ORGANIC LED TECHNOLOGY

ORGANIC LED TECHNOLOGY

A SEMINAR REPORT
Submitted to

JAWAHARLAL NEHRU TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY HYDERABAD, TELANGANA

In partial fulfilment of the Requirements for the award of the

degree of
BACHELOR OF TECHNOLOGY

In
ELECTRICAL AND ELECTRONICS ENGINEERING

By
JUJURI.NAGARAJU

DEPARTMENT OF ELECTRICAL AND ELECTRONICS ENGINEERING

BALAJI INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY AND SCIENCE

Accredited by NBA (UG-CE, EEE, ME, ECE&CSE) NAAC A+ &
ISO 9001:2015 Certified Institution
(Affiliated to JNTU, Hyderabad & Approved by AICTE, New Delhi) Laknepally,
Narsampet, Warangal-506331
(2021-2022)

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DEPARTMENT OF ELECTRICAL AND ELECTRONICS ENGINEERING

BALAJI INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY AND SCIENCE

Accredited by NBA (UG-CE, EEE, ME, ECE&CSE) NAAC A+ &
ISO 9001:2015 Certified Institution
(Affiliated to JNTU, Hyderabad & Approved by AICTE, New Delhi) Laknepally,
Narsampet, Warangal-506331
(2021-2022)

CERTIFICATE
This is to certify that the major project entitled with “ORGANIC LED TECHNOLOGY” a
bonafide record carried out by JUJURI NAGARAJU (20C35A0234) submitted in partial fulfilment of
the requirements for the award of the degree of Bachelor of Technology in Electrical and Electronics and
Engineering, in the academic year of 2022-23to the Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, Hyderabad, and
Telangana.

coordinator Head of the Department

Mrs .S. Roda Vishal Dr. S. Mallikarjun Reddy
(Assistant Professor) (Associate Professor)

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

This Seminar has been carried out in the department of Electrical and
Electronics Engineering of Balaji Institute of Technology and Science, Narsampet,
Warangal. This is an acknowledgement of the intensive drive and success of my
seminar is indeed without mentioning all those encouraging people who genuinely
supported and encouraged me throughout this seminar reviews.
First and far most I wish to take this opportunity to express my sincere thanks to
Dr. S. MALLIKARJUN REDDY, Associate Professor and HEAD OF THE
DEPARTMENT for providing all the facilities required for completing this.
I obliged and grateful to my coordinator Mrs. S. Roda Vishal , Assistant
Professor EEE department for the interest, technical support and suggestions before
the Seminar reviews and leading it to success.
I wish to express my heartful gratitude to my guide
Mr. R.RANADHEER REDDY, Assistant Professor of EEE Department, for
patience & for gratuitous co-operation extended by him and who has given valuable
suggestions. I had the privilege to accomplish this seminar topic of “ORGANIC
LED TECHNOLOGY”
I desire to convey my heartful thanks to all the Teaching and Non-Teaching staff
members of EEE for their valuable corrections and comments.
I would like to convey my heartful thanks to all our friends those who have
directly or in directly involved in completing this seminar.
I am grateful to the management of Balaji Institute of Technology and science for
providing all the facilities required for completing this seminar.

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DECLARATION

I J.NAGARAJU (20C35A0234), hereby declare that the seminar entitled

“ORGANIC LED TECHNOLOGY” has submitted in the partial fulfilment of the
requirements for the award of Bachelor of Technology, in Electrical And Electronics
Engineering at Balaji Institute of Technology & Science, Narsampet, affiliated to
JNTU, Hyderabad is a authentic work and has not been submitted to any other
university or institution for award of the degree.

