Experimental investigation of defect-assisted and intrinsic water vapor permeation through ultrabarrier films

Kim, Hyungchul; Singh, Ankit Kumar; Wang, Cheng -Yin; Fuentes-Hernandez, Canek; Kippelen, Bernard; Graham, Samuel

doi:10.1063/1.4942510

Experimental investigation of defect-assisted and intrinsic water vapor permeation through ultrabarrier films

Journal Article · Tue Mar 15 00:00:00 EDT 2016 · Review of Scientific Instruments

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4942510· OSTI ID:1469699

Kim, Hyungchul ^[1]; Singh, Ankit Kumar ^[2]; Wang, Cheng -Yin ^[2]; Fuentes-Hernandez, Canek ^[2]; Kippelen, Bernard ^[2]; Graham, Samuel ^[2]

Georgia Inst. of Technology, Atlanta, GA (United States); Georgia Inst. of Tech., Atlanta, GA (United States)
Georgia Inst. of Technology, Atlanta, GA (United States)

In the development of ultrabarrier films for packaging electronics, the effective water vapor transmission rate is a combination of permeation through pinhole defects and the intrinsic permeation through the actual barrier film. While it is possible to measure the effective permeation rate through barriers, it is important to develop a better understanding of the contribution from defects to the overall effective barrier performance. Here, we demonstrate a method to investigate independently defect-assisted permeation and intrinsic permeation rates by observing the degradation of a calcium layer encapsulated with a hybrid barrier film, that is, prepared using atomic layer deposition (ALD) and plasma enhanced deposition (PECVD). The results are rationalized using an analytical diffusion model to calculate the permeation rate as a function of spatial position within the barrier. It was observed that a barrier film consisting of a PECVD SiN_x layer combined with an ALD Al₂O₃/HfO_x nanolaminate resulted in a defect-assisted water vapor transmission rate (WVTR) of 4.84 × 10^–5 g/m² day and intrinsic WVTR of 1.41 × 10^–4 g/m² day at 50 °C/85% RH. Due to the low defect density of the tested barrier film, the defect-assisted WVTR was found to be three times lower than the intrinsic WVTR, and an effective (or total) WVTR value was 1.89 × 10^–4 g/m² day. Furthermore, improvements of the barrier performance should focus on reducing the number of defects while also improving the intrinsic barrier performance of the hybrid layer.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Research Organization:: The Leland Stanford Junior Univ., Palo Alto, CA (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE

Grant/Contract Number:: EE0004946

OSTI ID:: 1469699

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 1241569
OSTI ID: 22597088

Journal Information:: Review of Scientific Instruments, Journal Name: Review of Scientific Instruments Journal Issue: 3 Vol. 87; ISSN 0034-6748; ISSN RSINAK

Publisher:: American Institute of Physics (AIP)Copyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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