SEMINAR ON

(OLED TECHNOLOGY) Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirement

for the award of the degree of Bachelor of Technology

in

Electronics and Communication Engineering

Department

Submitted by
DRISHTI MALIK

1715306

Batch: 2015-2019

Department of
Electronics &
Communication
Engineering

Seth Jai Parkash Mukand Lal Institute of Engineering &

Technology,

Radaur – 135133 (Yamuna Nagar)

(Affiliated to Kurukshetra University, Kurukshetra, Haryana,

India)
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I would like to thank my Department i.e.- Department of

Electronics & Communication Engineering of my College especially my
H.O.D. “Mr. Vishal Chaudhary” and all my teachers who gave me the
opportunity to submit my seminar on innovation in electronics. I am highly
obliged that I have received all your support in such a good way. The
information submitted is true and genuine to the best of my knowledge.

This kind of opportunity not only allows the student to be in touch

with the latest inventions, but also motivates to take part in their field of
electronics to invent new devices and machines to make the future better
and easy to live in. Enhancing the capabilities of learning new skills and
technologies in various fields of engineering. I would sincerely thank to all my
teachers and mentors to provide the opportunity to present the report on
the latest inventions in field of electronics.

Yours faithfully

Drishti Malik
 LIST OF FIGURES

Figure No. Figure Page No.

1.1 Demonstration of flexible OLED device

2.1 Injet Mechanism

3.1 Triplet State

3.2 Two different ways of Decay

3.3 Single Organic Layer

3.4 Two Organic Layer

3.5 Multilayer Organic LED

3.6 Recombination Region

3.7 Passive Matrix

3.8 Active Matrix

3.9 OLED structure

3.10 OLED Top Emitting Structure

3.11 Foldable OLED

3.12 White OLED

4.1 Samsung Galaxy

4.2 SONY XEL-1

4.3 KODAK LS633

4.4 Turn light flap

4.5 Wallpaper Lightining

4.6 Scroll Laptop

 CONTENTS


CHPTER –1: INTRODUCTION TO OLED TECHNOLOGY

1.1 INTRODUCTION .................................................................................

1.2 HISTORY & COMPONENTS OF OLED………………………..….….9

1.2 (i)HISTORY…………………………………………………...…...9
1.2 (ii)COMPONENTS OF OLED……………………………………..14

CHAPTER -2: FABRICATION TECHNOLOGY OF OLED………16

2.1 STEPS IN FABRICATION…………………………………....16

2.2 METHODS OF FABRICATION…………………………..….18


CHAPTER -3: WORKING TYPES & OF OLED………..............….22

3.1 WORKING PRINCIPLE…………………………...………….22

3.2 WORKING………………………………………………….....23

3.3 TYPES OF OLED…………………………………...…………29

3.4 COMPARISON OF OLED AND LCD……………...........


CHAPTER-:4 ADVANTAGES & DISADVANTAGES………….37

4.1 ADVANTAGES……………………………………………….37

4.2 DISADVANTAGES……………………………..…………….38

4.3 APPLICATIONS……………………………………………….39

4.4 EFFICIENCY OF OLED……………………………………….42

4.5 THE ORGANIC FUTURE………………………………..……43


CONCLUSIONS………………………………………….……….44

REFERENCES.................…............................................................…45
 CHAPTER-1: INTRODUCTION
1.1 INTRODUCTION TO OLED TECHNOLOGY

Scientific research in the area of semiconducting organic materials as the

active substance in light emitting diodes (LEDs) has increased immensely during
the last four decades. Organic semiconductors was first reported in the 60:s and
then the materials were only considered to be merely a scientific curiosity. (They
are named organic because they consist primarily of carbon, hydrogen and
oxygen.). However when it was recognized in the eighties that many of them are
photoconductive under visible light, industrial interests were attracted. Many major
electronic companies, such as Philips and Pioneer, are today investing a
considerable amount of money in the science of organic electronic and
optoelectronic devices. The major reason for the big attention to these devices is
that they possibly could be much more efficient than today’s components when it
comes to power consumption and produced light. Common light emitters today,
Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) and ordinary light bulbs consume more power than
organic diodes do. And the strive to decrease power consumption is always
something of matter. Other reasons for the industrial attention are i.e. that
eventually organic full color displays will replace today’s liquid crystal displays
(LCDs) used in laptop computers and may even one day replace our ordinary CRT-
screens.

Organic light-emitting devices (OLEDs) operate on the principle of

converting electrical energy into light, a phenomenon known as
electroluminescence. They exploit the properties of certain organic materials which
emit light when an electric current passes through them. In its simplest form, an
OLED consists of a layer of this luminescent material sandwiched between two
electrodes. When an electric current is passed between the electrodes, through the
organic layer, light is emitted with a colour that depends on the particular material
used. In order to observe the light emitted by an OLED, at least one of the
electrodes must be transparent.
 When OLEDs are used as pixels in flat panel displays they have some
advantages over backlit active-matrix LCD displays - greater viewing angle, lighter
weight, andquicker response. Since only the part of the display that is actually lit
up consumespower, the most efficient OLEDs available today use less power.
 Figure.1.1Demonstration of a flexible OLED device

Based on these advantages, OLEDs have been proposed for a wide range of display
applications including magnified micro displays, wearable, head-mounted
computers, digital cameras, personal digital assistants, smart pagers, virtual reality
games, and mobile phones as well as medical, automotive, and other industrial
applications.
 1.2 HISTORY & COMPONENTS OF OLED

1.2(i) HISTORY

Conductive materials are substances that can transmit electrical charges.