BY

20C35A0234 – JUJURI NAGARAJU

Place: Narsampet

Date:

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ABSTRACT

 OLED is a display device that sandwiches carbon based films of organic molecules that
is 100 to 500 nanometres thick between the two electrodes and when voltage is applied
creates light.
 This is a very essential technology for our near future.
 OLED doesn't require any backlight. i.e., they are self-emitting.
 It emits its own light.
 OLEDs are made from carbon and hydrogen.
 As the OLEDs are made of organic compounds, they are called as Organic Light
Emitting Diode.
 OLEDs have dynamic power consumption when displaying different images.
The power consumption of the OLED panel is only dependent on the pixels that are lit
in the images

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INTRODUCTION 1

Figure 1.1 OLED TV

phone battery to last m u c h longer? Or your next flat screen TV to be l ess expensive, much
flatter, and even flexible? Well Can we just imagine of a TV which can be rolled up? Woudn't
you like to be able to read off the screen of your laptop in direct sunlight? Your mobile, now it
is possible by an emerging technology based on the discovery that , light emitting , fast
switching diode could be made from polymers as well as semiconductors.

We know,ordinary LED emits light when electric current is passed thro ugh Organic displays
use a material with self luminous property that eliminates the need of a back light.These result in
a thin and compact display.While backlighting is a crucial component to improving brightness in
LCDs, it also adds significant cost as well as requires extra power.With an organic display, your
laptop might be less heavy to carry around, or your battery lasts much longer compared to a
laptop equipped with a traditional LCD screen.
A screen based on PolyLEDs has obvious advantages: the screen is lightweight and
flexible, so that it can be rolled u p . With plastic chips you can ensure that the electronics
driving the screen are integrated in the screen itself. One big advantage of plastic electronics is
that there is virtually no restriction on size.
Research and development in the field of OLED is proceeding rapidly and may lead to
future applications in heads-up displays, automotive dashboards, billboard-type displays, mobile
phones, television screen, home and office lighting and flexible display.

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1.1 FEATURES OF OLED

Organic LED has several inherent properties that afford unique possibilities.

• High brightness is achieved at low drive c u r r e n t densities.

• Operating lifetime exceeding 10,000 hours.

• Materials do not need to be crystalline, so easy to fabricate.

• Possi ble to fabricate on glass and flexible substrates.

• Self luminescent so no requirement of backlghting.

• Higher brightness.

• Low operating and tu r n - on voltage.

Low cost of materials and substrates of OLEDs can provide desirable advantages over
today's liquid crystal displays (LCDs)

• High contrast.

• Low power consumption.

• Wide operating temperature range.

• Long operating lifetime.

• A flexible, thin and lightweight.

• Cost effecctive manufacturability.

OLED displays have other advantages over LCDs as well :

 Increased brightness.
 Faster response time for full motion video.
 Lighter weight Greater durability.
 Broader operating temperature range.

Conventional semiconductor components have become smaller and smaller over the course of
time.Silicon is the base material of all microelectronics and is eminently suited for this
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purpose.However, the making of larger components is difficult and therefore costly.

The silicon in semiconductor components has to be mono crystalline; it has to have a very
pure crystal form without defects in the crystal structure. This is achieved by allowing melted
silicon to crystallize under precisely controlled conditions. The larger the crystal, the more
problematic this process is. Plastic does not have any of these problems, so that semiconducting
plastics are paving way for larger semiconductor components.

Figure 1.2 Semiconductor Plastic

1.2 HOW OLED HAS EMERGED

Kodak first discovered that organic materials glow in response to electrical currents, in the
late 1970s. Since then Kodak has been working for the improvement of this technology.

In the late 1970s. Eastman Kodak Company scientist Dr.Ching Tang discovered that
sending an electrical current through a carbon compound caused these materials to glow.
Dr.Tang and Steven Van Slyke continued research in this vein.

In 1987, they reported OLED materials that become the foundation for OLED displays
produced today. The first colour they discovered in this early OLED research was green.

As early as 1989, the Kodak research team demonstrated colour improvements using fluorescent
dyes, or dopants, to boost the efficiency and control of colour output.

