U.S. patent application number 10/457933 was filed with the patent office on 2004-09-16 for method for laminating a material layer onto a transparent substrate.
This patent application is currently assigned to Industrial Technology Research Institute. Invention is credited to Chang, Chich Shang, Chang, Jung Fang, Hu, Wen-Chih, Huang, Shun-Fa, Lee, Chi-Shen, Sheu, Chai-Yuan, Wang, Liang-Tang.
Application Number | 20040178173 10/457933 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 32960716 |
Filed Date | 2004-09-16 |
United States Patent
Application |
20040178173 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
Chang, Chich Shang ; et
al. |
September 16, 2004 |
Method for laminating a material layer onto a transparent
substrate
Abstract
A method for laminating a material layer onto a transparent
substrate. The method includes the steps of: providing a
transparent substrate having an amorphous silicon layer formed
thereon; forming an infrared absorbent metal layer on the material
layer; inverting the material layer to laminate the metal layer
onto the amorphous silicon layer; and exposing the metal layer and
the amorphous silicon layer to infrared light to cause a metal
silicide producing reaction and thus laminate the material layer
and the transparent substrate.
Inventors: |
Chang, Chich Shang;
(Taoyuan, TW) ; Lee, Chi-Shen; (Hsinchu, TW)
; Huang, Shun-Fa; (Changhua, TW) ; Chang, Jung
Fang; (Tainan, TW) ; Hu, Wen-Chih; (Hsinchu,
TW) ; Wang, Liang-Tang; (Tainan, TW) ; Sheu,
Chai-Yuan; (Tainan, TW) |
Correspondence
Address: |
QUINTERO LAW OFFICE
1617 BROADWAY, 3RD FLOOR
SANTA MONICA
CA
90404
US
|
Assignee: |
Industrial Technology Research
Institute
|
Family ID: |
32960716 |
Appl. No.: |
10/457933 |
Filed: |
June 10, 2003 |
Current U.S.
Class: |
216/28 |
Current CPC
Class: |
Y10S 438/977 20130101;
B32B 2310/0825 20130101; C03C 27/046 20130101; H01L 2224/83192
20130101; B32B 2311/02 20130101; B32B 2315/08 20130101; B32B 37/00
20130101 |
Class at
Publication: |
216/028 |
International
Class: |
B44C 001/22 |
Foreign Application Data
Date |
Code |
Application Number |
Mar 13, 2003 |
TW |
92105465 |
Claims
What is claimed is:
1. A method for laminating a material layer onto a transparent
substrate, comprising: providing a transparent substrate having an
amorphous silicon layer formed thereon; forming an infrared
absorbent metal layer on the material layer; inverting the material
layer to laminate the metal layer onto the amorphous silicon layer;
and exposing the metal layer and the amorphous silicon layer to
infrared light to cause a metal silicide producing reaction and
thus laminate the material layer and the transparent substrate.
2. The method as claimed in claim 1, further comprising separating
the material layer and the transparent substrate by etching or
laser cutting.
3. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the transparent
substrate is glass, quartz, synthetic quartz, LiNbO.sub.3 or
LiTaO.sub.3.
4. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the material layer is
s metal, ceramic, nanomaterial, or composite material.
5. The method as claimed in claim 2, wherein the etching is wet
etching.
6. The method as claimed in claim 5, wherein the solution for wet
etching is any solution that removes metal silicide.
Description
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
[0001] 1. Field of the Invention
[0002] The present invention relates to a lamination method for a
transparent substrate, and in particular to a method for laminating
material layers onto transparent substrates.
[0003] 2. Description of the Related Art
[0004] In addition to developing flat panel displays with greater
display areas, the lighter, thinner, and more flexible
characteristics of flat panel displays have also become desirable.
One current trend is to substitute glass substrates with plastic
substrates. However, many problems, such as low T.sub.g, arise when
using plastic substrates, which hinder the required high
temperature process, resulting in poor panel performance. Moreover,
plastic substrates are poorly suited to the manufacturing process,
which induces severe stress, static and large thermal expansion
coefficient. Other alternatives of substrate materials include
metal, or metal alloy, such as aluminum, titanium or similar. Use
of these substrate materials have the advantages of light weight,
flexibility, high melting point, no static, lower thermal expansion
coefficient, and lower cost. Therefore, these materials demonstrate
great potential for use as substrates in flexible reflective panel
displays. However, these flexible metal substrates cannot be
incorporated into the current process and equipment. Glass must be
used as a carrier, which is problematic as it requires temporary
lamination of metal with glass, which must be separated in a
subsequent step.
[0005] Current methods for temporary lamination mostly use a high
molecular gel, which due to its poor resistance to high
temperature, is not suitable for laminating metal and glass.
Another lamination material for metal and glass is high temperature
silver gel. Coating silver gel, however, is difficult and is not
cost effective. As a result, silver gel is not a satisfactory
laminating material.
[0006] Hence, there is a need for a novel lamination material and
method for metal and transparent substrates.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[0007] Accordingly, an object of the invention is to provide a
method for laminating a material layer onto a transparent
substrate.
