Improved Light Extraction for a 130 lm/W OLED Lighting Panel

One of the major hurdles to the commercialization of OLED lighting technology is its low light extraction efficiency when compared to inorganic LEDs- Currently only ~ 30% of the light produced by the OLED can be extracted- In order to be considered as a commercially viable option, OLED efficacy has to improve dramatically- The mismatch between the refractive indices among the active layer, transparent conductive anode layer, ITO, and substrate is a major cause of light extraction inefficiency- Incorporating any high RI internal light extraction (ILE) layer that addresses this problem, can dramatically improve the efficacy and lifetime of OLED devices- This SBIR Phase I project will explore how to improve a high refractive index layer with scatterers for light extraction- With this structure, the OLED light panel has the potential to achieve an efficiency of 130 lm/W- Phase I of the project is to find the optimal scatterer loading- Pixelligent will fabricate substrates with different light extraction structures- Those substrates will be sent to OLEDWorks where OLEDs will be fabricated and the efficiency measured-