Quantum dots (QD) change the display industry landscape as they are integrated into displays in various ways from color converters on LCD or OLED to electroluminescent QLED. Their unique optical and electronic properties such as the bandgap tunability, narrow emission bandwidth and high quantum yield enable us to make the display brighter and more efficient and colorful. After providing a brief overview of the current status of the display industry and technology trends, I will explain recent progress and future prospects of the QD display technology. Especially, I will discuss the technical challenges and development opportunities of inkjet-printed QLED displays.
Solution-processed polymer light-emitting diodes (PLEDs) have been widely investigated in display area due to their low-cost and large-scale fabrication. Generally, in order to pattern the device, the electrodes are deposited through a vacuum process such as sputtering or thermal evaporation. In terms of cost, inkjet printing is the most promising alternative to evaporation process because it allows low-material consumption as well as free patterning of the electrodes. However, direct inkjet-printing on the organic layers induces solvent permeation, which causes severe damage to underlying layers. In addition, fine patterns are hard to be obtained because the surface treatment on the functional layers is limited. In this research, we report solution-processed PLEDs with inkjet-printed electrodes. In order to prevent solvent permeation and obtain fine patterns by inkjet printing, we print top electrode on surface-modified polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) substrate and laminate it on the organic functional layers. A structure of our devices is ITO (anode) / PEDOT :PSS (HIL) / PDY-132 (EML) / PEI (interlayer) / ZnO (EIL) / Ag (cathode). The device with laminated Ag shows a turn-on voltage of 2.7 V at 1 cd/m2 and a current efficiency of 7.8 cd/A at 1000 cd/m2, while the device with evaporated Ag shows 2.4 V and 9.9 cd/A under the same condition. Based on our lamination process, all solution-processed PLEDs are fabricated by replacing ITO to inkjet-printed PEDOT :PSS. Furthermore, passive-matrix application is demonstrated showing the possibilities of all solution-processed display. Detailed fabrication process and experimental results will be discussed at the conference.
We fabricated solution-processed transparent silver nanowires (AgNWs) electrodes and applied them to anodes of polymer light-emitting diodes (PLEDs). While patterning methods of the AgNW electrodes in previous research were rather expensive and complicated, we used a transfer method. The AgNW electrodes were fabricated by transferring AgNWs from polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) stamp to inkjet-printed poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) polystyrene sulfonate (PEDOT:PSS) without lithographic patterning. However, due to the rough surface property of the AgNWs placed on the PEDOT:PSS film, AgNW/PEDOT:PSS electrodes cannot be directly employed as the bottom electrode of PLEDs. Therefore, to reduce the surface roughness, they were embedded onto ultraviolet-curable photopolymer, enabling the PEDOT:PSS films to be placed on the AgNWs. The embedded PEDOT:PSS/AgNW electrodes exhibited a sheet resistance of 18.4 Ω/sq and transmittance of 85.6 % at the 550 nm wavelength, which were comparable with those of indium tin oxide (ITO). In addition, the surface roughness of embedded electrodes decreased from 26.8 nm to 11.8 nm in root-mean-square value. We fabricated the PLEDs with the embedded anode, which have a structure of anodes / PEDOT:PSS (HIL) / PDY-132 (EML) / LiF / Al (cathode) on the PEN substrates. As a result, the PLEDs with the embedded anodes showed a current efficiency of 7.1 cd/A and a power efficiency of 2.9 lm/W at 1000 cd/m2. Furthermore, they operated well under a constant current due to reduction of surface roughness without the high leakage current. The mechanical property of embedded AgNWs-transferred PEDOT:PSS electrodes and optimization of PLEDs with them can be presented at conference.
We systematically investigate doping effect of cesium fluoride (CsF) on the device performance of organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs). CsF can be used as a stable n-type dopant due to its low chemical reactivity and simple deposition process. We have observed that CsF could be employed as an effective n-type dopant in thin films of 3,3'-[5'- [3-(3-Pyridinyl)phenyl][1,1':3',1''-terphenyl]-3,3''-diyl]bispyridine (TmPyPB) through experimental studies of optical absorption spectroscopy, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) with different doping concentration. In addition, we measured bulk resistance using impedance spectroscopy in an electron-only devices (EODs) with CsF-doped TmPyPB. As the doping ratio of the CsF increases, the current densities of EOD increase and the bulk resistances of the CsF-doped layer decrease. Owing to high electrical property of CsF-doped TmPyPB in EIL, green phosphorescent OLEDs showed significantly lower voltage and considerably enhanced efficiency. The device with 30 vol% CsF-doped TmPyPB showed power efficiency of 28.1 lm/W at 1000 cd/m2, whereas the device with pristine TmPyPB exhibited 13.8 lm/W. From these results, CsF-doped TmPyPB as EIL can reduce bulk resistance of EIL and improve the electron-injection and transport properties of electron-transport layer. Therefore, we can utilize CsF as an efficient n-type dopant in EIL of OLEDs.