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ORGANIC LIGHT EMITTING DIODE

An OLED is a solid state device or electronic device that typically consists of organic thin
films sandwiched between two thin film conductive electrodes. When electrical current is
applied, a bright light is emitted. OLED use a carbon-based designer molecule that emits light
when an electric current passes through it. This is called electrophosphorescence. Even with the
layered system, these systems are thin . usually less than 500 nm or about 200 times smaller than
a human hair.

When used to produce displays. OLED technology produces self-luminous displays that
do not require backlighting and hence more energy efficient. These properties result in thin, very
compact displays. The displays require very little power, ie, only 2-10 volts.

OLED technology uses substances that emit red, green, blue or white light. Without any
other source of illumination, OLED materials present bright, clear video and images that are easy
to see at almost any angle. Enhancing organic material helps to control the brightness. and
colour of light, ie, the brightness of an OLED is determined by how much power you supply to
the system.

2.1 O L E D C O M P O N E N T S

Like an LED, an OLED is a solid-state semiconductor device that is 100 to 500 nanometers thick
or about 200 times smaller than a human hair. OLEDs can have either two layers or three layers
of organic material; in the latter design, the third layer helps transport electrons from the cathode
to the emissive layer. In this article, we will be focusing on the two layer design
.

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Figure 2.1 OLED Components

An OLED consists of the following parts:

• Substrate (clear plastic, glass, foil)-The substrate supports the OLED.

• Anode(transparent)-The anode removes electrons(adds electron holes) when a current

flows through the device.
• Organic layers- These layers are made up of organic plastic molecules that
transport " holes " from the anode .One conducting
polymer used in OLEDs is polyaniline .
• Emissive layer- This layer is made of organic plastic molecules
(different ones from the conducting layer) that transport
electrons from the cathode ; the place where light is made .One
polymer used in the emissive layer is polyflourene .

• Cathode (may or may not be transparent depending on the type of OLED )

The cathode injects electrons when a current f l o w s t h r o u g h the device .

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OPERATION

3.1 How do OLEDs emit light?

OLEDs emit light in a similar manner to LEDs. through a process called

electrophosphorescence.

The process is as follows:

1. The battery or power supply of the device containing the OLED applies a
voltage across the OLED.

2. An electrical current flows from the cathode to the anode through the organic layers. (an
electrical current is a flow of electrons)
• The cathode gives electrons to the emissive layer of organic molecules.

• The anode removes electrons from the conductive layer of organic molecules.(This is the
equivalent to giving electron holes to the conductive layer)

3. At the boundary between the emissive and the conductive layers, electrons find electron
holes.
• When an electron finds an electron hole, the electron fills the hole (it falls into an energy
level of the atom that is missing an electron).
• When this happens, the electron gives up energy in the form of a photon of light.

4. The OLED emits light.The color of the light depends on the type of organic molecule
in the emissive layer. Manufacturers place several types of organic films on the same OLED
to make color displays.

5. The intensity or brightness of the light depends on the amount of electrical current
applied. The more the current, the brighter the light.

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MAKING OF OLED

The biggest part of manufacturing OLEDs is applying the organic layers to

substrate. This can be done in three ways:

1.Vacuum deposition or vacuum thermal evaporation(VTE):

In a vacuum chamber, the organic molecules are gently heated(evaporated) and allowed to
condense as thin films onto cooled substrates. This process is very expensive and inefficient.

2.Organic vapour phase deposition:

In a low pressure, hot-walled reactor chamber, a carrier gas transports evaporated organic
molecules onto cooled substrates, where they condense into thin films. Using a carrier gas
increases the efficiency
and reduces the cost of making OLEDs.

Figure 4.1 Organic vapour phase deposition

The OVPD process employs an inert carrier gas to a precisely transfer films of organic material
onto a cooled substrate in a hot-walled, low pressure chamber. The organic materials are stored
in external, separate, thermally-controlled cells Once evaporated from these heated cells, the
materials are entrained and transported by an inert carrier gas such as nitrogen, using gas flow
rate, pressure and temperature as process control variables. The materials deposit down onto the
cooled substrate from a manifold located only several centimeters above the substrate. Usually
we go for this method.