Traditionally, most known conductive materials have been inorganic. Metals such
as copper and aluminum are the most familiar conductive materials, and have high
electrical conductivity due to their abundance of delocalized electrons that move
freely throughout the inter-atomic spaces. Some metallic conductors are alloys of
two or more metal elements, common examples of such alloys include steel, brass,
bronze, and pewter.
In the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, people began to study the
electrical conduction in metals. In his experiments with lightning, Benjamin
Franklin proved that an electrical charge travels along a metallic rod. Later, Georg
Simon Ohm discovered that the current passing through a substance is directly
proportional to the potential difference, known as Ohm's law. This relationship
between potential difference and current became a widely used measure of the
ability of various materials to conduct electricity. Since the discovery of
conductivity, studies have focused primarily on inorganic conductive materials
with only a few exceptions.
Henry Letheby discovered the earliest known organic conductive material in 1862.
Using anodic oxidation of aniline in sulfuric acid, he produced a partly conductive
material that was later identified as polyaniline. In the 1950s, the phenomenon that
polycyclic aromatic compounds formed semi-conducting charge-transfer complex
salts with halogens was discovered, showing that some organic compounds could
be conductive as well.
More recent work has expanded the range of known organic conductive
materials. A high conductivity of 1 S/cm (S = Siemens) was reported in 1963 for a
derivative of tetraiodopyrrole. In 1972, researchers found metallic conductivity
(conductivity comparable to a metal) in the charge-transfer complex TTF-TCNQ.
 In 1977, it was discovered that polyacetylene can be oxidized with halogens
to produce conducting materials from either insulating or semiconducting
materials. In recent decades, research on conductive polymers has prospered, and
the 2000 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to Alan J. Heeger, Alan G.
MacDiarmid, and Hideki Shirakawa jointly for their work on conductive polymers.

Conductive plastics have recently undergone development for applications in

industry. In 1987, the first organic diode device of was produced at Eastman Kodak
by Ching W. Tang and Steven Van Slyke. Spawning the field of organic light-
emitting diodes (OLED) research and device production. For his work, Ching W.
Tang is widely considered as the father of organic electronics. Technology for
plastic electronics constructed on thin and flexible plastic substrates was developed
in the 1990s. In 2000, the company Plastic Logic was founded as a spin-off of
Cavendish Laboratory to develop a broad range of products using the plastic
electronics technology

Attractive properties of polymer conductors include a wide range of

electrical conductivity that can be tuned by varying the concentrations of chemical
dopants, mechanical flexibility, and high thermal stability. Organic conductive
materials can be grouped into two main classes: conductive polymers and
conductive small molecules.
ORGANIC ELECTRONICS

Organic electronics is a field of materials science concerning the design,

synthesis, characterization, and application of organic small molecules or polymers
that show desirable electronic properties such as conductivity. Unlike conventional
inorganic conductors and semiconductors, organic electronic materials are
constructed from organic (carbon-based) small molecules or polymers using
synthetic strategies developed in the context of organic and polymer chemistry.
One of the benefits of organic electronics is their low cost compared to traditional
inorganic electronics.
CONDUCTIVE MATERIALS

Conductive small molecules are usually used in the construction of organic

semiconductors, which exhibit degrees of electrical conductivity between those of
insulators and metals. Semiconducting small molecules include polycyclic
aromatic compounds such as pentacene, anthracene and rubrene.

Conductive polymers are typically intrinsically conductive. Their

conductivity can be comparable to metals or semiconductors. Most conductive
polymers are not thermoformable, during production. However they can provide
very high electrical conductivity without showing similar mechanical properties to
other commercially available polymers. Both organic synthesis and advanced
dispersion techniques can be used to tune the electrical properties of conductive
polymers, unlike typical inorganic conductors. The well-studied class of conductive
polymers is the so-called linear-backbone “polymer blacks” including
polyacetylene, polypyrrole, polyaniline, and their copolymers.

Poly (p-phenylene vinylene) and its derivatives are used for

electroluminescent semiconducting polymers. Poly (3-alkythiophenes) are also a
typical material for use in solar cells and transistors
.
APPLICATION OF ORGANIC ELECTRONICS

There are four major application areas: displays; lighting; photovoltaics and
integrated smart systems. While OLAE technology is currently used in many
manufacturing processes, new applications are entering the marketplace rapidly.

