Patent ID: 8386220

Claim:
A method of determining an equilibrium shape of a droplet body within a curved bank structure of a substrate, comprising the following steps: (a) determining an initial droplet shape estimate of said droplet body using vertices connected by straight edges and curved lines, said initial droplet shape being dependent upon the contact shape of the interface of the droplet body with the curved bank structure, the contact angle at which the droplet body intersects the substrate, and the droplet volume; wherein the contact shape of the interface of the droplet body with the curved bank structure includes at least one curved bank structure defined by a corresponding curved bank section of the curved bank structure, the base of the curved bank structure being curved and defined by a first concave line having along said base, the summit of the curved bank structure being curved and defined by a second concave line along said summit, and the angle of the curved bank structure being defined by a convex face spanning from the first concave line to the second concave line, the base and summit of the curved bank structure being concave from the perspective of the interior of the droplet body, and the convex face connecting the base of the curved bank structure to its summit being convex from the perspective of the interior of droplet body, the first concave line having a first radius of curvature, the first concave line being defined by a first vertex at the beginning of the curved base and a second vertex at the end of the curved base, the second concave line having a second radius of curvature, the second concave line being defined by a third vertex at the beginning of the curved summit and a fourth vertex at the end of the curved summit, the convex face being defined by a first convex line coupling the first vertex to the third vertex and a second line coupling the second vertex to the fourth vertex; (b) applying a refinement procedure to said initial droplet shape estimate to define a refined initial droplet shape, said refinement procedure including: inserting a first set of three additional vertices evenly spaced along said first concave line between the first and second vertices, and inserting a second set of three additional vertices evenly spaced along said second concave line between the third and fourth vertices; and IF the first and second radii of curvature are of the order of a first predefined radius AND the difference between the first and second radii of curvature is within 5 um, THEN submitting said the resultant initial droplet shape to a triangulation procedure; (c) submitting refined initial droplet shape to a minimization routine to minimize an energy function and determine a minimum surface energy state for the droplet body, said minimum surface energy state defining said equilibrium shape; wherein said first predefined radius is 1 um; and wherein said curved bank structure is part of an organic light emitting diode structure.