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New Report on Barrier Layers for Flexible Electronics

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Reviewed

Jul 27 2015

Research and Markets has announced the addition of the "Barrier Layers for Flexible Electronics 2015-2025: Technologies, Markets, Forecasts" report to their offering.

A large opportunity lies in the development of devices in a flexible form factor that can operate without deterioration in performance, allowing them to be more robust, lightweight and versatile in their use. In order for flexible displays and photovoltaics to be commercially successful, they must be robust enough to survive for the necessary time and conditions required of the device. This condition has been a limitation of many flexible, organic or printable electronics. This highlights the fact that beyond flexibility, printability and functionality, one of the most important requirements is encapsulation as many of the materials used in printed or organic electronic displays are chemically sensitive, and will react with many environmental components such as oxygen and moisture.

These materials can be protected using substrates and barriers such as glass and metal, but this results in a rigid device and does not satisfy the applications demanding flexible devices. Plastic substrates and transparent flexible encapsulation barriers can be used, but these offer little protection to oxygen and water, resulting in the devices rapidly degrading.

In order to achieve device lifetimes of tens of thousands of hours, water vapor transmission rates (WVTR) must be 10-6 g/m2/day, and oxygen transmission rates (OTR) must be < 10-3 cm3/m2/day. For Organic Photovoltaics, the required WVTR is not as stringent as OLEDs require but is still very high at a level of 10-5 g/m2/day. These transmission rates are several orders of magnitude smaller than what is possible using any conventional plastic substrate, and they can also be several orders of magnitude smaller than what can be measured using common equipment designed for this purpose.

For these (and other) reasons, there has been intense interest in developing transparent barrier materials with much lower permeabilities, a market that will reach over $550 million by 2025.

Key Topics Covered:

1. Scope

2. Barrier Technology Reaching Maturity - Commercialization Status

3. Introduction To Encapsulation

4. Surface Smoothness - Defects

5. Barrier Technologies: Past Developments

6. Advances In Barrier Manufacturing Processes

7. Barrier Adhesives

8. Company Profiles

9. Addressable Market Segments For Barrier Film Technologies

10. Barrier Measurements

11. Forecasts For Barrier Films For Flexible Electronics 2015-2025