While organic light- emitting diodes (OLEDs) are already used commercially in
displays of mobile devices and significant progress has been made in applying
organic photovoltaic cells to light-weight flexible fabrics to generate low-cost solar
energy, a brand new range of applications is possible such as biomedical implants
and disposable biodegradable RFID packaging tags.
In addition, low cost organic solar cells have the potential to drive down the cost of
photovoltaics to levels, which are not achievable with mono or poly-crystalline
solar cells. Similarly, organic light emitting diodes will revolutionize current
lighting applications, significantly reducing CO2 impact. Also, smart devices
incorporating organic and printed circuits, sensors and energy sources will enable
new approaches in logistics and consumer packaging, and new flexible displays
with exceptionally low energy consumption will be used anywhere and anytime.

WHAT ARE THE POSSIBILITIES?

The possibilities are limitless as the technology is evolving at such a rapid

pace. Industrial designers across all sectors and markets should be aware of the
technology and looking at ways of harnessing its power and benefits into new
product design.

Possible applications could include:

Memory or logic devices

Detectors, lasers and light emitters

Information displays – advertising billboards and other media

Micro lenses

Batteries

Power or light sources

Subsystem packaging

Image patterning

Electrical or optical fibers

Transistors

Photoconductors
ORGANIC LED

Why so much excitement about Organic LED?


Easy to process

Processing is low cost

Less temperature required to fabricate

They can possess to low –cost substrates (i.e., plastic, paper even
cloth)

Directly integrated to packages as it is light weight.
1.2(ii) COMPONENTS OF AN OLED

The components in an OLED differ according to the number of layers of the

organic material. There is a basic single layer OLED, two layer and also three layer
OLED’s. As the number of layers increase the efficiency of the device also
increases. The increase in layers also helps in injecting charges at the electrodes
and thus helps in blocking a charge from being dumped after reaching the opposite
electrode. Any type of OLED consists of the following components.

1. An emissive layer
2. A conducting layer
3. A substrate
4. Anode and cathode terminals.

SUBSTRATE- The substrate supports the OLED.
Example: clear plastic, glass, foil.

ANODE- The anode removes electrons when current flows through the
device. Example: indium tin oxide

ORGANIC LAYERS- These layers are made of organic molecules or
polymers.

 CONDUCTIVE LAYER- This layer is made of

organic plasticmolecules that send electrons out from
the anode.
Example: polyaniline, polystyrene

EMISSIVE LAYER- This layer is made of organic
plastic molecules (different ones from the conducting
layer) that transport electrons from the cathode; this is
where light is made. Example: polyfluorine, Alq3

CATHODE- The cathode injects electrons when a current flows through
the device. (It may or may not be transparent depending on the device)
Example: Mg, Al, Ba, Ca
 CHAPTER-: 2 FABRICATION TECHNOLOGY OF OLED

2.1 STEPS IN FABRICATION

In general OLEDs are fabricated in a class 1000 cleanroom to produce

results with as high a consistency as possible. However, OLEDs are relatively
tolerant to dust, as it is insulating and generally only stops the device working
where the dust has landed on the surface.

In this section, a generalized fabrication process is dis-cussed. There are six

basic steps in the fabrication process from the substrate to devices ready for use.
These are described below

2.1.(i) SUBSTRATE CLEANING

Preparing the ITO surface for coating simply consists of sonicating the
substrates in a sodium hydroxide (NaOH) solution to remove the photoresist,
followed by a rinse in de-ionized (DI) water and blow dry. The first step is to load
the substrates into the cleaning rack such that they all have the same orientation.
The loaded substrate rack is then placed in a beaker and submerged in a 10%
solution of NaOH in water. The substrates are then sonicated to remove the
photoresist. Depending upon the power and temperature of the sonicator the
photoresist may either dissolve or de-laminate as sheets. The time that it takes for
this to occur will depend on the ultrasonic bath used as well as the temperature.
After sonication the substrates should be thoroughly rinsed with water to wash
away the photoresist. To ensure that they is no residual layer of photoresist present
they should be put back in the ultrasonic bath in a fresh NaOH solution for about
the same time again. Following this second sonication, the substrate should be
again rinsed thoroughly with water and keep immersed in water until ready to blow
dry to avoid contamination by dust.
2.1.(ii) APPLYING PEDOT: PSS

PEDOT: PSS is a common hole injection layer material The chemical name
of it is poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) poly(styrenesulfonate). Getting a high
quality PEDOT:PSS film is critical for effective device performance.
PEDOT:PSS requires a pristine and hydrophilic surface in order to coat properly,
which should have been achieved with the cleaning routine above. It is also critical
to ensure that the active areas have not come into contact with any other surfaces as
this will affect how well the ITO will spin. For typical use in OLEDs, the
PEDOT:PSS are spin coated at 5000 rpm for 30 seconds to produce a film
thickness of around 40 nm. To minimise material use this can be done by pipetting
20 to 30 L into the middle of a spinning substrate. After spinning has completed
visually inspect the PEDOT:PSS films for defects and for best performance discard
any substrates with imperfections near the active pixels. After spin coating, the
PEDOT:PSS should be wiped off the cathode with a cotton bud soaked in DI water.
Then the substrates are placed either in a box with the lid closed to avoid dust
settling on devices, or if kept in air for more than a few minutes place directly on a
hotplate.

