Support and detachment of flexible substrates

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10529924-B2
Application number	US-201615566163-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 13, 2016
Priority date	Apr 13, 2015
Publication date	Jan 7, 2020
Grant date	Jan 7, 2020

Abstract

This application discloses a flexible substrate device that includes a flexible substrate and a plurality of electronic devices. The flexible substrate includes a top surface and a bottom surface opposite to the top surface, and the plurality of electronic devices formed on the top surface of the flexible substrate. The bottom surface further includes one or more strong adhesion regions and one or more normal adhesion regions that are distinct from the one or more strong adhesion regions. Each of the one or more strong adhesion regions and the one or more normal adhesion regions are configured to attach to a rigid carrier with first adhesion strength and second adhesion strength, respectively. The first adhesion strength is substantially larger than the second adhesion strength. In some embodiments, the flexible substrate device is a thin film transistor (TFT) device, and the plurality of electronic devices includes a TFT array.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A flexible substrate device, comprising:
a flexible substrate including a top surface and a bottom surface that is opposite to the top surface; and
a plurality of electronic devices formed on the top surface of the flexible substrate;
wherein:
the bottom surface further includes one or more strong adhesion regions and one or more normal adhesion regions that are distinct from the one or more strong adhesion regions;
each of the one or more strong adhesion regions and the one or more normal adhesion regions is configured to attach to a rigid carrier with first adhesion strength or second adhesion strength, respectively;
the first adhesion strength is substantially larger than the second adhesion strength;
the one or more strong adhesion regions and the one or more normal adhesion regions are made from the same material of the flexible substrate; and
the one or more strong adhesion regions and the one or more normal adhesion regions are exposed on the bottom surface of the flexible substrate, and the one or more strong adhesion regions form a grid enclosing the one or more normal adhesion regions.

2. The flexible substrate device of claim 1 , wherein the one or more strong adhesion regions include a respective stripe disposed in proximity to each of a plurality of edges of the bottom surface.

3. The flexible substrate device of claim 1 , wherein the flexible substrate is configured to be detached from the rigid carrier when both the strong and normal adhesion regions are separated from the rigid carrier.

4. The flexible substrate device of claim 1 , wherein the one or more strong adhesion regions and the one or more normal adhesion regions are covered with two distinct materials to provide the first adhesion strength and the second adhesion strength, respectively.

5. The flexible substrate device of claim 1 , wherein the rigid carrier includes one or more first surface areas to which the one or more strong adhesion regions are attached with the first adhesion strength, and one or more second surface areas to which the one or more normal adhesion regions are attached with the second adhesion strength, and wherein the first and second surface areas are configured to be treated differently to enable the first adhesion strength and the second adhesion strength.

6. The flexible substrate device of claim 1 , wherein the one or more strong adhesion regions and the one or more normal adhesion regions of the flexible substrate are physically or chemically treated in different manners to enable the first adhesion strength and the second adhesion strength that are distinct from each other.

7. The flexible substrate device of claim 1 , wherein the one or more strong adhesion regions are configured to be detached from the rigid carrier via laser ablation.

8. The flexible substrate device of claim 1 , wherein the one or more normal adhesion regions are configured to be detached from the rigid carrier by being mechanically peeled off the rigid carrier.

9. The flexible substrate device of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of electronic devices includes a plurality of pixel drive circuits formed from thin film transistors (TFT), and each pixel circuit is configured to drive a display pixel of a display device.

10. A flexible substrate device, comprising:
a flexible substrate including a first device region, a second device region and a device peripheral region located in proximity to the first device region, wherein:
the flexible substrate has a first non-planar side extending across the first and second device regions and the device peripheral region;
the device peripheral region has a first thickness that is substantially larger than a second thickness of the first device region, and is configured to at least facilitate handling of the flexible substrate, the first and second thicknesses extending along directions that are perpendicular to the first non-planar side of the device peripheral region and the first device region, respectively; and
the second device region has a thickness that is substantially equal to the first thickness of the device peripheral region, and is formed as an island substantially away from any edge of the flexible substrate; and

a plurality of electronic devices, a first one of the plurality of electronic devices being formed on the first non-planar side of the first device region of the flexible substrate, a second one of the plurality of electronic devices being disposed on the first non-planar side of the second device region of the flexible substrate.

11. The flexible substrate device of claim 10 , wherein the first thickness of the device peripheral region is within a range of 10-200 μm, and the second thickness of the first device region is within a range of 5-30 μm.

12. The flexible substrate device of claim 10 , wherein the flexible substrate has a second side opposite to the first non-planar side, and in the device peripheral region, the second side includes a strong adhesion region and a weak adhesion region configured to adhere to a rigid carrier with two distinct adhesion strengths.

13. The flexible substrate device of claim 10 , wherein the device peripheral region is configured to support an electronic circuit component disposed on the device peripheral region.

14. The flexible substrate device of claim 10 , wherein the device peripheral region is configured to support electronic bonding to one or more electronic pads or leads of the flexible substrate device.

15. A flexible substrate device, comprising:
a flexible substrate made of a polymeric material and including a top surface and a bottom surface that is opposite to the top surface, wherein:
the bottom surface of the flexible substrate further includes a debonding region and one or more edge regions that are distinct from the debonding region;
the debonding region and the one or more edge regions are made from a first material and a second material, respectively, the first and second materials being distinct and different from each other;
the one or more edge regions are located in proximity to one or more edges of the flexible substrate and configured to directly contact and adhere to a rigid carrier via the second material and detach from the rigid carrier with the debonding region; and
the debonding region is covered with a debonding layer and configured to adhere to the rigid carrier via at least the debonding layer; and

a plurality of electronic devices formed on the top surface of the flexible substrate.

16. The flexible substrate device of claim 15 , wherein the debonding region includes a first adhesion control layer coupled between the debonding layer and the polymeric material of the flexible substrate.

17. The flexible substrate device of claim 16 , wherein the first adhesion control layer is one selected from the group consisting of a dielectric layer, a metal oxide layer, a self-assembled layer, an adhesion promoter, a metal layer and a combination thereof.

18. The flexible substrate device of claim 15 , wherein the debonding layer is made of a metallic material configured to adhere to an inorganic material layer coated on the rigid carrier.

19. The flexible substrate device of claim 15 , wherein the debonding layer is made of an inorganic material configured to adhere to a metallic layer coated on the rigid carrier.

20. The flexible substrate device of claim 15 , wherein the one or more edge regions are configured to support an electronic circuit component disposed on the one or more edge r

Assignees

• Royole Corp
• Shenzhen Royole Technologies Co Ltd

Inventors

• Yu Xiaojun
• Wei Peng
• Yuan Ze
• Liu Zihong

Classifications

• H10P72/7402

  Wafer tapes, e.g. grinding or dicing support tapes · CPC title

• H01L51/003 Primary

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H01L51/0097

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H01L2227/326

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H01L21/6836

  Electricity · mapped topic