EV Group and Korea National NanoFab Center (NNFC) Joint Development Program on Novel Display Coatings Delivers Outstanding Results

ST. FLORIAN, Austria, Dec. 7, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- EV Group (EVG), a leading supplier of wafer bonding and lithography equipment, together with the Korea National NanoFab Center (President Jae Young Lee, NNFC), a nano-technology R&D infrastructure for academia, research institutes and the industry, announced preliminary results on improved transparent nanostructured anti-reflective coatings for next-generation displays. The ongoing work has been carried out within a joint-development program (JDP) established between the two partners in November 2015. This collaborative research has been partly funded by the Nano-Open-Innovation-Lab Project of the NNFC.

The goal of the EVG-NNFC JDP is the development of optimized materials, the process technology for structure replication, and the industrial implementation of the AR coatings for large-area substrates. The NNFC research team under its director Dr. Jae Hong Park is responsible for the development of the materials and the "reversible nano-molding" process, which can be compatible with EVG's proprietary SmartNIL™ UV-nanoimprint lithography (UV-NIL) technology. EVG is responsible for optimizing the UV-NIL replication process and transferring the technology from the R&D phase on current 200-mm round substrates to large panel sizes.  

Outstanding preliminary results

EVG and the NNFC have successfully demonstrated an anti-reflective coating with excellent structure replication that provides over 97-percent transmittance and a surface hardness of 3H, which is superior to most other polymeric coatings. By contrast, current commercial thin-film coatings only provide up to 92-percent transmittance. The JDP partners achieved these results by applying EVG's SmartNIL™ technology on 200-mm round substrates using a polymer material developed by the NNFC. This material was developed for performing the reversible nano molding process at the NNFC, and is compliant with commercial standards for display coating.

In the next phase of the program, EVG and the NNFC plan to promote these promising results to initiate partnerships with end-users that are interested in joining the JDP to help commercialize the new AR coating. The goal of this next phase is the qualification of the novel anti-reflective coating technology for industrial use through the NNFC, and the implementation of the process by EVG to high-volume panel manufacturing on large screen sizes, such as Gen 2 (370 mm x 470 mm) panels and beyond. In addition to this specific project, EVG and the NNFC plan to investigate other application areas leveraging nanostructures and NIL technology.

"As part of our Triple-i philosophy of invent-innovate-implement, EV Group has a long history of engagements with groups across the nanotechnology value chain—from research institutes and materials suppliers to manufacturers—to develop new processes and devices, and bring them into production," stated WeonSik Yang, general manager of EV Group Korea, Ltd. "We're pleased to have the opportunity to participate in this level of cooperation with our partners in Korea, namely the NNFC, and see the efforts of our previous cooperation bearing fruit. On behalf of EVG, I would like to extend my sincerest thanks to Dr. Jae Hong Park as well as NNFC President Jae Young Lee for their dedication and support for this project. We look forward to working with local industrial partners to commercialize this novel display coating technology and process to support large-area display manufacturing."

EVG and the NNFC presented the results of this JDP at the recent NANO KOREA symposium and exhibition in Goyang, Korea. A copy of the poster summarizing the results can be downloaded at http://www.evgroup.com/en/about/news/2016_12_NNFC/.

Building on More than 15 Years of NIL Experience

EVG's SmartNIL full-field UV-NIL technology, in combination with EVG's multi-use soft-stamp technology, provides a low-cost, large-area and high-volume-manufacturing solution for a variety of advanced devices. It enables the replication of any kind of optical feature, including spherical and a-spherical lenses, diffractive optical elements, photonic crystals and functional optical films. SmartNIL is available on all EVG NIL platforms, including mask aligners as well as the industry benchmark EVG^®720, EVG^®7200 and newly available EVG^®7200 LA UV-NIL systems. More information is available at http://www.evgroup.com/en/about/evgnews/2015_01/smartnil/.

About the Korea National NanoFab Center (NNFC)

The National NanoFab Center (NNFC) is a world class nanotechnology and semiconductors R&D center, located in Daejeon City, Korea. An affiliate of the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), the NNFC was founded in May 2004 and has established itself as a leading-edge facility on nano-technology equipment with extensive processing services. The NNFC is focused on developing technologies with competitive strength in order to secure a basis for independence by commercializing research outcomes while building capacity for commercialization. More information is available at https://www.nnfc.re.kr/eng/.

About EV Group (EVG)

EV Group (EVG) is a leading supplier of equipment and process solutions for the manufacture of semiconductors, microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), compound semiconductors, power devices and nanotechnology devices. Key products include wafer bonding, thin-wafer processing, lithography/nanoimprint lithography (NIL) and metrology equipment, as well as photoresist coaters, cleaners and inspection systems. Founded in 1980, EV Group services and supports an elaborate network of global customers and partners all over the world. More information about EVG is available at www.EVGroup.com.

SOURCE EV Group

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