2.1.(iii) APPLYING ACTIVE LAYER

The active layer can be applied either in air or in a glovebox with little
difference in performance provided exposure time and light levels are minimised.
Pipetting 20 L of the solution onto a substrate spinning at 2000 rpm should provide
a good even coverage with approximately the desired thickness. The substrate
needs to be spun until dry, which is typically only a few seconds. Following spin
coating, the samples can be solvent or thermally annealed if desired. For the OLED
reference solution thermal annealing is recommended to be done at 80 C for 10
minutes. Before cathode deposition, the cathode strip needs to be wiped clean.
Finally, the substrates need to be placed face down in the evaporation shadow mask
with the cathode strip at the wide end of the apertures.
2.1.(iv) CATHODE EVAPORATION

Typically, aluminium of 100 nm is evaporated at a rate of around 1.5 A/s, but

thinner cathodes (50 nm) have also been used with no decrease in initial
performance noted. Calcium evaporation is relatively as it melts at low
temperature.
2.1.(v) ANNEALING
After cathode deposition, thermal annealing can be per-formed if required.
Annealing at a temperature of approxi-mately 150 C for 15 minutes gives optimal
performance.

2.1.6(vi)ENCAPSULATION
Encapsulating the devices protects them against degradation by oxygen and
moisture once removed from the glovebox. True encapsulation for lifetimes of
thousands of hours requires the use of glass welding technology and/or getter
layers of calcium.

2.2 METHODS OF FABRICATION


Physical vapor deposition Screen

Screen Printing

Inkjet printing

In-line fabrication

Roll to roll process

2.2.(i) PHYSICAL VAPOR DEPOSITION SCREEN

Physical Vapor Deposition (PVD) is a group of vacuum coating techniques used
to deposit thin films of various mate-rials on different surface.This technique is
based on the for-mation of vapor of the material to be deposited as a thin film. The
material in solid form is either heated until evaporation (thermal evaporation) or
sputtered by ions (sputtering).It is also possible to bombard the sample with an ion
beam from an external ion source.Thermal vapor evaporation of small molecules is
carried out on glass surface.Multicolor displays are made by properly matched
shadow masks for depositing RGB emitting material.


PHYSICAL VAPOR DEPOSITION TECHNOLOGIES : There are two
technologies which are often used for physical vapor depo-sition (PVD).
Physical vapor deposition is done by thermal evaporator. Here, the
material is heated to attain gaseous state. Besides, Electron Beam
Evaporator is also used. Another method is Sputtering which is carried
 out under high vacuum condition. Here plasma as the particle source is
used to strike the target.

THERMAL EVAPORATOR: Thermal evaporator uses an elec-tric
resistance heater to melt the material and raise its vapor pressure to a useful
range. This is done in a high vacuum environment.An electron beam
evaporator fires a high energy beam from an electron gun to boil a small spot
of the material

SPUTTERING: Sputtering is a physical process whereby atoms in a solid
target material are ejected into the gas phase due to bombardment of the
material by energetic ions.The ions for the sputtering process are supplied by
the plasma that is induced in the sputtering equipment. Sputtering relies on a
plasma (usually a noble gas, such as argon) to knock material from a surface.

2.2.2(ii)SCREEN PRINTING
Screen printing is a commonly used technique for fast, inexpensive
deposition of dye.

A variety of cloth types is available. Polyester is common; nylon cloth and metal
cloth are also made. The specific limits we have found to our process apply to
polyester cloth; however, nylon and metal cloth will give essentially similar results.
Mesh count is the number of threads per inch in the cloth. The Theoretical Ink
Volume is the volume of ink in all mesh openings per unit area of substrate. This
volume is the thickness of the ink deposit as if the ink were coating the substrate
below the open cloth as a uniform, continuous layer. A high tension is maintained
on the cloth to keep it from sagging in the screen. A higher mesh count cloth gives
both higher print definition and lower theoretical ink volume, but the mesh opening
and percent open area decrease. In general, the printed layers of light-emitting
polymer lamp construction need to be as thin as possible which entails using higher
mesh count screens with lower theoretical ink volume values.
 In a typical single layer white OLED fabrication by screen printing method
ITO (Indium Tin Oxide) glasses are ultra-sonically cleaned, followed by rinsing
with deionized water, trichloroethylene, acetone and methanol. The cleaned ITO
glasses are patterned via a standard micro lithographic process. HCl (37%,
Aldrich) is used as the etchant for the ITO. For the surface treatment of the ITO,
the patterned ITO glasses were treated by oxygen plasma for some minutes as
RMS roughness is lower in plasma treated ITO than bare ITO glasses. The
pinholes are also reduced due to plasma treat-ment. For white OLED, DPVBi(4,4-
bis(2,2-diphenylvinyl)-1,1biphenyl, 99.95% purity, Gracel), -NPD (N,N-diphenyl-
N,N-bis(1-naphthyl)-1,1 biphenyl-4,4 diamine, 99.95% purity, Gracel) and
rebrene(99.96% purity, Gracel) are dissolved in a previously prepared solution of
polystyrene in chlorobenzene. The solution is then screen printed using mask.
Then LiF and Al layer is deposited to form OLED device.

