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DOE OSTI · 2566839

High Aspect Ratio OLEDs

Giebink, Noel Chris [Pennsylvania State Univ., University Park, PA (United States)]
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Abstract

Long-term reliability is especially challenging for organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs) used in solid-state lighting applications because OLED lifetime is inversely proportional to luminance, and most lighting applications demand high luminance. This project explored a new strategy to overcome this tradeoff by constructing OLEDs on a substrate with sub-mm, high aspect ratio surface texture. By creating more active OLED area per unit lighting panel area, the device current density required to generate a given panel luminance decreases. We validated this approach for both fluorescent and phosphorescent OLEDs, demonstrating good thickness uniformity on corrugated substrates with area enhancement factors up to 1.4x using a standard thermal evaporator. Relative to planar controls at the same panel current density, the high aspect ratio devices achieve a 2.7-fold increase in operating lifetime and up to a 40% increase in external light extraction efficiency. Experiments carried out on a pilot-line OLED manufacturing system demonstrated good coating uniformity, indicating that this approach has the potential to be implemented at scale and therefore offers a powerful pathway to improve the efficiency and lifetime of OLED lighting.

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Giebink, Noel Chris [Pennsylvania State Univ., University Park, PA (United States)]. 2025-05-19. High Aspect Ratio OLEDs. https://doi.org/10.2172/2566839

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