UV and DUV laser cutting of OLED displays for an enlarged active area

High-quality OLED displays are a key feature for premium mobile phones. Pico- and femtosecond UV-lasers are used to cut the shape and hole with maximized active display area, and minimal HAZ. We will present our latest cutting results and strategies to increase quality and throughput using optimized process parameters for pulse energy, pulse repetition rate, wavelength, and optical setups. In our experiments we found the laser wavelength to be the most important parameter, followed by the pulse energy. In the UV (355 and 347 nm) we achieved excellent quality cuts with HAZ between 10 and 20 µm and cutting speed well above 100 mm/s, for both, ps and fs pulses. DUV ps-pulses (266 nm) improved the cutting quality tremendously, with HAZ below 10 µm and unprecedented edge quality. We will give an outlook how DUV cutting processes could be a breakthrough for display manufacturing.