Stainless Steel Foil Substrates; Robust, Low-Cost, Flexible Active-Matrix Backplane Technology

  • Published : 2005.07.19

Abstract

In this paper, key issues of stainless steel foil substrates for display applications have been described. We studied and analyzed technical issues on substrate passivation/planarization to control surface roughness and capacitive coupling from conductive substrates. A thick (either multiple or single) passivation/planarization layer needs to be applied on the nonelectronic-grade stainless steel substrate to provide a smooth surface and electrical insulation from the conductive substrate. Especially for large size, high-resolution display applications, low k and thick passivation/planarization layers should be used for appropriate capacitive coupling. Based on our initial study, a unit area capacitance of less than $2nF/cm^2$ of passivation/planarization layers is needed for 32" HD TV OLED displays.

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