大氣壓電漿蝕刻圖案化TCP膜片應用於觸控面板之研究

Abstract

隨著觸控面板的普及化，透明導電膜ITO（Indium Tin Oxide）在銦材料成本逐年升高外，其不耐撓曲特性在未來軟電產品應用上也有所限制了，許多業者開發出導電高分子PEDOT (Poly (3,4-ethylene- dioxythiophene))來取代ITO。原因在於PEDOT特性與ITO已無差異了，但成本卻更便宜。 因此本文以工研院機械所開發之大氣壓電漿圖案化設備，針對廠商所開發之PEDOT膜片及觸控電極圖案設計，進行蝕刻製程研究，找出最佳化蝕刻參數：電源供應器功率550W、電源供應器頻率25KHz、氣體種類O2、電漿源高度(Gap) 11mm、電漿源移動速度(Speed)200mm/s、電漿源移動間距(Pitch) 2.5mm，製作出符合10點觸控、劃線功能之觸控面板，並且驗證大氣壓電漿圖案化設備量產的蝕刻能力，達到符合業界7吋平板最小蝕刻線寬150μm 以下目標。

With increasing popularity of touch panel in several consumer electronics applications, the transparent conductive film ITO (Indium Tin Oxide) becomes increasingly expensive because of the use of indium. In addition, ITO is also lack of flexural characteristics which is important in several future applications of consumer electronics product. There has been a continuing effort in developing PEDOT (conductive polymer) to replace ITO, mainly because of its highly flexural property and much lower cost. In this thesis, we intend to demonstrate and optimize the etching technique for commercial PEDOT thin film for touch panel application using an atmospheric-pressure jet (APPJ) developed by ITRI. An optimal set of test conditions, including a power source of 25 kHz and 550 W, an etching gas of oxygen, a treating distance of 11 mm, a moving speed of 200 mm/s and a movement pitch of 2.5 mm, was found to produce satisfied results that is compatible with the industrial requirement of a minimum line width of 150μm in a typical 7-in tablet application. This research demonstrates successfully that the APPJ developed by ITRI can meet the industrial requirement as practical processing equipment for touch panel applications.