2.2.(iii)INKJET PRINTING

Ink jet printing is another way to deposit the organic layers, especially
organic polymers. In this method we can use simply an inkjet printer. Organic
layers are sprayed onto substrates like ink sprayed on paper during printing. For
example, there may be three ink cartridges and three nozzles enabling the printer to
print three different colours simultaneously. As the printer head scans the page and
the piezoelectric materials are pulsed, ink is squirted from the nozzles onto the
page. The only modification to the ink-jet printer for printing OLEDs was to
replace the ink cartridges with polymer solutions. Different colors are achieved
with different layer materials. For example, if green is desired it is common to use
the combination Mq3, where M is a Group III metal and q3 is 8-hydroxyquinolate.
Blue is achieved by using Alq2OPh and red is done with perylene derivatives.
Organic solutions used here are a solution of hole transport layer
and emissive layer organic materials. When using polymers, ink-jet technology is
commonly used. We can use an electron transport material layer for better device
efficiency.

Figure 2.1 Inkjet Mechanism

2.2.(iv) IN-LINE FABRICATION

In-line fabrication is a mass process technique. Vertical in-line tool operates

with continuous substrate flow. Linear sources of depositing organic and metallic
materials are used in this process. In this process in-line sources are used where
material is deposited from a linear tube (as opposed to the point sources that are
more commonly used in OLED manu-facture), It improves material usage by a
factor of 10.

Cheaper mass production technique and excellent thickness homogeneity

can be achieved by this process. Deposition stability is excellent in this method.
Complicated stack struc-tures can be implemented using in-line fabrication.
Deposition rate and throughput are high. This process can handle large substrate.

2.2.(v) ROLL TO ROLL PROCESS

Roll to Roll processing could revolutionize the fabrication of OLED flexible flat
panel displays. The prerequisite of this method is flexible substrate, so that the
substrate can be rolled. We can divide this process into three parts.

Deposition

Patterning
 CHAPTER -:3 WORKING & TYPES OF OLED

3.1 WORKING PRINCIPLE

As previously mentioned, OLEDs are an emissive technology, which means

they emits light instead of diffusing or reflecting a secondary source, as LCDs and
LEDs currently do. Below is a graphic explanation of how the technology works
3.2 WORKING

The organic light emitting diode (OLED) is a p-n diode, in which charge-carriers
(e-h pairs) recombine to emit photons in an organic layer. The thickness of this
layer is approximately 100 nm (experiments have shown that 70 nm is an optimal
thickness). When an electron and a hole recombine, an excited state called an
exciton is formed. Depending on the spin of the e-h pair, the excitation is either a
singlet or a triplet. An electron can have two different spins, spin up and spin down.
When the spin of two particles is the same, they are said to be in a spin-paired, or a
triplet state, and when the spin is opposite they are in a spin-paired singlet state.

Figure.3.1Triplet State
On the average, one singlet and three triplets are formed for every four electron-
hole pairs, and this is a big inefficiency in the operation of the diodes. A singlet
state decays very quickly, within a few nanoseconds, and thereby emits a photon in
a process called fluorescence. A triplet state, however, is much more long-lived (1
ms - 1 s), and generally just produce heat.
One method of improving the performance is to add a phosphorescent material to
one of the layers in the OLED. This is done by adding a heavy metal such as
iridium or platinum. The excitation can then transfer its energy to a phosphorescent
molecule which in turn emits a photon. It is however a problem that few
phosphorescent materials are efficient emitters at room temperature.

Figure.3.2 Two different ways of decay

There have been devices manufactured which transforms both singlet and
tripletstates in a host to a singlet state in the fluorescent dye. This is done by using
a phosphorescent compound which both the singlets and triplets transfer their
energy to, after which the compound transfer its energy to a fluorescent material
which then emits light.
Using one organic layer has some problems associated with it. The electrodes
energy levels have to be matched very closely.
Without recombining, and this lowers the efficiency of the device. With two
organic layers, the situation improves dramatically. Now the different layers can be
optimized for the electrons and holes respectively. The charges are blocked at the
interface of the materials, and “waits” there for a “partner”.

Figure.3.3 Single Organic layer

Considerably better balance can be achieved by using two organic layers one
ofwhich is matched to the anode and transports holes with the other optimized for
electron injection and transport. Each sign of charge is blocked at the interface
between the two organic layers and tend to "wait" there until a partner is found.
Recombination therefore occurs with the excitation forming in the organic material
with the lower energy gap. The fact that it forms near the interface is also
beneficial in preventing quenching of the luminescence that can occur when the
excitation is near one of the electrodes.
 Figure.3.4 Two Organic layers

Another improvement is to introduce a third material specifically chosen for its

luminescent efficiency. Now the three organic materials can be separately
optimized for electron transport, for hole transport and for luminescence.

