The Holst Centre and Solvay report advances in flexible OLED lighting panels. They present a bendable 69 cm2 OLED panel that features 30 lm/W efficiency at 1000 cd/m2:
Some of the layers in the OLED panels were deposited by solution processing at the Holst Centre, and others were applied by vacuum deposition at Solvay. Solvay and Holst Centre were able to deposit several layers of the OLED by spin coating, which brings the use of printing technologies to produce OLEDs closer. Most of the organic materials were developed by Solvay, and the panel also integrates Plextronics' Plexcore OC Hole Injector Layer (HIL). The thin-film encapsulation was developed by the Holst Centre and the plastic substrate and transparent anode is by DuPont Teijin Films.
Solvay says that the efficiency of this panel is the same efficiency of their own 7 mm2 rigid panels on glass - which means that the device architecture is scalable to large flexible panels without effecting efficiency. Solvay and the Holst Centre are already working towards a next-generation panel that adds more solution-processable layers. The two partners are also considering using ink-jet printing or slot-die coating for future panels.