We demonstrate novel plasmonic organic solar cells (OSCs) by embedding an easy processible nanobump assembly (NBA) for harnessing more light. The NBA is consisted of precisely size-controlled Ag nanoparticles (NPs) generated by an aerosol process at atmospheric pressure and thermally deposited molybdenum oxide (MoO3) layer which follows the underlying nano structure of NPs. The active layer, spin-casted polymer blend solution, has an undulated structure conformably covering the NBA structure. To find the optimal condition of the NBA structure for enhancing light harvest as well as carrier transfer, we systematically investigate the effect of the size of Ag NPs and the MoO3 coverage on the device performance. It is observed that the photocurrent of device increases as the size of Ag NP increases owing to enhanced plasmonic and scattering effect. In addition, the increased light absorption is effectively transferred to the photocurrent with small carrier losses, when the Ag NPs are fully covered by the MoO3 layer. As a result, the NBA structure consisted of 40 nm Ag NPs enclosed by 20 nm MoO3 layer leads to 18% improvement in the power conversion efficiency compared to the device without the NBA structure. Therefore, the NBA plasmonic structure provides a reliable and efficient light harvesting in a broad range of wavelength, which consequently enhances the performance of organic solar cells.
We have made a sol-gel deposited gallium-doped zinc oxide (GZO) film as a transparent conductive anode in polymer
light-emitting diode (PLED) applications. The GZO films were obtained by spin-coating GZO precursor solutions
followed by consecutive thermal annealing in the air and in the hydrogen-rich atmosphere. The resistance of GZO film
was reduced to ~100 Ω/□ after thermal annealing in the hydrogen environment. Its surface roughness was sufficiently
low (1.159 nm RMS) for depositing other polymer layers. We have fabricated PLEDs with quartz substrate / solution-processed
GZO electrode (anode) / PEDOT:PSS (HITL) / SPG-01T (Green polymer light-emitting material purchased
from Merck, EML) / Ca (EIL) / Al (Cathode). The fabricated devices showed current efficiency of 3.06 cd/A and power
efficiency of 1.25 lm/W at luminance of 1000 cd/m2.
We fabricated the graphene based PLEDs that had the structure of glass / single layer graphene with Ag auxiliary
electrode (anode) / PEDOT:PSS (HITL) / SPG-01T(Green polymer lighting material from Merck, EML) / Ca (EIL) / Al
(Cathode). Single layer graphene was synthesized on copper foil by thermal CVD process, and then transferred to glass
substrate by PMMA stamp. Formation of single layer graphene was confirmed from AFM, Raman spectroscopy, and
UV-vis spectroscopy measurements. Graphene film was treated through a shadow mask for 15 minutes in UV ozone
chamber to obtain anode pattern. After that, the patterned graphene layer was exposed to UV ozone to control its work
function, which was found to be increased by 0.18eV and 0.27eV after 2.5 minutes and 5 minutes treatment,
respectively. On the graphene layer, PEDOT:PSS and SPG-01T were consecutively spin-coated and annealed in the
globe box. Ca and Al metal layer was deposited by thermal evaporation. Our graphene based PLEDs had the current
efficiency of 9.73 cd/A and the power efficiency of 5.51 lm/W while our reference device with ITO anode showed the
efficiencies of 12.5 cd/A and 8.01 lm/W.
Tandem white organic light emitting diodes (WOLEDs) are fabricated with blue and red unit
devices connected by a transparent Al:LiF/molybdenum oxides (MoO3) connecting layer. The
blue and red unit devices have been fabricated with standard structure based on 8 % iridium
(III)bis(4,6-(di-fluorophenyl)-pyridinato-N,C2') picolinate (FIrpic) doped in
N,N'-dicarbazolyl-3,5-benzene (mCP) and 8 %
bis
(1-phenylisoquinolinato-N,C2 )iridium(acetylacetonate) ((piq)2Ir(acac)) doped in
4,4'-N,N'-dicarbazolebiphenyl (CBP),
respectively. The doping concentration of LiF in the Al:LiF composite layer is 10 % and the
Al:LiF layer thickness is varied from 3 nm up to 10 nm to optimize the performance of
tandem WOLEDs while the MoO3 thickness is fixed at 10 nm. We found that electron
injection efficiency decreases for thicker Al:LiF layer, resulting lower electroluminescence
(EL) efficiency. The maximum brightness and current luminous efficiency for the tandem
WOLEDs are about 32,230 cd/m2 and 18.5 cd/A, respectively, for the Al:LiF (10 %)
thickness of 3 nm.