Figure.3.5 Multilayer organic light emitting diode

The principle of operation of organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs) is similar to

that of inorganic light emitting diodes (LEDs). Holes and electrons are injected
from opposite contacts into the organic layer sequence and transported to the
emitter layer. Recombination leads to the formation of singlet excitons that decay
radiatively. In more detail, electroluminescence of
organic thin film devices can be divided into five processes that are important for
device operation:
(a) Injection: Electrons are injected from a low work function metal con-tact, e. g.
Ca or Mg. The latter is usually chosen for reasons of stability. A wide-gap
transparent indium-tin-oxide (ITO) or polyaniline thin film is used for hole
injection. In addition, the efficiency of carrier injection can be improved by
choosing organic hole and electron injection layers with a low HOMO (high
occupied molecular orbital) or high LUMO (lowest unoccupied molecular orbital)
level, respectively.
(b) Transport: In contrast to inorganic semiconductors, high p- or n-conducting
organic thin films can only rarely be obtained by doping. Therefore, preferentially
hole or electron transporting organic compounds with sufficient mobility have to be
used to transport the charge carriers to the re-combination site. Since carriers of
opposite polarity also migrate to some extent, a minimum thickness is necessary to
prevent non-radiative recombination at the opposite contact. Thin electron or hole
blocking layers can be inserted to improve the selective carrier transport.
(c) Recombination: The efficiency of electron-hole recombination leading to the
creation of singlet excitons is mainly influenced by the overlap of electron and hole
densities that originate from carrier injection into the emitter layer. Recombination
of filled traps and free carriers may also attribute to the formation of excited states.
Energy barriers for electrons and holes to both sides of the emitter layer allow to
spatially confine and improve the recombination process.
(d) Migration and (e) decay:Singlet excitons will migrate with an average
diffusion length of about 20 nm followed by a radiative or non-radiative decay.
Embedding the emitter layer into transport layers with higher singlet excitation
energies leads to a confinement of the singlet excitons and avoids non-radiative
decay paths. Doping of the emitter layer with organic dye molecules allows to
transfer energy from the host to the guest molecule in order to tune the emission
wavelength or to increase the luminous efficiency.
When biased, charge is injected into the highest occupied molecular orbital
(HOMO) at the anode (positive), and the lowest unoccupied molecular orbital
(LUMO) at the cathode (negative), and these injected charges (referred to as
“holes” and “electrons,” respectively) migrate in the applied field until two charges
of opposite polarity encounter each other, at which point they annihilate and
produce a radiative state emitting photons with energy hf =Eg . The energy gap is
the difference between the HOMO and LUMO level of the emitting layer, and it is
largely responsible for the observed color of the light.

Figure.3.6 Recombination Region

 Layer sequences and energy level diagrams for OLEDs with (a) single
layer,
(b)single hetero structure, (c) double hetero structure, and
(d)multiplayer structure with separate hole and electron injection and
transport layers.
3.3 TYPES OF OLED

There are several types of OLEDs:

 Passive-matrix OLED
 Active-matrix OLED
 Transparent OLED
 Top-emitting OLED
 Foldable OLED
 White OLED

PASSIVE-MATRIX OLED (PMOLED)
PMOLEDs have strips of cathode, organic layers and strips of anode. The anode
strips are arranged perpendicular to the cathode strips. The intersections of the
cathode and anode make up the pixels where light is emitted. External circuitry
applies current to selected strips of anode and cathode, determining which pixels
get turned on and which pixels remain off. Again, the brightness of each pixel is
proportional to the amount of applied current.

PMOLEDs are easy to make, but they consume more power than other types of
OLED, mainly due to the power needed for the external circuitry. PMOLEDs are
most efficient for text and icons and are best suited for small screens (2- to 3-inch
diagonal) such as those you find in CELL PHONES,PDA’s and MP3 Players. Even
with the external circuitry, passive-matrix OLEDs consume less battery power than
the LCDs that currently power these devices.
 Figure.3.7 OLED Passive Matrix

 ACTIVE-MATRIX OLED (AMOLED)

AMOLEDs have full layers of cathode, organic molecules and anode, but the
anode layer overlays a thin film transistor (TFT) array that forms a matrix. The
TFT array itself is the circuitry that determines which pixels get turned on to form
an image.