Higher deposition rates: - Deposition rates with OVPD can be several times higher than
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the rate for conventional VTE processes because the OVPD deposition rate is primarily
controlled b y the How of the carrier gas.
Higher materials utilization: - Because the organic materials do not deposit on the heated
surfaces of the chamber, materials' utilization is much better than with VTE where the materials
deposit everywhere. This feature should translate into lower raw material cost, less downtime
and higher production throughput.
Better device performance: - The OVPD process can provide better film thickness
control and uniformly over larger areas than VTE. With three variable process control, OVPD
offers more precise deposition rates and doping control at very low levels. As a result, sharper or
graded layer interfaces can be more easily achieved. In addition, multiple materials can be co-
deposited in one chamber without the cross-contamination problems commonly experienced in
VTE systems.

Shadow mask patterning: - OVPD offers better shadow mask-to-substrate distance

control than is possible with VTE up-deposition. Because the mask is above, instead of below
the substrate, its thickness can be dictated by the desired pattern shape rather than the need for
rigidity. Thus precise, reproducible pixel profiles can be obtained.
Larger substrate sizes: - Because the Aixtron AG-proprietary showerhead can be
designed to maintain a constant source-to-substrate distance, OVPD may be more readily scaled
to larger substrate sizes. This also may render OVPD more adaptable to in-line and roll-to-roll
processing for flexible displays.

3. Inkjet printing

With inkjet technology, OLEDs are sprayed onto substrates just like inks are sprayed onto
paper during printing. Inkjet technology greatly reduces the cost of OLED manufacturing and
allows OLEDs to be printed onto very large dims for large displays like 80 inch TV screens or
electronic billboards.

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TYPESOFOLED

There are three different types of OLEDs. They are:

• Passive-matrix OLED

• Active-matrix OLED

• Transparent OLED

5.1 PASSIVE MATRIX OLED

Passive-matrix OLEDs are particularly well suited for small-area display applications,
such as cell phones and automotive audio applications.

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. Sandwiched between the orthogona column and row lines, thin
films of organic material are activated to emit light by applying electrical signals to designated
row and column lines. The more current that is applied, the more brighter the pixel becomes.

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.

Figure 5.1 Passive matrix OLED

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5.2 ACTIVE MATRIX OLED

AMOLED have full layers of cathode, organic molecule 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.
In contrast to a PMOLED display, where electricity is distributed row by row. the active-
matrix TFT backplane acts as an array of switches that controls the amount of current flowing
through each OLED pixel. The TFT array continuously controls the current that Hows to the
pixels, signaling to each pixel how brightly to shine.

Figure 5.2 Active matrix OLED

Active-matrix OLED displays provide the same beautiful video-rate performance as their
passive- matrix OLED counter part, but they consume significantly less power. The advantage
makes active- matrix OLEDs especially well suited for portable electronics
• where battery power consumption is critical and for large displays. The best uses for
AMOLED are computer monitors, large screen TVs and electronic signs or billboards.

5.3 T R A N S P A R E N T O L E D

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

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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 5.3 Transparent OLED

OLED ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES

The LCD is currently the display of choice in small devices and is also popular in large
screen TVs. Regular LEDs often form the digits on digital clocks and other electronic devices.
OLEDs offer many advantages over both LCDs and LEDs

CURRENT AND FUTURE OLED

APPLICATIONS

Currently, OLEDs are used in small-screen devices such as cell phones, PDAs and digital
cameras. In September 2004, Sony Corporation announced that it was beginning mass
production of OLED screens for its CLIE PEG-VZ90 model of personal entertainment
handhelds. Kodak already uses OLED displays in several of its digital camera models. Several
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companies have already built prototype computer monitors and large screen TVs. In May 2005,
Samsung Electronics announced that it had developed the first 40 inch, OLED based, ultra-slim
TV.