The light emitting efficiency and the stability of the phosphorescent devices, whose emission characteristics are strongly
dominated not only by the energy transfer but also by the charge carrier trapping influenced by the heterostructured
emissive layers and charge injection layer, are studied in terms of the charge injection behavior, carrier transporting
mobility, and balancing of devices. The enhancement of the light emitting properties (higher efficiency and lower driving
voltage) by use of heterostructures at emitting layer, either multilayers or mixing of hole- and electron-transporting
materials (such as 4,4",4"-tris(N-carbazolyl)-triphenylamine); TCTA and bis(10-hydroxybenzo[h]quinolinate) beryllium;
Bebq2) was characterized. By a design of emitting layer structure for recombination, 30~50lm/W efficiency of devices
with Ir(ppy)3 and conventional transporting layer was possible.
The charge conduction properties of the organic phosphorescent emission layer doped with iridium-based green and
red phosphorescent emitters, fac-tris(2-phenylpyridine) iridium(III) (Ir(ppy)3) and bis(2-(2'-benzo
[4,5-a]thienyl)pyridinato-N,C3')iridium(acetyl-acetonate) (btp2Ir(acac)), were studied and compared to those of the
reference host of 4,'-N,N'-dicarbazole-biphenyl (CBP). In the CBP host layer, both dopants act as hole traps but
they affect the electron transport differently. Compared with the pristine CBP film, the electron mobility is similar for
Ir(ppy)3-doped CBP but it is more than two orders of magnitude lower for btp2Ir(acac)-doped CBP. Because of such
difference in the electrical conduction properties between the Ir(ppy)3- and btp2Ir(acac)-doped CBP, the main
recombination zone position and the electron-hole balance changes. Based on these findings, we optimized white
organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs) with multi-emitting layer (EML) structures in which CBP layers doped with
Ir(ppy)3 and btp2Ir(acac) and fluorescent dopant of
4,4'-bis[2-{4-(N,N-diphenylamino)phenyl}vinyl]biphenyl
(DPAVBi) were used as green (G), red (R), and blue (B) EMLs, respectively. The white OLEDs with the R/G/B EML
sequence show improved electron and hole balance, resulting higher efficiency, better color stability and longer
lifetime compared to the G/R/B EML sequence. A high luminous current efficiency of 13.5 cd/A at 100 cd/m2 was
achieved with the R/G/B EML sequence.
We report the improvement of the electroluminescence (EL) efficiency and the device stability of green organic
light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) by doping 10-(2-benzothiazolyl)-2,3,6,7-tetramethyl-1H,5H,11H-(1)-
benzopyropyrano(6,7-8-i,j)quinolizin-11-one (C545T) in the thin interfacial region of the hole transporting layer of
N,N'-di(1-naphthyl) -N,N'-diphenylbenzidine (α-NPD) in addition to the tris(8-hydroxyquinoline) aluminum (Alq3)
emitting layer. The EL efficiency of 15.7 cd/A is obtained at 10 mA/cm2, which is about 10 % higher than the device
with C545T doped only in the Alq3 layer. In addition, the longer lifetime with very small driving voltage variation
over time is obtained under a constant current driving. This improvement in the efficiency and stability can be
attributed to the combined effect of an additional radiative recombination of electrons with holes in the C545T-doped
α-NPD layer and the reduced transport of holes into the Alq3 emitting layer, thus lowering the generation of unstable
Alq3 cationic species (Alq3+).
In this paper, we demonstrated that controlled charge trapping, both at the emission layer and charge transport layer with
energy level alignment, is essential for charge-balanced and effective electrophosphorescent organic light-emitting
device (OLED). Conditions for enhanced of efficiency and lifetime of OLED were obtained with graded doping profile
at the light-emission layers (varied host-dopant concentration) and different hole (exciton) blocking materials.
Conceptual device physics presented in this study can be applied at an initial design of charge-confined, balanced
structure of highly efficient electrophosphorescent devices.
