR) should be lower than 10-2g/m2/day and 10-1cm3/m2/day, respectively.

4. OLED packaging

OLED from the early stages of development has been entrusted with the heavy responsibility of the next generation of displays, but the short life has been a major problem restricting its commercialization and application, affecting the service life of OLED is the main reason for the electrode material and light-emitting materials are very sensitive to oxygen, water, impurities, and can be easily contaminated, resulting in a decline in the performance of the device, which reduces the luminescence efficiency and shortens the service life.
In order to ensure the luminous efficiency of the product and prolong its service life, the device must be isolated from oxygen and water during encapsulation.
And in order to ensure that the service life of the flexible OLED display is greater than 10000h, the water vapor transmission rate (WVTR) and oxygen transmission rate (OTR) of the barrier material must be required to be lower than 10-6g/m2/day and 10-5cm3/m2/day, respectively, which is much higher than that in the field of organic photovoltaic, solar cell packaging and food, pharmaceutical and electronic device packaging technology requirements for barrier performance. The standards are much higher than those in the organic photovoltaic, solar cell encapsulation, as well as food, pharmaceutical and electronic device packaging technology and other areas of barrier performance requirements, so it is necessary to choose a very good barrier performance of the flexible substrate materials for device encapsulation, in order to meet the stringent requirements of the life of the product.
The surface of polymers is prone to affect the surface adsorption, barrier properties, and printing of polymers due to frequent contact with the external environment. In order to make polymers more useful in daily life, the surface of polymers is usually treated. The main types are: surface chemical treatment, surface grafting modification, and plasma surface treatment.
Surface coating is the deposition of materials such as metal oxides or nitrides on polymer surfaces using techniques such as Physical Vapor Deposition (PVD), Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD), Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD), Molecular Layer Deposition (MLD), Layer-By-Layer Self-Assembly (LBL), or Magnetron Sputtering Deposition, which results in the formation of dense coatings on the surface of the film with excellent barrier properties.
Nanocomposites are nanocomposites prepared by intercalation compounding, in situ polymerization or sol-gel method using impermeable and large aspect ratio flake nanoparticles. The incorporation of flaky nanoparticles this not only reduces the volume fraction of the polymer matrix in the system to reduce the solubility of the permeable molecules, but also prolongs the permeation path of the permeable molecules, reduces the diffusion rate of the permeable molecules, and results in improved barrier properties.

Coating Requirements

substrates

The substrate must have surface flatness, optical properties, and resistance to coating. In general, we use PET substrates with a functional coating layer on the surface.
Coating process
A vacuum roll-to-roll process that enables continuous coating can be prepared inexpensively. Since the length of a roll of substrate is several kilometers per roll, it is necessary to have a coating process that can stably coat long-sized substrates. Film thickness uniformity in the width direction must be guaranteed to the extent that no optical problems occur.

species of membrane

In consideration of optical properties, Si series films are generally used. For single-layer film structure, SiO series is recommended because it has low refractive index and refractive index is close to that of the base material, while SiN series is superior in terms of barrier and bendability, but high refractive index makes it difficult to transmit light. Multi-layer film structure is recommended in terms of barrier and bendability. Also, it is likely to be costly to produce by the conventional manufacturing method.

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