AMOLEDs consume less power than PMOLEDs because the TFT array requires
less power than external circuitry, so they are efficient for large displays.
AMOLEDs also have faster refresh rates suitable for video. The best uses for
AMOLEDs are computer monitors, large-screen TVs and electronic signs or
billboards.
 Figure.3.8 OLED Active Matrix

 TRANSPARENT OLED
Transparent OLEDs have only transparent components (substrate, cathode and
anode) and, when turned off, are up to 85 percent as transparent as their substrate.
When a transparent OLED display is turned on, it allows light to pass in both
directions. A transparent OLED display can be either active- or passive-matrix.
This technology can be used for heads-up displays.
 Figure.3.9 OLED Transparent Structure

 TOP-EMITTING OLED
Top-emitting OLEDs have a substrate that is either opaque or reflective. They are
best suited to active-matrix design. Manufacturers may use top-emitting OLED
displays in SMART CARDS
Figure.3.10 OLED Top-Emitting Structure

 FOLDABLE OLED
Foldable OLEDs have substrates made of very flexible metallic foils or plastics.
Foldable OLEDs are very lightweight and durable. Their use in devices such as cell
phones and PDAs can reduce breakage, a major cause for return or repair.
Potentially, foldable OLED displays can be attached to fabrics to create "smart"
clothing, such as outdoor survival clothing with an integrated computer chip, cell
phone, GPS receiver and OLED display sewn into it.

Figure.3.11 Foldable OLED

  WHITE OLED
White OLEDs emit white light that is brighter, more uniform and more energy
efficient than that emitted by fluorescent lights. White OLEDs also have the true-
color qualities of incandescent lighting. Because OLEDs can be made in large
sheets, they can replace fluorescent lights that are currently used in homes and
buildings. Their use could potentially reduce energy costs for lighting.

Figure.3.12 White OLED

3.4 COMPARISON OF OLED AND LCD

Organic LED panel Liquid Crystal Panel

A luminous form Self emission of light Back light or outside light is

necessary

Consumption of Electric It is lowered to about mW It is abundant when back light

Power though it is a little higher is used
than the reflection type
liquid crystal panel

Colour Indication form The fluorescent material A colour filter is used.

of RGB is arranged in
order and or a colour filter
is used.

High brightness 100 cd/m2 6 cd/m2

The dimension of the panel Several-inches type in the It is produced to 28-inch type in
future to about 10-inch the future to 30-inch type.Goal
type.Goal

Contrast 100:14 6:1

The thickness of the panel It is thin with a little over When back light is used it is
1mm thick with 5mm.

The mass of panel It becomes light weight With the one for the portable
more than 1gm more than telephone.10 gm weak degree.
the liquid crystal panel in
the case of one for
portable telephone

Answer time Several us Several ns

A wide use of temperature 86 *C ~ -40 *C ~ -10 *C

Range

The corner of the view Horizontal 180 * Horizontal 120* ~ 170*

 CHAPTER -: 4 ADVANTAGES & DISADVANTAGES
4.1 ADVANTAGES
The different manufacturing process of OLEDs lends itself to several advantages
over flat-panel displays made with LCD technology.
 Lower cost in the future: OLEDs can be printed onto any suitable substrate
by an inkjet printer or even by screen printing, theoretically making them
cheaper to produce than
LCD or plasma display. However, fabrication of the OLED substrate is more
costly than that of a TFT LCD, until mass production methods lower cost
through scalability.
 Light weight & flexible plastic substrates: OLED displays can be
fabricated on flexible plastic substrates leading to the possibility of flexible
organic light-emitting diodes being fabricated or other new applications such
as roll-up displays embedded in fabrics or clothing.
 Wider viewing angles & improved brightness: OLEDs can enable a
greater artificial contrast ratio (both dynamic range and static, measured in
purely dark conditions) and
viewing angle compared to LCDs because OLED pixels directly emit light.

 Better power efficiency: LCDs filter the light emitted from a back light

 Response time: OLEDs can also have a faster response time than standard
LCD screens.
4.2 DISADVANTAGES
OLED seem to be the perfect technology for all types of displays;however, they do
have some problems, including:

 Outdoor performance: As an emissive display technology, OLEDs

rely completely
upon converting electricity to light, unlike most LCDs which are to some
extent reflective

 Power consumption: While an OLED will consume around 40% of the

power of an LCD displaying an image

 Screen burn-in: Unlike displays with a common light source, the brightness
of each OLED pixel fades depending on the content displayed. The varied
lifespan of the organic dyes can cause a discrepancy between red, green, and
blue intensity. This leads to image persistence, also known as burn in

 UV sensitivity: OLED displays can be damaged by prolonged exposure to

UV light. The most pronounced example of this can be seen with a near UV
laser (such as a Bluray pointer) and can damage the display almost instantly
with more than 20mW leading to dim or dead spots where the beam is
focused.

 Lifetime - While red and green OLED films have longer lifetimes (46,000 to
230,000 hours), blue organics currently have much shorter lifetimes (up to
around 14,000 hours

 Manufacturing - Manufacturing processes are expensive right now.

  Color balance issues: Additionally, as the OLED material used to produce
blue light degrades significantly more rapidly than the materials that produce
other colors, blue light output will decrease relative to the other colors of
light. This differential color output change will change the color balance of
the display and is much more noticeable than a decrease in overall
luminance.

 Water damage: Water can damage the organic materials of the displays.
Therefore, improved sealing processes are important for practical
manufacturing. Water damage may especially limit the longevity of more
flexible displays.