Research and development in the field of OLEDs is proceeding rapidly and may lead to
future applications in heads up displays, automotive dashboards, billboard-type displays, home
and office lighting and flexible displays. Because OLEDs refresh faster than LCDs, almost 1000
times faster , a device with an OLED display can change the information almost in real time.
Video images could be more realistic and constantly updated. The newspaper of the future might
be an OLED display that refreshes with breaking news and like a regular newspaper,you could
fold it up when you are done reading it and stick it in your backpack or briefcase.

SONY XEL-1, the world's first OLED TV. The Sony CLIE PEG-VZ90 was released in 2004, being
the first PDA to feature an OLED screen.Other Sony products to feature OLED screens include
the MZ-RH1 portable minidisc recorder, released in 2006.

At the Las Vegas ES 2007, Sony showcased 11-inch (28 cm, resolution 960×540) and 27-inch
(68.5 cm, full HD resolution at 1920×1080) OLED TV models.Both claimed 1,000,000:10
contrast ratios total thicknesses (including bezels) of 5 mm. In April 2007, Sony announced it
would manufacture 1000 11-inch OLED TVs per month for market testing purposes. On October
1, 2007, Sony announced that the 11-inch model, now called the XEL1 would be released
commercially; the XEL-1 was first released in Japan in December 2007.

In May 2007, Sony publicly unveiled a video of a 2.5-inch flexible OLED screen which is only
0.3 millimeters thick. At the Display 2008 exhibition, Sony demonstrated a 0.2 mm thick
3.5 inch display with a resolution of 320×200 pixels and a 0.3 mm thick 11 inch display with
960×540 pixels resolution, one-tenth the thickness of the XEL-1.

In July 2008, a Japanese government body said it would fund a joint project of leading firms,
which is to develop a key technology to produce large, energy-saving organic displays. The
project involves one laboratory and 10 companies including Sony Corp. NEDO said the project
was aimed at developing a core technology to mass-produce 40 inch or larger OLED displays in
the late 2010s.

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OLEDS AS WHITE LIGHT SOURCE:

In contrary to display applications where all colors are equally important, "good quality" white is of prime
importance for general illumination. Individual colors are not as important. OLEDs have typically very broad band
emissions, which makes them uniquely suitable for applications where white with high CRI and the desired position
on the chromaticity diagram is desirable. Both small-molecular and polymeric systems with singlet (fluorescence)
emitters have achieved full color with good positions on the CIE diagrams in Fig.6.

Five basic methods of producing white light are known and researched at this time:

1. Mixing two, or more different dyes (emitters), or polymers which emit different colors, in one layer:
Copolymers whose segments emit different colors are also used as single layers. Good quality white light was
generated in OLEDs with three fluorescence emitters in a single layer with R, G, and B.

2. Deposition of three emission layers, each with different (R, G, B) emitters : One of the approaches to generate
white light was to segregate three dopants into three separate emissive layers. The concept is enabled by the long
diffusion lengths of triplet excitons, which may cross several layers before transferring the energy to an emitter.
Triplets may migrate up to 1000Å. The thickness and the composition of each layer must be precisely controlled to
achieve the color balance.
3. Using "horizontally stacked" narrow bands or pixels emitting in basic colors: ( an analog of LCD displays): An
extension of the tri-junction concept leads to another approach, basically similar to that used in LC flat panel displays,
where the colors are separated and addressed independently as an array of individual pixels, dots, etc. The individual
color-emitting segments / devices may be deposited as dots, miniature squares, circles, thin lines, very thin stripes etc.
If that approach turns out to be feasible, and good white can be obtained, the system would have a number of
advantages

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Fig. 6 A CIE chromaticity diagram showing the positions of “fluorescent” OLEDs in comparison with the
NTSC standards.

