Infrared Absorption Imaging of Water Ingress Into the Encapsulation of (Opto-)Electronic Devices

Water ingress into the encapsulation of electronic devices is a serious issue, especially for organic and perovskite-based electronics. In order to guide the development of suitable barrier materials and design, a reliable, fast and non-destructive analysis tool is required. In this work, an imaging setup is presented, which is based on selective infrared (IR) radiation sources and a mid- IR sensitive camera that uses the absorption band of water around 1920 nm and a reference band. This system enables us to monitor the distribution of water concentration inside the packaging of devices and its change over time. Our measurement is capable of detecting the local presence of water down to the mg/m
²
concentration range in a wide variety of encapsulation materials. The new tool allows identifying the pathways of moisture ingress into the encapsulation along with the corresponding diffusion coefficient. Thus, it provides fast and reliable analysis of humidity related failure mechanisms and consequently helps to improve the design of encapsulation materials and processes.