4.3APPLICATIONS

Currently, OLEDs are used in small screen devices like cell phones, digital
cameras etc.
Some examples of OLED applications are as follows:

 Mobile Phones- Mobile phones were the first to adopt AMOLED displays
and is the largest market for OLEDs today.

Figure.4.1 Samsung Galaxy Round , Blackberry Q30

 OLED TVs- OLED TVs had begun shipping in 2013 but their prices are still
very high.
 Figure.4.2 Sony XEL-1, world’s 1st OLED TV

 Digital Cameras- Several compact and high-end cameras use AMOLED

displays that offer rich colors and high contrast and brightness. Kodak was
the first to release a digital camera with an OLED display in March 2003, the
EasyShare LS633.

Figure.4.3 Kodak LS633

 OLED Lamps- OLED lamps are currently very expensive, but already
several companies are offering these in the premium lighting category.
 Figure. 4.4 Turn lights flaps

 Other devices-OLEDs are also used in wrist watches, headsets, car audio
systems, remote controllers, digital photo frames and many other kinds of
devices.

Future uses of OLED-

 Wallpaper lighting defining new ways to light a space

Figure.4.5 Wallpaper Lighting

  Scroll Laptop

Figure. 4.6 Scroll Laptop

 Rollable OLED television

Figure. 4.7 Toshiba ultra thin flexible OLED

4.4 EFFICIENCY OF OLED

Recent advantages in boosting the efficiency of OLED light emission

have led to the possibility that OLEDs will find early uses in many battery-
powered electronic appliances such as cell phones, game boys and personal digital
assistants. Typical external quantum efficiencies of OLEDs made using a single
fluorescent material that both conducts electrons and radiates photons are greater
than 1 percent. But by using guest-host organic material systems where the
radiative guest fluorescent or phosphorescent dye molecule is doped at low
concentration into a conducting molecular host thin film, the efficiency can be
substantially increased to 10 percent or higher for phosphorescence or up to
approximately 3 percent for fluorescence.
 Currently, efficiencies of the best doped OLEDs exceed that of incandescent light
bulbs. Efficiencies of 20 lumens per watt have been reported for yellow-green-
emitting polymer devices and 40 lm/W for a typical incandescent light bulb. It is
reasonable to that of fluorescent room lighting will be achieved by using
phosphorescent OLEDs.
The green device which shows highest efficiency is based on factris(2-
phenylpyridine) iridium[Ir(PPY)3] ,a green electro phosphorescent
material. Thus phosphorescent emission originates from a long-lived
triplet state.

4.5 THE ORGANIC FUTURE

The first products using organic displays are already being introduced into
the market place. And while it is always difficult to predict when and what future
products will be introduced, many manufacturers are now working to introduce cell
phones and personal digital assistants with OLED displays within the next one or
two years. The ultimate goal of using high-efficiency, phosphorescent, flexible
OLED displays in lap top computers and even for home video applications may be
no more than a few years into future.
However, there remains much to be done if organics are to establish a foothold in
the display market. Achieving higher efficiencies, lower operating voltages, and
lower device life times are all challenges still to be met. But, given the aggressive
worldwide efforts in this area, emissive organic thin films have an excellent chance
of becoming the technology of choice for the next generation of high-resolution,
high-efficiency flat panel displays.
In addition to displays, there are many other opportunities for application of
organic thin-film semiconductors, but to date these have remained largely
untapped. Recent results in organic electronic technology that may soon find
commercial outlets in display black planes and other low-cost electronics.
 CONCLUSION

Performance of organic LEDs depend upon many parameters such as electron

and hole mobility, magnitude of applied field, nature of hole and electron
transport layers and excited life-times. Organic materials are poised as never
before to transform the world IF circuit and display technology. Major
electronics firms are betting that the future holds tremendous opportunity for the
low cost and sometimes surprisingly high performance offered by organic
electronic and optoelectronic devices.
Organic Light Emitting Diodes are evolving as the next generation of light
sources. Presently researchers have been going on to develop a 1.5 emitting
device. This wavelength is of special interest for telecommunications as it is the
low-loss wavelength for optical fibre communications. Organic full-colour
displays may eventually replace liquid crystal displays for use with lap top and
even desktop computers. Researches are going on this subject and it is sure that
OLED will emerge as future solid state light source.
 REFERENCES

1) http://impnerd.com/the-history-and- future-of-oled
2) http://jalopnik.com/5154953/samsung-transparent-oled-display-pitched-as-
automotive-hud
3) http://optics.org/cws/article/industry/37032
4) http://www.cepro.com/article/study_future_bright_for_oled_lighting_market/
5) http://www.oled-research.com/oleds/oleds- history.html
6) http://www.pocket-
lint.com/news/news.phtml/23150/24174/samsung-say-oled-not-
ready.phtml
7) http://www.technologyreview.com/energy/21116/page1/
8) http://www.voidspace.org.uk/technology/top_ten_phone_techs.shtml#k
eep-your-eye-on-flexible-displays-coming-soon