4. Using monomer-excimer complexes: The basic idea is to employ a lumophore, which forms a broadly emitting
state, and a lumophore (or lumophores) which form excimers or exciplexes (excited
states whose wavefunction extend over two molecules, either identical - excimers or dissimilar - exciplexes). Some
phosphorescent dopant molecules indeed form excimers. These molecules are bound together only in the excited state
but not in the ground state. The energy of the excimer is always lower than the energy of an excited single
moleculeand its emission is typically very broad. Thus, if an OLED is made with two blue dopants, one of which does
not form excimers and the other does, the device will emit blue light from the former dopant, and lower-energy light
(typically yellow) from the excimer of the latter dopant. The light from the blue dopant will mix with the light from
the yellow excimer to make white light. None of the blue light will be lost because the excimer has no ground state to
absorb it, and the blue emitter does not absorb yellow. The ratio of blue to yellow emission can be readily tuned by
varying the ratio of the two dopants without the complication of energy transfer from blue to yellow.

Fig.7. A few examples of iridium-based emitters designed to cover the chromaticity spectrum.

5. Using an efficient blue emitter and down conversion

phosphors: In principle, this method utilizes coupling of a
blue-emitting OLED with one or more down-conversion
layers, one of which contains inorganic light-scattering
particles. In an example, a blue OLED was prepared on a
glass substrate with polyfluorene based light emitting
polymer, a PEDOT/PSS hole injection layer on an ITO
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anode, and a NaF/Al cathode. Then, two separate layers of LumogenTM F orange and red, molecularly dispersed in
poly(methylmethacrylate), were deposited on the other side of the glass substrate, followed by a layer of Y(Gd)AG:Ce
phosphor particles dispersed in poly(dimethylsiloxane). The quantum efficiency of photoluminescence of the dyes in
the PMMA host was found to be >98%, and the quantum yield of the Y(Gd)AG:Ce phosphor was 86%. The device
produced excellent quality white light with CRI 93 and the blackbody T 4130K. At 5.5V, the device exhibits 1080
cd/m2 and 3.76 lumens per electrical watt. This concept could be obviously extended to other efficient blue-emitting
OLEDs. As with other methods of generating white light, the lifetime of the blue emitting OLED is of a prime
concern. All methods have been shown to produce good quality white.

OLEDS AS FLAT PANEL DISPLAYS:

In contrary to display applications where all colors are equally important, "good quality" white is of prime
importance for general illumination. Individual colors are not as important Both small-molecular and polymeric
systems with singlet (fluorescence) emitters have achieved full color with good positions on the CIE diagrams but
improvements are still required to achieve the right spectral distribution The progress in improving the quality of
white will be evolutionary, and the main focus will be on improving the operational life. Five basic methods of
producing white light are known and researched at this time :
A. Side-by-Side Patterning of Red, Blue, and Green OLED’s:
Conceptually simple approach to get full-color display is to use side-by-side R, G and B sub-pixels to
make a compound, full-color pixel in much the same way as is achieved in a cathode ray tube [see Fig. 4(a)]. To our
knowledge, this technique has only been demonstrated at
extremely low resolution, where large and widely separated
R, G and B pixels have been produced on the same substrate.
The principal limitation of the technique is that each OLED
must have a different organic thin film as its light-emitting
layer, necessitating separate growth and patterning of arrays
of, and OLED’s.
Fig.8. Different Techniques for Flat Panel Displays to
produce R, G and B Colors.

