Holst Centre - Page 4

The EU announced a new OLED lighting project called IM3OLED (Integrated Multidisciplinary & Multiscale Modeling for OLEDs) that aims to develop a software tool for multiscale OLED lighting modeling. The tool will enable a more systematic R&D process - which will accelerate efficient OLED design development.

The IM3OLED software will predictively model OLEDs in 3D and at all length scales from molecular to large-area devices. It will include molecular calculations, electrical and optical simulation, 1D-3D light extraction and scaling / integration effects. It will also incorporate a dynamic feedback loop, enabling developers to accurately predict how changes in one area of OLED development affect other areas. This will allow multiple OLED properties to be optimized simultaneously.

The Holst Centre and imec announced a new high-resolution flexible OLED displays research program. This new program builds on the existing research fields such Organic and Oxide Transistors and Flexible OLED lighting. The new program aims to develop an economically scalable route to flexible AMOLED mass production, facing challenges such as high resolution, low power consumption, large area, outdoor readability, flexibility and light weight.

The partners will develop a mechanically flexible encapsulation film and TFT backplane, a printed high-efficiency OLED, new materials and processes that will allow cheaper production at better quality and driver design. They will also develop a new manufacturing equipment such as fine patterning equipment for backplanes and tools for integrated roll-to-roll manufacturing. This new program follows up on the FLAME project. Above you can see a prototype Polymer-Vision made flexible OLED made together with imec and the Holst Center.

The Holst Centre released a short video showing a new 30x30 cm flexible OLED lighting panel on a metal foil:

We don't have any more details yet, but this is quite a nice prototype...

The Holst centre released videos showing how durable flexible OLEDs are - they can be hit by a hammer or even be cut in half and still continue to work:

The OLED being cut video is actually rather old, it was released in 2009, but they just uploaded it to YouTube again and it's nice to see. The hammer video seems to be new, although we've seen these kinds of videos before - from UDC in 2007 and Samsung in 2009.

nTact has joined the Holst Centre partner network. The two companies will jointly develop technologies to enable patterned deposition of homogeneous film layers on flexible foils. nTact's Selective Area Coating technology will hopefully be fast enough to be used in a roll-to-roll process using low-viscosity inks.

The Holst center says that this research program will be a necessary step towards large-volume manufacturing of OPV and OLED lighting devices on flexible substrates.

Henkel announced it will join the Holst Centre, and the two companies will partner on flexible electronics. Henkel is into adhesives and sealants - and these kind of technologies are important for flexible OLED lighting panels and displays.

This joint research will allow Henkel to further evaluate and develop its optically clear, electrically conductive and moisture barrier technologies on actual devices.

Victrex and the Holst Centre presented progress in flexible substrate development based on Victrex's APTIV PEEK polymer film. The results are promising and Victrex decided to step into a full partnership with the Holst Centre. Victrex's material can withstand high processing temperatures in comparison with other thermoplastic materials, and can be used as a substrate for flexible and printed electronics such as OLED.

Specifically, enhancements were applied during the manufacturing process of APTIV PEEK film in order to fulfill the dimensional stability requirements of flexible substrates used in plastic electronics applications. In the study, the performance of the APTIV flexible electronics grade was compared to that of the standard extruded APTIV film along with other competing candidate films. Critical performance parameters were measured, such as the coefficient of thermal expansion, thermo mechanical properties and dimensional stability, mostly at up to 230ºC.

Roth & Rau MicroSystems will partner with the Holst Centre on barriers for flexible electronics. The two companies will develop and install a roll-to-roll PECVD deposition tool in the Holst Centre. This will be used for flexible OLED lighting and organic solar cells.

The Holst Centre is looking for researchers - about 20 of them (currently there are around 200 researchers), in fact, and many of those are for OLED related research. The Holst Centre was setup in 2005 by IMEC (Belgium) and TNO (Holland), with government support, and is located in Eindhoven.

You can find more information about the jobs, and application forms over at Holst's site.

The Holst Centre will cooperate with Coherent on flexible electronics. The Holst Centre will install a short-pulse (picosecond) laser source in the electronic foils processing equipment to be used for high-precision and low-defect laser ablation in sheet-to-sheet production of OLED and OPV devices.

The potential of the laser to comply with short processing times allows the transition towards roll-to-roll at a later stage in the collaboration which is important for low cost production. Coherent intends to take the results of the application and use it to expand its knowledge in flexible electronics manufacturing.