Pilot Lines

Backplane electronics design, manufacturing, test and integration capability is co-located within the Center Headquarters in the ASU Research Park. In-house capabilities for frontplane processing include electrophoretic frontplane lamination and small form factor OLED fabrication, along with display packaging and assembly. Liquid crystal reflective display processing and additional OLED processing occur at Center Member Kent Displays and UDC facilities, respectively. This selectively-focused/distributed manufacturing model allows the Center to lower overhead and expand total capability.

The Center operates dedicated manufacturing Pilot Line toolsets for technology development and for technology demonstrator production. 6” wafer-scale Pilot Line tools were installed, commissioned and qualified by early CY05. Installation of the GEN II 370x470 mm display-scale Pilot Line was complete by the end of CY06 as shown in the figure below. With the GEN II line fully qualified, the 6” line will be dedicated to R&D starts and support of the GEN II line including troubleshooting and process development for advanced technology insertion.

A dedicated full-time permanent staff made up of talented and experienced professionals runs the line. The entire toolset is linked to a MassGroup Manufacturing Execution System (MES) that provides real time integrated information on Lot status, quality and operational capability, and facilitates yield enhancement and troubleshooting. Fully automated E-test is provided by an FDC-custom hardware integration of Electroglas 2001x probers with Keithley electronics. Probers run continuously (24/7) under FDC-custom LabView control to provide detailed I-V characteristic curves and statistical parameter extraction for a representative set of TFTs on each substrate and select partial and full TFT array characterization.

TFT processes have been defined to be intrinsically high-yielding and scale-able. The 6” wafer-scale and GEN II toolsets summarized in the table below are fully consistent to enable straightforward scale-up. A comprehensive characterization and metrology toolset has been acquired to provide effective troubleshooting and yield improvement tools.

Pilot Line Deployment

Pilot line deployment timeline

Pilot Line Tool Set


Process Cell
6" Wafer Cell
GEN II 370x470mm
Clean
Sage
Universal Plastics
Coat - Develop
Rite Track Series 86
EVG 150 XL(s)
Photo Exposure
Canon MPA 600
Azores 5200gT
PECVD
AMAT P5000 - MKII
AKT 1600
5 Chamber Cluster Tool
Dry Etch a-Si
Tegal 903
Dry Etch Nitride
Tegal 901
Etch ITO
AMAT 8330
Dry Etch Polymer
EIT Crystal ICP RIE
EIT FPDGEN2EA
Plasma Strip
Tegal 915
Sputter ITO
KDF 744
KDF 744
Sputter Metal
MRC 603
Wet Etch
SPS
Universal Plastics
Bonding
EVG 850
OEM Press
De-bonding
EVG 850
TBD
MES
Mass Group

IN-FAB METROLOGY TOOLS
Function
Tool Supplier/Model
Scale
TFT Autoprobe
Custom FDC
GEN II
Automated Optical Inspection
Orbotech 709X
GEN II+
Optical Comparison
Optek
GEN II
Optical Microscopy / Critical Dimensions
Olympus Microscopes (2)
GEN II
Film Stress
Flexus 2350 FP
GEN II
Composition (N, H in a-Si:H and a-SiNx:H)
Thermoelectron FTIR
GEN II
Film Thickness (opaque films)
Seiko X-ray Fluorescence (XRF)
GEN II
Film Thickness (transparent films)
Woollam Ellipsometer
GEN II
Critical Dimensions / Profiles
JEOL SEM
6 in
Particle Count
KLA Tencor 6100
6 in
Surface Profiling / Roughness
Veeco SP3000W Interferometer
6 in+
Film Thickness Profile / Step Height
Ambios Profilometer
6 in
Display
Eldim
Panel
Metrology Tools are linked to the MES to provide a continuous snapshot of Pilot Line and TFT performance.