B. Filtering of White OLED’s:

To form a full-color display, the white OLED’s are
grown on top of pre-patterned color bandpass filters which
each transmit only R,G or B light, as shown in Fig. 4(b).
This technique eliminates the necessity for post-deposition
patterning since only one, white light-emitting OLED is
grown on the prepatterned substrate. The principal drawback
of this approach is that much of the white OLED output
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must be removed by the filter to obtain the required primary colors. For example, up to 90% of the optical power from
the white OLED is filtered in order to obtain a sufficiently saturated red pixel, with the result that the OLED must be
driven up to ten times brighter than the required R– G– B pixel brightness.
C. Down conversion of Blue OLED’s:
We can produce R, G and B pixels using a single blue OLED to pump organic wavelength “down
converters” Each down converter consists of a pre-patterned film of fluorescent material which efficiently absorbs
blue light and re-emits the energy as either green or red light, depending on the compound used .
D. Micro cavity Filtered OLED’s:
The filtering effects of various micro cavity structures have been used to influence the directionality and
color of OLED’s, due to variation of the spontaneous emission rate as a function of wavelength and position of the
emitting molecule within the thin film. The broad spectral emission of a conventional or a white light-emitting OLED
can therefore be designed to emit primarily , or light in the forward direction by placing it in a micro cavity consisting
of the reflective top metal electrode and a dielectric, distributed Bragg reflector pre-deposited under the transparent
ITO electrode.
E. Color-Tunable OLED’s:
An array of continuously color-tunable OLED’s, shown schematically in Fig. 4(e), removes the
requirement that at least three sub-pixels be used to make a single, full-color element. This approach, therefore, results
in at least a three-fold improvement in resolution and display fill-factor as compared to the various side-by-side
architectures. Since only one OLED structure is grown over the entire area of the display, this also eliminates the need
for substrate patterning prior to thin film deposition, yielding advantages in manufacturing simplicity. This simplicity
is somewhat offset by additional complexity required in the drive circuit, which must be capable of controlling color
while simultaneously controlling brightness and grey scale.

APPLICATIONS OF OLEDS:

I. Readily achieved by OLEDs (2002 – 2005) (No Breakthrough Required):

1. Monochrome applications

 Small monochrome displays for hand held electronic devices (cell phones, PDAs, digital cameras, GPS
receivers etc.) are already in the marketplace.
 Niche applications such as head-mounted displays.
2. Two or multicolor applications
 Car electronics (radios, GPS displays, maps, warning lights, etc.)

 Instrument electronics, heads-up instrumentation for aircraft and automobiles.

 Rugged PDAs, wrist-mounted, etc. Some are already on the market.

3. Full color applications
 LCD backlights (white light)

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 Small full color displays. To be introduced within a year.

 Full color, high-resolution, personal communicators

 Wall-hanging TV monitors

 Large screen computer monitors

II. Applications Convertible to OLEDs (Breakthroughs Required):

General White applications (to replace incandescent / halogen and fluorescent)
 Lighting panels for illumination of residential and commercial buildings

 Lighting panels for advertising boards, large signs, etc.

 Ultra-lightweight, wall-size television monitors

 Office windows, walls and partitions that double as computer screens

 Color-changing lighting panels and light walls for home and office, etc.
Large displays, "smart panels"
Factors Affecting Penetration Into the General Lighting Market :
1. Accelerating factors

 Large area coatings (low cost). Light source can be shaped to product.

 Any type of substrates from rigid such as metal, plastic, glass, ceramic, etc., to flexible (plastic films, rolls,
loops, foils, filaments, fabrics, etc.).
 High luminous efficiency (eventually).

 Unlimited choices of color for different applications and types of lighting.

 Variable pixel size from displays to large areas. No upper limit to pixel size.

 Low voltage operation.

 Fast switching speed for "intelligent" lighting.

 Light weight.

 Ruggedness, vibration resistance.

 Thin film light sources (almost "two dimensional")

 Allows the use of polarizer’s.

 Large area (distributed) lighting, low glare.

 Low cost of manufacturing.

2. Inhibiting factors - major improvements required
 Short operational and shelf life, stability at high brightness levels.

 Low device efficiency.

 Device complexity - may affect the cost of manufacturing.

 Uniformity of large area lighting sources.

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 Nonexistent infrastructure

 High electric currents.

3. Impact / Benefits
 Enormous energy saving for the society.

 Environmental impact associated with the reduction of the need for electricity (less air pollution, depletion of
non-renewable sources of energy, less greenhouse effect).
 New architectural designs enabled (lower ceilings, contour lighting, wall / ceiling panel lighting, space saving
in airplanes, and tall buildings, etc.).

