Applied Materials Introduces New Technologies for Next Era of LCD and OLED Displays

Applied Materials, Inc. announced new PVD and PECVD technologies to enable the next era of ultra-high definition (UHD) televisions, as well as high pixel density screens for mobile devices.

At the heart of this significant transition are new metal oxide and LTPS materials used to create faster, smaller thin film transistors (TFTs) for both LCD and OLED technologies. The Applied AKT-PiVot PVD and Applied AKT-PX PECVD film deposition systems provide display manufacturers with a high-performance, cost-effective path to help bring these advanced materials to volume production.

“The display industry is undergoing one of the most critical technical transitions in the last 20 years – which is being driven by advances in TFT technology,” said Tom Edman, group vice president and general manager of Applied’s Display Business Group. “Applied Materials has developed a proven portfolio of systems to help our customers make the technical leap to implementing these new films. Customers have reported excellent results with our systems and we already have received multiple orders from major display manufacturers.”

For metal oxide-based TFTs, Applied’s AKT-PiVot PVD system uses proprietary rotary cathode technology to deposit IGZO, a new material with high electron mobility, to form the transistor channel. The PiVot system provides the industry with a robust IGZO solution capable of overcoming “mura effects” that reduce the quality of the display. This is an issue that has hindered metal oxide technology from gaining mainstream acceptance for LCDs. In addition, the breakthrough TFT stability of PiVot-deposited IGZO films offers the promise of metal oxide backplanes for OLEDs, which can significantly lower cost and help make beautiful, affordable, large-area OLED TVs possible.

LTPS technology is a proven method for building the highest resolution displays in mobile LCD and OLED devices but has been challenged by scaling issues and high manufacturing cost per area. The newly-extended range of Applied’s AKT-PX PECVD systems can deposit highly-uniform LTPS films on sheets of glass sized from 1.6m2 to 5.7m2. These larger substrates enable display manufacturers to significantly increase production and drive down cost by realizing the same economies of scale that brought large-area LCD televisions within the reach of billions of consumers around the globe. Applied’s systems for large-area glass manufacturing can also help accelerate the transition of LTPS technology to larger screen sizes for both mobile devices and TVs.