Universal Vapor Jet Corporation will introduce NovaJet, its first commercial thin-film deposition system based on Universal Vapor Jet Printing, at the WESEMiBAY semiconductor exhibition in Shenzhen from 14 to 16 October.
UVJC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Universal Display Corporation, describes the process as a dry, solvent-free and maskless method for depositing digitally patterned functional materials from the vapour phase.
Unlike blanket deposition followed by photolithography and etching, the proposed process places material only where it is required. UVJC says this can reduce the coating, drying, masking and pattern-transfer stages associated with conventional thin-film manufacturing.
The process operates without heating the substrate, making it potentially suitable for temperature-sensitive materials, non-planar components and surfaces that cannot tolerate conventional processing.
It can also deposit more than one material, including graded compositions, during a single operation.
From laboratory process to commercial equipment
The announcement’s principal milestone is the transition from a deposition concept to a named commercial system. UVJC says a complete NovaJet machine is installed and operating at its headquarters and R&D facility in Singapore, where it has produced the coated substrates and printed samples that will be shown in Shenzhen.
The exhibition itself will feature a scale model rather than a live production machine. The company is inviting manufacturers and research institutions to discuss evaluations and pilot programmes, but has not identified an external customer or completed qualification.
Direct-write vapour deposition could be useful where manufacturers need to apply thin films selectively without exposing the substrate to liquids, photoresist or high process temperatures. Possible applications extend across semiconductor devices, advanced packaging, electronics, displays, energy systems and life-science products.
The breadth of those possible applications also makes the missing equipment specifications important. UVJC has not disclosed minimum feature size, placement accuracy, substrate dimensions, deposition rate, film-thickness range or within-substrate uniformity.
It has also not published the supported precursor and material set, cross-contamination controls, particle performance, chamber-cleaning requirements, system uptime or throughput. Without those figures, NovaJet cannot yet be compared directly with evaporation, chemical vapour deposition, atomic-layer deposition, inkjet printing or lithography-based patterning.
The absence of a price, delivery date and external process result means that “commercial” currently refers to the intended product status rather than demonstrated customer production.
NovaJet is nevertheless a notable equipment-development milestone. The October launch should establish whether UVJC can translate a flexible laboratory process into a repeatable manufacturing tool with the control, cleanliness and throughput required by semiconductor and advanced-electronics users.
Credit: Universal Vapor Jet Corporation / Universal Display Corporation