CHALLENGES AND CRITICAL ISSUES:

Even though remarkable progress has been made, OLEDs still face great challenges before
commercialization as white-light sources can be even considered. OLEDs have already achieved power conversion
efficiencies close to those needed for energy efficient operation, but only for the green and red light, and with
insufficient luminance. Other colors are still far beyond. The peak brightness can be greater than several hundreds of
thousands cd/m2, but these devices degrade very quickly. The operating voltages can be as low as the desired 2.6 - 4 V
but the luminance is still too low under those voltages. For white light and the desired luminance, the passing electric
currents are still too high, and the power conversion efficiencies are low. The useful lifetime of white-light emitting
devices with the desired luminance needs to be increased by more than one order of magnitude. The surface area of
the largest devices made to date is only of the order of a couple of square inches, while the illumination panels will
have to cover several square feet. The uniformity of these devices is far worse than desired, etc.
The technological issues facing OLEDs can be summarized into the four main categories:
 Operational life

 Power conversion efficiency

 Cost of manufacturing

 The lack of infrastructure

Specifically, to effectively compete with, and eventually displace fluorescent lighting, these challenges are:
(1). Efficiency improvement to obtain 120 lm/W for white light for a 1000 lm white source and useful life 20,000 hrs.
(2). Cost of manufacturing so as to be lower than for traditional light sources
(3). Development of new infrastructure including powering of high current-low voltage distributed sources, new
industries and technologies that are enabled by attributes of OLED SSL.
Recent advances, which will be discussed in the following sections, created a great deal of optimism in the OLED
community. None of these challenges is insurmountable.

ADVANTAGES

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• The plastic, organic layers of an OLED are thinner, lighter and more flexible than the crystalline
layers in an LED or LCD.
• Because the light emitting layers of an OLED are lighter, the substrate of an OLED can be
flexible instead of rigid. OLED substrates can be plastic rather than the glass used for LEDs and
LCDs.
• OLEDs are brighter than LEDs. Because the organic layers of an OLED are much thinner than
the corresponding inorganic crystal layers of an LED. the conductive and emissive layers of an
OLED can be multi-layered. Also, LEDs and LCDs require glass for support, and glass absorbs
some light, OLEDs do not require glass.
• OLEDs do not require backlighting like LCDs. LCDs work by selectively blocking areas of
thebacklight to make the images that you see, while OLEDs generate light themselves.Because
OLEDs do not require backlighting, they consume much less power than LCDs(most of the LCD
power goes to the backlighting). This is especially important for battery operated devices such as
cell phones.
• OLEDs are easy to produce and can be made to larger sizes. Because OLEDs are essentially
plastics, they can be made into large, thin sheets. It is much more difficultblocking light, they
have an inherent viewing obstacle from certain angles. OLEDs produce their own light, so they
have a much wider viewing range.

• OLEDs have large fields of view, about 1 7 0 degrees. Because LCDs work by to grow and lay
down so many liquid crystals.

DISADVANTAGES

OLED seem to be the perfect technology for all types of displays, but they also have some
problems:

• Lifetime :- While red and green OLED films have long lifetimes ( 10000 to
40000 hours), blue organics currently have much shorter lifetimes(only about
10000 hours).

• Manufacturing :- Manufacturing processes are expensive right now.

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• Water :- Water can easily damage OLEDs.

CONCLUSION

OLEDs offer many advantages over both LEDs and LCDs. They are thinner, lighter and
more flexible than the crystalline layers in an LED or LCD. They have large fields of view as
they produce their own light.

Research and development in the field of OLEDs is proceeding rapidly and may lead to
future applications in heads up displays, automotive dash boards, billboard type displays etc.
Because OLEDs refresh faster than LCDs, a device with OLED display could change
information almost in real time. Video images could be much more realistic and constantly
updated.

REFERENCES

• H. j Snaith, H. Kenrick polymer2573(2005)

• Yan H, Huangq Appl. Phys.lett 84 (2004)
• Wikipedia
• Youtube

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