Beneq Brings To The Market The First Research Tool For Roll-to-roll Atomic Layer Deposition

It has been designed for process development related to Roll-to-Roll ALD. In TFS 200R, the flexible substrate is fixed on a cylinder. The cylinder is surrounded by a number of nozzles, each creating a certain gas zone. As the cylinder is rotated, the substrate passes through different gas zones and is then coated. This tool is very useful for basic research of the continuous mode ALD process and is a must for all those who are considering using ALD in a high throughput Roll-to-Roll production. Roll-to-Roll ALD has recently acquired a lot of interest, especially as a method to deposit high quality moisture barriers for flexible electronics.
 
The very first TFS 200R was recently delivered to the Advanced Surface Technology Laboratory (ASTRaL) at Lappeenranta University of Technology (LUT) in Finland, where it serves as a research tool to study nanotechnological coating solutions for the paper industry. Prof. David Cameron, LUT, says "The high level of flexibility in the configuration of this new tool will allow us to explore the processing problems inherent in developing a roll-to-roll process." Sampo Ahonen, CEO of Beneq, continues, "Our new ALD research tool will accelerate the development of high volume production Roll-to-Roll ALD applications for flexible electronics and the paper industry, and this will pave the way for high throughput industrial Roll-to-Roll ALD solutions and equipment."
 
The goal of the research work at ASTRaL with the new TFS 200R tool is the integration of Atomic Layer Deposition into paper industry applications, in cooperation with the paper and packaging companies Stora-Enso and UPM Raflatac and the coating company Savcor. The work is supported by the EU via TEKES, the Finnish Funding Agency for Technology and Innovation.