The stability of the organic light-emitting diode (OLED) at the high temperature is important for their applications to
automotive displays or various lighting applications which are more susceptible to Joule heating problems. In addition, it
is known that the OLED lifetime is limited by the poor thermal stability of the hole-transport layer (HTL) material. Thus,
the improvement of the thermal stability of the HTL layer is essential for enhancing both thermal stability and the
operation lifetime. Here, we report that the thermal stability of OLED device can be significantly enhanced by
introducing an LiF-mixed N,N'-di(1-naphthyl)-N,N'-diphenylbenzidine (α-NPD) as a HTL in the OLED having tris(8-
hydroxyquinoline) aluminum (Alq3) as a light-emitting and electron-transport layer. Compared with the reference device
with the α-NPD HTL, the device having a double layer of LiF-mixed α-NPD and α-NPD as a HTL showed an increased
thermal stability up to 170°C without degrading the quantum efficiency of the electroluminescence. In addition, the
driving voltage variation over time (less than 3 V) was significantly suppressed while the reference device shows a
variation over 6 V. The improved device stability is attributed to the enhanced thermal stability of the LiF-mixed α-NPD
layer, which could be estimated from the result that the film morphology of LiF-mixed α-NPD film was nearly
unchanged after heated above the glass transition temperature of α-NPD while that of α-NPD film was significantly
changed.
Thermal annealing has been widely used to improve device performances of organic solar cells with regioregular (RR)
poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) and [6,6]-phenyl C61-butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM) bulk heterojunction blends.
Especially, short-circuit current density (Jsc) of the thermally-annealed device is significantly increased compared to
that of the non-annealed one. The Jsc is proportional to the product of the carrier mobility and the number of
photogenerated carriers which depends on the photocarrier generation efficiency and carrier recombination lifetime.
Therefore, the enhanced Jsc implies that the thermal annealing can increase either the mobility and/or lifetime of the
photogenerated carriers. In order to understand which parameter is more affected by thermal annealing, we compared
the temperature dependence of the Jsc and carrier mobility of P3HT:PCBM (1:1, weight%) blend solar cells. The carrier
mobility, measured from a time-of-flight photoconductivity (TOF-PC) measurement, increases from about 10-5 cm2/Vs
to the order of 10-4 cm2/Vs as the temperature increases from 300 K to 360 K and then saturates above 360 K up to 400 K. This behavior is very similar to the temperature dependence of the current density of the P3HT:PCBM solar cell
devices with the same blend ratio. Therefore, this correlation indicates that the thermal annealing increases the carrier
mobility by improving morphological order of the blend film and thereby enhances the Jsc of the P3HT:PCBM blend
solar cells.
Ambipolar conduction in organic field-effect transistor is very important feature to achieve organic CMOS circuitry. We
fabricated an ambipolar pentacene field-effect transistors consisted of gold source-drain electrodes and double-layered
PMMA (Polymethylmethacrylate) / PVA (Polyvinyl Alcohol) organic insulator on the ITO(Indium-tin-oxide)-patterned
glass substrate. These top-contact geometry field-effect transistors were fabricated in the vacuum of 10-6 Torr and
minimally exposed to atmosphere before its measurement and characterized in the vacuum condition. Our device
showed reasonable p-type characteristics of field-effect hole mobility of 0.2-0.9 cm2/Vs and the current ON/OFF ratio of
about 106 compared to prior reports with similar configurations. For the n-type characteristics, field-effect electron
mobility of 0.004-0.008 cm2/Vs and the current ON/OFF ratio of about 103 were measured, which is relatively high
performance for the n-type conduction of pentacene field-effect transistors. We attributed these ambipolar properties
mainly to the hydroxyl-free PMMA insulator interface with the pentacene active layer. In addition, an increased
insulator capacitance due to double-layer insulator structure with high-k PVA layer also helped us to observe relatively
good n-type characteristics.
We studied the hole mobility of molecularly doped hole transport layer (HTL), 4,4'-bis[N-(1-napthyl)-N-phenyl-amino]-biphenyl (α-NPD), as a function of the doping concentration of 2,9-dimethyl-4,7-diphenyl-1,10-phenanthroline (BCP) by employing the time-of-flight photoconductivity (TOF-PC) technique. The hole transport is non-dispersive for α-NPD and the hole mobility of pristine α-NPD is about 10-3 cm2/Vs at room temperature. However, the hole mobility decreases with the BCP doping concentration in α-NPD. We characterized the current-voltage-luminance dependence, the EL quantum efficiency, and transient EL response for the devices of ITO/doped α-NPD/Alq3/LiF/Al. The devices with the BCP doped α-NPD show higher EL efficiency compared with the device with pristine α-NPD. The reduced hole mobility in the BCP doped α-NPD enhances the electron-hole balance, resulting in an increased EL efficiency.