[0008] Another object of the invention is to provide a novel
lamination method for combining a material layer, such as metal,
ceramic, nanomaterial or other material onto transparent substrates
with current method.
[0009] In order to achieve the above objects, the invention
utilizes the heat produced by a metal layer absorbing infrared to
chemically bond with an amorphous silicon layer to achieve tight
adhesion. That is, when a non-infrared absorbing material is formed
on a glass or other transparent substrate, an infrared absorbent
thin film, such as Ni, Au, Ag, Pt, Mo, Ta, W, Ti or Co is firstly
formed on the material layer. Lamination is then performed. These
metals absorb infrared light and generate heat to form metal
silicide with an amorphous silicon layer. In addition, the melting
points of these metal layers are high enough to withstand the
process temperature. This lamination method is effective as it does
not require an additional gel material, or coating machine.
Furthermore, the lamination method of the invention can be
temporary or permanent, hence it is highly applicable in various
applications.
[0010] A major feature of the invention is the formation of an
amorphous silicon layer on a transparent substrate, followed by
lamination with a material layer having a metal layer formed
thereon. The metal layer and the amorphous silicon layer are then
exposed to an infrared heater (such as a rapid thermal process) or
a laser, because a transparent substrate and amorphous silicon do
not absorb infrared light, but a metal layer will. As a result, the
metal layer reacts with the amorphous silicon layer to form a tight
bond, and allow follow-up processes to be efficiently performed.
Conventional etching or laser cutting can be performed to detach
the metal layer from the transparent substrate.
[0011] The method of the invention comprises the following steps of
providing a transparent substrate having an amorphous silicon layer
formed thereon; forming a metal layer that absorbs infrared on the
material layer; inverting the material layer to laminate the metal
layer onto the amorphous silicon layer; and exposing the metal
layer and the amorphous silicon layer to infrared light to cause a
metal silicide producing reaction, thus laminating and forming a
bond between the material layer and the transparent substrate.
[0012] Examples of material layers are metal, ceramic, nanomaterial
or other composite material; the transparent substrate can be
glass, quartz, synthetic quartz, LiNbO.sub.3 or LiTaO.sub.3.
[0013] A detailed description is given in the following embodiment
with reference to the accompanying drawings.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0014] The present invention can be more fully understood by
reading the subsequent detailed description and examples with
references made to the accompanying drawings, wherein:
[0015] FIGS. 1A-1D are cross sections of the embodiment of the
invention;
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
[0016] As shown in FIG. 1A, a transparent glass substrate 100
having an amorphous layer 105 formed thereon is provided. In this
embodiment, a glass substrate is used, but other materials, such as
quartz synthetic quartz, LiNbO3 or LiTaO3 may also be used. Another
material layer 110 having a metal layer 115 formed thereon is
provided. The material layer in this embodiment is a metal foil.
Other materials that cannot be formed directly on a glass
substrate, such as ceramic, nanomaterial or other composite
materials are also applicable. The metal layer used in this
embodiment is Ni, or another infrared absorbent metal, such as Au,
Ag, Pt, Mo, Ta, W, Ti, or Co.
[0017] Next, as shown in FIG. 1B, insertion of the material layer
110 to laminate the metal layer 115 onto the amorphous layer 105,
is followed by exposure to infrared light. During the exposure, the
amorphous layer 105 and the metal layer 115 react to form metal
silicide 120. Preferably the wavelength of the infrared light is
0.7.about.1.5 .mu.m. In this step of the procedure, the material
layer and the transparent glass substrate are bonded by the high
melting point metal silicide, thus the purpose of this invention,
temporary lamination onto a glass substrate, is achieved.
[0018] Optionally, after the process described above, wet etching
or laser cutting can be performed to separate the material layer
from the glass substrate. Preferably wet etching is performed to
remove the metal silicide. MoSi1, WSi.sub.2, TiSi.sub.2 can be
removed by NH.sub.3/H.sub.2O.sub.2; TaSi.sub.2, CoSi.sub.2,
NiSi.sub.2 can be removed by H.sub.2SO.sub.4/H.sub.2O; PtSi can be
removed by HCl/HNO.sub.3.
[0019] FIG. 1C is a cross section of the material layer 110 being
removed by laser cutting, where 150 represents the laser cutter.
FIG. 1D is an exploded view of the laser cutting to remove the
material layer 110.
[0020] According to the lamination method provided in this
invention, no additional gel material or coating machine is
required, thereby considerably reducing production cost. Moreover,
this lamination method can be used for temporary, permanent, or
local lamination. The invention provides a novel solution for
laminating materials that cannot be laminated onto transparent
substrates. The laminated product exhibits good resistance to high
process temperature, and the close bonding between the material and
the substrate also meet the requirements of the process. As a
result, this method is highly applicable in industry.
[0021] While the invention has been described by way of example and
in terms of the preferred embodiments, it is to be understood that
the invention is not limited to the disclosed embodiments. To the
contrary, it is intended to cover various modifications and similar
arrangements (as would be apparent to those skilled in the art).
Therefore, the scope of the appended claims should be accorded the
broadest interpretation so as to encompass all such modifications
and similar arrangements.
* * * * *