MULTIPLE BARRIER LAYER ENCAPSULATION STACK

摘要

A process for encapsulating an apparatus to restrict environmental element permeation between the apparatus and an external environment includes applying multiple barrier layers to the apparatus and preceding each layer application with a separate cleaning of the presently-exposed apparatus surface, resulting in an apparatus which includes an encapsulation stack, where the encapsulation stack includes a multi-layer stack of barrier layers. Each separate cleaning removes particles from the presently-exposed apparatus surface, exposing gaps in the barrier layer formed by the particles, and the subsequently-applied barrier layer at least partially fills the gaps, so that a permeation pathway through the encapsulation stack via gap spaces is restricted. The quantity of barrier layers applied to form the stack can be based on a determined probability that a stack of the particular quantity of barrier layers is independent of at least a certain quantity of continuous permeation pathways through the stack.

主权项

1. An apparatus, comprising:
a substrate; and a multi-layer encapsulation stack, applied to the substrate, that is structured to restrict environmental element permeation between the substrate and an ambient environment, wherein the multi-layer encapsulation stack comprises:
a plurality of consecutively-applied thin film barrier layers, wherein at least one separate thin film barrier layer is applied to a presently-exposed layer surface of a previously-applied thin film barrier layer, subsequently to the presently-exposed layer surface being at least partially cleaned of particles to expose gap spaces, formed by the particles, in the presently-exposed layer surface, such that the at least one separate thin film barrier layer at least partially fills in the exposed gap spaces in the presently-exposed layer surface.