A new method to measure the high-shear bulk properties of pressure sensitive adhesives used in LCD devices

The wide application of pressure sensitive adhesives (PSAs) in thin film transistor liquid crystal display (TFT-LCD) devices is based on their advantages that PSAs provide sufficient bond strength and also are cleanly removable upon debonding. These two essential requirements are not obtainable without a proper understanding of the substrate as well as the rheological properties of the PSA. Unlike other substrates, the polarizer, the core unit of an LCD device, may exhibit a considerable dimension change with temperature and humidity. This imposes a large residual stress on the PSA layer, which often generates serious defects such as partial delamination. To overcome this problem, an accurate control of the rheological properties is required in the design of the PSA. In this study a new method is devised to measure the rheological behavior of thin film PSAs under high shear deformation. This method provided us with important information regarding the effects of molar mass and the level of crosslinking on the rheological behavior of the PSA. These findings along with the new method should be applicable not only to the LCD industry but also to other fields where an accurate control of PSA rheology is required.