Ultra barrier flexible substrates for flat panel displays

We describe a flexible, transparent plastic substrate for flat panel display applications. Using roll-coating techniques, we apply a composite thin film barrier to commercially available polymers, which restricts moisture and oxygen permeation to undetectable levels using conventional permeation test equipment. The barrier film can be capped with a thin film of transparent conductive oxide in the same roll-coater, yielding an engineered substrate (Barix(TM)) for next generation, rugged, lightweight or flexible displays. The substrate is sufficiently impermeable to moisture and oxygen for application to moisture-sensitive display applications, such as organic light emitting displays. This enables, for the first time, lightweight and flexible emissive organic displays. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.