Flexible Environmental Barrier Technology for OLEDs (Phase I)

Investigating Organization
Alameda Applied Sciences Corp.

Principal Investigator(s)
Jason Wright

Subcontractor
None

Funding Source
Small Business Innovation R&D, Phase I

Award
DOE Share: $100,000

Contract Period
6/20/07 - 3/19/08

Protecting OLEDs from moisture and oxygen remains the key technical challenge for fabricating flexible solid-state lighting displays with acceptable service lifetimes. OLED-based displays on flexible PET polymer substrate have been demonstrated; however, they exhibited poor operating lifetimes due to atmospheric exposure.  Alameda Applied Sciences Corporation (AASC) proposes to develop a high-throughput, low-temperature thin film environmental barrier technology on PET polymer substrates to lower costs and reduce permeation rates.

In Phase I, AASC will use its energetic thin film deposition process to demonstrate the feasibility of producing low defect density ceramic barrier films suitable for OLED devices on PET substrates.  The goal is to produce ceramic/PET single-layer barriers with defect densities <1.0mm-2 and <5x10-3 g×m-2×day-1 water vapor transmission rate (WVTR) at 100% RH and 40°C. Phase-II will focus on further optimization of barrier properties to <10-6 g×m-2×day-1 WVTR and <10-5 cc×m-2×day-1 oxygen transmission rate (OTR), accelerated environmental testing of encapsulated OLED devices, and integrating their barriers into the context of a production scale setting.

Low-cost high throughput roll-to-roll deposition of effective thin film moisture barriers would represent a key enabling technology for increasing lifetimes of OLED-based lighting.  The public benefits of a viable OLED display industry are due to the revolutionary transformation in energy efficiency as the U.S. gradually shifts to LED and OLED-based lighting.  To give an idea of the magnitude of the opportunity, in 2001, 30% of U.S. buildings site electricity consumption (total: 2390 terawatt hours) was due to lighting.

Content dated 2/08