Abstract
We have developed screens for printing ultra-thin films based on a result that hybrid fibre (Vecry®), which is composed of a sheath and a core, is easily deformed due to plastic property of the core that consists of thermotropic liquid crystalline polymer. For the screen-mesh depressed by calendaring, the breaking strength is maintained at 93% or more while the thickness change rate decreases by 65% or less. Also, these screen-meshes have uniform flatness. We have obtained the screen-mesh with a thin thickness of 16 μm, a large open area ratio (OPA) of 53%, and a practical breaking strength of 43 N⁄cm by calendaring the screen-mesh, while a mesh count and a thread diameter of which are 130 per inch and 23 μm, respectively. The ultra-thin film of an organic electroluminescent polymer at the thickness of 130 nm is formed by screen-printing with this screen-mesh. AFM shows that the thickness deviation is less than 10 nm, and the surface roughness of Ra and Rz are 0.4 nm and 1.3 nm, respectively. We find that this film is similar to the spin-coated films.
