OLED Encapsulation: introduction and market status - Page 20

Korea's Modistech is working on flexible OLED Lighting for indirect applications for quite some time, and are now planning to commercialize the technology in 2010. They will produce 150x150mm flexible OLED panels. Back in 2009, Modistech said they plan to do so in 2011, so apparently they are ahead of schedule.

Modistech's slogan for the displays is 'paper-like, fabric-like and film-like'. They say that they will change the paradigm of lighting from 'to install' to 'to attach'. They want to use OLEDs as indirect lighting which does not require high luminance, and is suitable for the flexible OLEDs. It can be used in furniture, kitchenware, airplanes and especially automobiles (make up light, glove box light, foot light and trunk light).

Modistech say that their technology minimizes the number of substrate processes and is using roll-to-roll deposition and self-developed encapsulation material. They claim that they reduce the manufacturing cost by up to 90%!.

DuPont are working on a new OLED (and CIGS solar cells) barrier technology that uses thin layers of ceramic and polymer materials instead of glass. They hope that they'll be able to demo a tool in 2010. Commercialization is expected within a few years.

DuPont says that the new barrier will be cheaper than glass, weight less, and be flexible. DuPont is working under a DOE grant.

Earlier today we reported that  The University of Rochester received a $1.2 million from the U.S. Department of Energy to develop host materials for white phosphorescent OLEDs. This funding is part of the DOE's Recovery Act Rewards, and now we have found the complete list, which contains several OLED Lighting projects:

• Cambrios got $1.2 million (out of $1.8 for the total project) for "Solution-Processable Transparent Conductive Hole Injection Electrode OLED SSL". This project seeks to develop a cost-effective replacement for indium tin oxide for use as an electrode in OLED lighting devices. Indium is both rare and very expensive. 
• The University of Rocherser got $1.2 million (out of $1.3 million) for "Development and Utilization of Host Materials for White Phosphorescent OLEDs". This project seeks to produce white OLEDs with > 100 lm/W efficiency after light extraction enhancement and > 10,000 hour operating time, by making a new class of emissive materials.
• PPG Industries got $1.6 million (out of $2.1 million) for "Low-Cost Integrated Substrate for OLED Lighting". PPG Industries plans to develop a new low-cost integrated substrate product that is suitable for OLED lighting manufacture and is compatible with PPG’s existing flat-glass and transparent-glass coating technologies and high-volume glass manufacturing methods.
• GE Global Research got $4 million (out of $8 million) for "Roll-to-Roll Solution-Processable Small-Molecule OLEDs". This project seeks to upgrade GE’s prepilot OLED roll-to-roll manufacturing line through improved high-performance phosphorescent small-molecule OLED materials, advanced OLED device architectures, plastic ultra-high barrier films, and an advanced encapsulation scheme.
• UDC got $4 million (out of $8.3 million) for "Creation of a U.S. Phosphorescent OLED Lighting Panel Manufacturing Facility". This project seeks to design and set up two pilot phosphorescent OLED (PHOLED) manufacturing lines. The team will implement UDC's PHOLED technology and provide prototype lighting panels to U.S. luminaire manufacturers to incorporate into products, to facilitate testing of design, and to gauge customer acceptance.

Interestingly, two of these project (the GE and UDC ones) involves actual OLED Lighting panels pilot production lines - which could lead to actual OLED products being commercially available.

The Fraunhofer IPMS announced plans to set up roll-to-roll OLED equipment for 30cm-wide metal foil substrate in December. The new equipment will allow films to be formed continuously. The institute does not have any encapsulation equipment yet.

Nippon Electric Glass is showing the world's slimmest OLED Lighting panel - only 100 micrometer thick, using their ultra-slim glass substrate. They say that the panel has a high-level gas barrier properties, and that it can be easily bent.

Universal Display (FDC) and the Flexible Display Center (FDC) at Arizona State University announced that they have strengthened their collaboration to extend to the joint fabrication of prototype active-matrix PHOLEDs on flexible plastic substrates for the U.S. Department of Army. In addition, Universal Display announced that the company has been awarded a $650,000 U.S. Army Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II Enhancement contract to support this work.

UDC and the FDC believe that the enhanced relationship will accelerate the demonstration of the flexible AMOLEDs. Earlier in 2009, they have already demonstrated a 4.1" monochrome QVGA PHOLED display.

As part of this strategic relationship, Universal Display and the FDC will work to demonstrate flexible OLED display prototypes with enhanced performance for the U.S. Army. The FDC will fabricate a-Si:H thin-film transistor (TFT) arrays on flexible plastic substrates using their low-temperature backplane and proprietary bond-debond manufacturing technologies. Universal Display will then use its UniversalPHOLED materials and technology to build full-color AMOLED displays

For prototypes to be delivered under the U.S. Army SBIR Phase II Enhancement Program, Universal Display will also use its proprietary encapsulation film technology to create permeation barriers on the substrate and on top of the OLED to prevent harmful moisture and oxygen from reaching the OLED device.

GE is working since 2003 on roll-to-roll OLED printing (of flexible and transparent OLED lighting panels). Dr Yan from GE says that in 2007, they had fairly high defects, around 65% yield. Today GE says that their yield is between 90%-95%.

One of the biggest issues GE is tackling is the flexible barrier layer to protect the OLED devices. GE has developed an "Ultra High Barrier" (UHB) by plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition. The performance that has been achieved is low 10-5g/m2/day, with good transparency and adhesion.

Dr Yan says that roll-to-roll organic printing is real, and OLED lighting is getting closer. OLEDs are still around 15 times more expansive than conventional lighting, but the price will drop in time, and OLEDs will get cheaper than LEDs because of roll-to-roll printing and potentially cheaper materials.

IDTechEx believes that it will take between 5 to 10 years for OLEDs to become cost effective. But even before that OLEDs can be used in high-value products and niches.

Universal Display Corporation say they have been awarded  two new Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I $100,000 programs for OLED lighting from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE):

• In the first project, UDC will demonstrate a very high-efficiency white PHOLED lighting device. Universal Display’s goal is to demonstrate further gains in power efficiency, exceeding its prior research milestone of 102 lumens per watt.
• In the second project, UDC will demonstrate a white PHOLED using the company’s novel OLED permeation barrier technology. The Company, working with Princeton University, recently demonstrated a material system that forms an ultra-hermetic, flexible and transparent environmental barrier for OLEDs. This may provide a cost-effective packaging solution for high-volume, low-cost manufacture of white OLED lighting devices.

The CombOLED project together with CEA-LETI (a French research laboratory) has developed an efficient transparent white OLED. The Small-Molecule OLED has a 5 x 5 cm2 active emitting area, which is deposited using thermal evaporation and encapsulated using ultra-thin layers.

The OLED is 65% - 70% transparent, and emits light from both sides (bottom and top emission). The white luminance reaches 1000Cd.m² at 4 and 4.6 volts for bottom and top emission, respectively. The white OLED efficacy are respectively 11Lm/W and 3Lm/W at 1000Cd.m² for bottom and top emission, which leads to an overall efficiency of 14Lm/W. In this case the color coordinates are (0.40, 0.42) and (0.35, 0.42). When they create the same color for both sides, the efficiency is 10Lm/W and it's only 65% transparent.

The researchers are still working on greater efficiency and improvement of the permeation properties of the thin encapsulation layers.

UPDATE: Here's a video clip of the CombOLED transparent white OLED panel.