We show that the insertion of thin interfacial layers of pyronin B between the conjugated polymer-methanofullerene blend and Al electrode enhances the open-circuit voltage (Voc) and short-circuit current density (Jsc). The cells based on blends of poly[2-methoxy,5-(3',7'-dimethyl-octyloxy)]-p-phenylene vinylene (MDMO-PPV) and [6,6]-phenyl C61 butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM) with the pyronin B layer (~ 1.5 nm) shows Voc~0.86 V, Jsc~3.36 mA/cm2 and the power conversion efficiency of ~1.46 % under white light photoexcitation of about 80 mW/cm2, similar to the effect of thin LiF layer. Compared to cells without the Pyronin B layer, the power conversion efficiency increases up to about 40 %. Similar effect is also obtained in poly(3-octylthiophene) (P3OT)-PCBM blends. The increased solar cell performance can be attributed to enhanced carrier extraction efficiency at the polymer blend/Al interfaces when pyronin B was inserted. This effect is considered as the reduced Al work function with the thin Pyronin B interfacial layer.
We report the fabrication and the characterization of white organic light-emitting diodes that exhibit high efficiency and very stable color coordinates over the wide range of bias voltages. The blue-emitting layer of 1,4-bis(2,2-diphenyl vinyl)benzene (DPVBi) is sandwiched between the red-emitting layers in which red fluorescent dyes of 4-dicyanomethylene-2-methyl-6-[2-(2,3,6,7-tetrahydro-1H,5H-benzo[i,j]quinolizin-8-yl)vinyl]-4H-pyran) (DCM2) are doped into the hole-transporting layer of 4,4’bis[N-(1-napthyl)-N-phenyl-amino]-biphenyl (α-NPD) and the electron-transporting layer of tris(8-hydroxyquinoline) aluminum (Alq3). The device structure is ITO/PEDOT:PSS/α-NPD(50 nm)/α-NPD:DCM2 (5 nm, 0.2 %)/DPVBi(10 nm)/Alq3:DCM2(5 nm, 0.2 %)/Alq3(40 nm)/LiF(0.5 nm)/Al. The partial energy transfer from the blue layer to the nearby red layers results in white light emission with the stable color coordinates of (0.36, 0.37). The device shows the luminous efficiency of about 3.6 lm/W at 100 cd/m2 and the maximum luminance of 40,650 cd/m2 at the bias of 12 V.
We report efficient blue electroluminescence (EL) devices fabricated using 9,10-diphenylanthracene (DPA) as an active emitting material. Although DPA exhibits fluorescence in the blue spectral region with high quantum efficiency, its EL efficiency has been previously reported poor. By doping DPA into a bathocuproine (BCP) layer that acts as a hole-blocking layer, we can successfully fabricate very efficient blue EL devices with the Commission Internationale de L’Eclairage (CIE) chromaticity coordinates of (0.145, 0.195). The devices show a luminous efficiency of 2.9 cd/A at 200 cd/m2 and a maximum luminance of about 10344 cd/m2 at 16.6 V.
We present electroluminescence (EL) studies of bilayer organic light-emitting diodes formed from poly(N- vinylcarbazole) (PVK) and the vacuum-deposited poly(p- phenylene) (PPP). The ITO/PPP/Al devices show EL spectra with a blue emission peak around 450 nm, very similar with the photoluminescence (PL) spectra of PPP. However, the EL spectra of the ITO/PVK/PPP/Al devices show a broad shoulder around 550 nm, which is dependent upon the bias voltage, as well as the peaks at the shorter-wavelength region originating from the PPP layer. The shoulder around 550 nm becomes more pronounced at the low bias voltage while the EL peaks originating from PPP become stronger with increasing bias voltages. This behavior can be accounted by exciplex formation at the interface between PVK and PPP. The current- voltage-luminescence characteristics and the quantum efficiency of both devices are almost independent of temperature in the temperature range between 15 and 300 K, indicating a tunneling mechanism for charge carrier injection.
The thermal elimination conditions for more efficient poly(p- phenylene vinylene) polymer light-emitting diodes were established: the precursor films must be heated to 230 degrees Celsius and kept at that temperature for 5 min. under a N2 flow of 50 ml/min. By the heat treatment the degree of conversion to PPV was about 70%. The external quantum efficiency of 0.0078% was achieved for the ITO/70% PPV/Al devices. The brightness of the device was calculated from the efficiency to be 2.3 cd/m2 at 200 MV/m (current density of 0.2 mA/mm2).
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