The goal of the consortium is to refine rollable glass through lamination with functional adhesive tapes and by applying special functional layers
Schott, Tesa and Von Ardenne have announced they have formed project KONFEKT with the ambition to drive forward the development of ultra-thin glass on roll for use in such application fields as organic electronics, with initial emphasis on the production of future generations of OLED applications. The Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) is supporting this development for a period of three years with a total of 5.6 million Euros.
The goal of the consortium is to refine rollable glass through lamination with functional adhesive tapes and by applying special functional layers. This, the consortium, hopes will result in a process-ready rolled substrate that offers unique properties for many applications.
The project consortium has two specific tasks to complete:
Project One
- Schott and Tesa will focus on the development of a laminate made of ultra-thin glass with a barrier adhesive tape that will serve as a hermetic encapsulation of electronic components
Project Two:
- Von Ardenne is developing a vacuum coating system specifically for roll-to-roll (R2R) coating of flexible glasses that will meet the special handling requirements of such glasses.
Thin glass can be used as a functional substrate in sophisticated electronic applications. For example, a conductive TCO layer (transparent conductive oxide) such as ITO (indium tin oxide) is applied in a special vacuum-based PVD coating process (physical vapor deposition) in the same manner as in the manufacture of OLEDs or (organic) photovoltaic cells.
Dr. Ruediger Sprengard, Director of Business Development for Ultra-Thin Glass at Schott, said, "We expect the consortium to play an important role in the next three years in the development of a new production platform based on glass on roll for innovative use in manufacturing electronic components."
About Tesa
tesa SE is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of technical adhesive tapes and self-adhesive system solutions (more than 7,000 products) for industrial and professional customers as well as end consumers. Since 2001, tesa SE (4,100 employees) has been a wholly owned affiliate of Beiersdorf AG (whose products include NIVEA, Eucerin, and La Prairie).
Applications for various industrial sectors, such as the automotive industry, the electronics sector (e.g. smartphones, tablets), printing and paper, building supply, and security concepts for effective brand and product protection, account for about three-quarters of the tesa Group’s sales (2014: 1.0763 billion euros). tesa also recently began partnering with the pharmaceuticals industry to develop medicated patches. tesa earns just under one-quarter of its sales in the consumer segment, where 300 products for end consumers make working in the home and the office easier.
Source: Tesa
About Von Ardenne
Von Ardenne develops and manufactures equipment for industrial coatings on materials such as glass, wafers, metal strip and polymer films. These coatings give the surfaces new functional properties and can be between one nanometer and a few micrometers thin, depending on the application. The coated materials are the basis for products such as architectural glass, solar modules or smartphone displays.
Von Ardenne is the market leader in manufacturing architectural glass coating equipment and a leading provider of coating systems for thin-film photovoltaics. The family-owned company employs about 670 people and is based in Dresden. Last year, the company earned a sales revenue of 201 million Euros with an export ratio of 96.4 percent. As a global corporation with subsidiaries in China, Japan, Malaysia, Taiwan and the USA, Von Ardenne relies on customer proximity in order to offer ideal on-site service. Von Ardenne equipment is in operation in more than 50 countries around the world.
Source: Von Ardenne
About Schott
Schott is a leading international technology group in the areas of specialty glass and glass-ceramics. The company has more than 130 years of outstanding development, materials and technology expertise and offers a broad portfolio of high-quality products.
Schott is an innovative enabler for many industries, including the home appliance, pharmaceutical, electronics, optics, automotive and aviation industries.
Schott strives to play an important part of everyone’s life and is committed to innovation and sustainable success. The group maintains a global presence with production sites and sales offices in 35 countries. With its workforce of approximately 15,400 employees, sales of 1.87 billion euros were generated in fiscal year 2013/2014.
The parent company, Schott AG, has its headquarters in Mainz (Germany) and is solely owned by the Carl Zeiss Foundation. As a foundation company, Schott assumes special responsibility for its employees, society and the environment.
Source: Schott
