OLED Encapsulation: introduction and market status - Page 21

IDTechEx has released a new report, titled "Barrier Films for Flexible Electronics", which is aimed for those developing flexible electronics, seeking materials needs and opportunities. The report focuses on flexible OLED displays and organic photovoltaics.

OLED-Info readers get a special, limited time 10% discount (until August 15th). Just use this on-line coupon: OLEDINFO10.

EEtimes says that GE will start volume production of flexible OLED light panels in 2010. GE will print the OLEDs on polymer substrate, and use their ultra-high barrier coating. GE says that they managed to lower production cost by using roll-to-roll printing, and inexpensive substrates (the polymer ones).

GE are also thinking about possible new designs, and have released this video a month ago, which includes several flexible OLED light designs by art students, including wearable OLEDs for emergency safety gear, illuminated stairs, walls and signs in stores and a nice "wall peel" OLED lamp.

The National Energy Technology Laboratory, on behalf of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced its selection for solid-state lighting funding opportunities. A total of fourteen projects were chosen, six of which are OLED related.

QD Vision: Quantum Dot Light Enhancement Substrate for OLED Solid-State Lighting
Summary: This project seeks to develop and demonstrate a cost-competitive solution for realizing increased extraction efficiency organic light emitting devices (OLEDs) with efficient and stable color rendering index (CRI) for SSL. Solution processible quantum dot (QD) films will be utilized to generate tunable white emission from blue emitting phosphorescent OLED (Ph-OLED) devices.

Vitex System today announced that it has
expanded its license agreement with Korea-based Advanced Neotech Systems
(ANS), granting ANS rights to develop and manufacture roll-to-roll coating
equipment used in the production of Barix™ Barrier Film.

Vitex made the first agreement with ANS in 2006, allowing ANS to make Barix encapsulation equipment, the Guardian™ System.
ANS has successfully sold eight Guardian systems to produce Vitex's
proprietary Barix technology, including: a pilot system being used by
Samsung SDI to make the world's first foldable OLED and the thinnest OLED
display that was shown at FPD International 2008 in Yokohama; the first
mass production system; and the first Gen 2 (370mm x 470mm) system. 

Over the past year, Vitex has made excellent progress demonstrating the
unique capabilities of its Barix Barrier Film for encapsulation of
thin-film photovoltaic cells. Multiple companies have been able to verify
that, when protected by Vitex's Barix Barrier Film, their thin film
photovoltaic (PV) cells fabricated using either CIGS or CdTe can pass the
damp heat test required by the IEC 61646 standard. 

Vitex has produced a nice video of several OLED products that use their thin film encapsulation technology. Among those products you can see the Samsung's flapping display, foldable phone and curved displays. Several UDC OLED prototypes are in there as well, including their flexible displays, developed together by LGDisplay.

Vitex told us that their tech is used on AMOLED and PMOLED displays, on glass, silicon or metal foil. Some of those products use direct encapsulation, and some use barrier substrate. A few of the photos seen show products that use flexible CIGS PV cells laminated with Vitex's barrier.

Samsung is showing a 6.5" (480x272) Flexible OLED.

This panel is using non-glass encapsulation, we do not which which material is used.

Via Tech-On

Researchers working in the European ROLLED project have developed a flexible OLED element that can be mass produced using roll-to-roll printing technology. The OLED elements can be used to add value to product packages. The new method is considerably cheaper than the traditional manufacturing method. The project was coordinated by VTT,and project participants included INM, CSEM, Ciba, Hansaprint, UPM and PolylC.

ROLLED project flexible element prototype

The OLED element developed under the ROLLED project is made from organic materials and is encapsulated in a moisture barrier film. The element is 200-250 micrometers thick, the equivalent to three or four sheets of paper.

UDC is saying they have produced an ultra-thin flexible OLED display. The entire thing is less than 50 micrometer thick.

R.Ma from UDC says "We have chosen thin metal foils as the substrates for flexible displays because of their excellent thermal, mechanical and permeation barrier properties and good flexibility. Metal foils as thin as 25 mm have been used and planarization process has been developed. Another key challenge is to develop a flexible thin film permeation barrier. OLEDs degrade as a result of exposure to atmospheric oxygen and water. Working with Professor Wagner’s team at Princeton University, we have identified a flexible, highly impermeable barrier layer that is deposited from environmentally-friendly and inexpensive precursors in a single-chamber reactor. The lifetime of OLEDs encapsulated with the layers exceeds the industrial target of 1,000 hours and also the lifetime of conventionally sealed glass packaged OLEDs. Many materials are used in a flexible AMOLED: organic, inorganic and metallic systems."

The US Department of Energy (DOE) has announced a $7.5 million core technology research (round 5) funding opportunity as part of its Solid State Lighting (SSL) program. The OLED 3 areas of interest are: High Efficiency OLED Materials and Structures,OLED Encapsulation and Substrates and OLED Fabrication.

The DOE anticipates making ~5-10 awards for specific advances in LED and OLED lighting under this round and says that awards will not exceed $600,000 per year for up to 3 years. The closing date for applications is June 19.

A breakthrough barrier technology from Singapore A*STAR’s Institute of Materials Research and Engineering (IMRE) protects sensitive devices like organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs) and solar cells from moisture 1000 times more effectively than any other technology available in the market, opening up new opportunities for the up-and-coming plastic electronics sector.

A team of scientists from Singapore’s Institute of Materials Research and Engineering (IMRE) has developed a new patented film that has the highest reported water vapour barrier performance to date, as tested by the UK Centre for Process Innovation. The tests have shown that the new film is 1,000 times more impervious to moisture than existing technologies. This means a longer lifetime for plastic electronic devices such as solar cells and flexible displays that use these high-end films but whose sensitive organic materials are easily degraded by water vapour and oxygen. The new technology is a boon to the burgeoning plastic electronics industry that aims to deliver flexible, lightweight and cheap electronics products to consumers in ways that silicon electronics may never reach such as disposable or wraparound displays, cheap identification tags, low cost solar cells and chemical and pressure sensitive sensors.

Read more in the attached PDF document (you have to register to oled-info to view it)