Automatic optimization combined with genetic algorithm and CFD for temperature uniformity of OLED glass substrate

The heating technology and temperature uniformity of glass substrate (GS) are crucial for the final display quality and efficiency of OLED. In a high-temperature and large heating environment with mutual influences among multiple variables, maintaining temperature difference of the entire GS below 3 °C presents a complex combinatorial optimization problem in industrial manufacturing. To address this challenge, an automatic combined method is established. This method involves parameterized modeling in UG, thermal calculation in CFD, and genetic algorithm optimization in Matlab to determine optimum designs for electric heating tube (EHT) heating temperature and interval with respect to objective functions of temperature uniformity and highest temperature. Through this automatic combined optimized scheme, the optimized heating temperature and EHT interval have been achieved to ensure maintaining a temperature difference of entire GS within 3 °C. All simulations are validated by experiments with an error below 10 %, especially below 1 % under multi EHTs. A heating scheme of 13 EHTs with a radius 6 mm, a distance 5 mm, a temperature 390 °C and an uniform interval 38.5 mm is suggested after final optimization. It is hoped that this study can advance heating technology of OLED GS to achieve the desired practical level.