Princeton University, Plasma Physics Laboratory, P.O. Box CN-17, James Forrestal Campus, Princeton, NJ 08543

A -- FAST SCANNING INTERFEROMETER/POLARIMETER (FSIP) SYSTEM FOR THE MEASUREMENT OF FLATNESS/THICKNESS OF LARGE SIZE FLAT PANEL DUE 082198 POC Mr. Lewis Meixler, Head of the Office of Technology Transfer, Fax (609) 243-2418 Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) with private industry for research & development on an "in-situ" diagnostic instrument that can measure flatness and/or thickness for a large size flat panel fabrication. The Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL), operated by Princeton University under contract with the Department of Energy (DOE) is seeking industrial CRADA partners for research & development on the "in-situ" quality control inspection instrument for the large display panel. Cooperative Research and Development Agreements (CRADAs) are structured to offer the partner company an opportunity to leverage its resources with that of the laboratory in the development of industrial products, and to share in the intellectual property such as patents, or copyright material developed jointly during the CRADA project. Intellectual property developed solely by the laboratory may be licensed from the laboratory by the industrial partner. The objective of the CRADA program is to increase U.S. competitiveness. All projects are conducted under policies related to the strict nondisclosure of company proprietary information. The industrial partner's contribution may be contributions of funding, labor, equipment, industrial components or software. This is not a procurement and no funding will flow from PPPL to the industrial partner. Costs of development will be shared equally between PPPL and the industrial partner. PPPL is seeking a US industrial partner for a three year effort in Fast Scanning Interferometer/Polarimeter (FSIP) research and development. PPPL is the leading National Laboratory in plasma physics and fusion energy research. PPPL expertise in diagnostic instrumentation will be applied to the FSIP research and development effort to improve quality control of fabrication process of the large size flat display panels. The size of flat display panels, such as Liquid Crystal Displays (LCD), Plasma Display Panels (PDP) and Light Emitting Diode (LED) panels is increasing as large sizedisplay devices increase in demand. The fabrication process of such devices is a multi-layer process and requires in-situ quality control in order to save fabrication cost and improve production yields. For instance, the current PDP employing a ~ 40 inch by ~30 inch glass plate will have about 1 million pixels. It will have several dielectric layers, electrodes, separators, and each pixel will have a cell structure. The required fabrication process is six or more steps to complete the panel and each process step may take about ~30 seconds before transferred to the next step. Potentially, imperfections in each process step could result in defects of the final product. Therefore the quality control should start from the selection of the glass panel to the final process of the device fabrication. The in-situ diagnostic development must quantify at least, flatness, cell connection, and thickness of substrates with an adequate resolution, on an extremely fast time scale, so that the fabrication speed can be maintained. Note that large size panels based on LCD and LED technologies are even more complicated than the PDP. PPPL is seeking an industrial partner that can participate in the development of a fast scanning interferometer/polarimeter system for quality control of large display panel fabrication. PPPL has initiated development of the fast scanning interferometry/polarimeter system, which can measure the thickness and/or the surface flatness of large size of panel (~ 40 inch by ~ 30 inch) within 30 seconds with high resolutions (spatial and flatness/thickness) suitable for this application. In addition to the interferometric signal, the polarization changes in the reflected and transmitted signals are under study to make the measurement technique more effective. Industrial participants will also have an opportunity to contribute to the design study of a proto-type device that equipped with the needed scanning capability and resolution. The goal of the collaboration is to design and test the FSIP system that equipped with a real time sorting system to be used in production line. Potential industry partners are requested to submit a written response expressing interest in this program. The response should include responses to all of the following items. 1) A description of experience in this technical field. 2) A description of the participant's business. 3) The potential benefits of this CRADA to the participant's business. 4) The partner's capability and commitment to the commercialization of products developed under this CRADA. No proprietary information should accompany the response to this offer. Obligations of confidentiality may attend PPPL's disclosure of its technology with this offer. Depending on the partner's ability and commitment to commercialization and other factors, license to PPPL's technology may be available to the industrial partner under the CRADA. Only written responses can be accepted. Due date for responses August 21, 1998 Posted 08/04/98 (W-SN232236). (0216)

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