Development of Robust, Effective, Inexpensive, Flexible Water and Oxygen Barriers for Flexible Organic Light-Emitting Diodes (FOLEDs)

This Phase I SBIR project deploys Atomic Layer Deposition based thin film encapsulation for environmentally durable Flexible Organic Light Emitting Diode (FOLED) displays. Particular challenges include extremely low Water Vapor Transmission Rates (WVTR) and Oxygen Transmission rates (OTR), high yield, stress and strain endurance, high transparency and low cost. FOLED displays versatility and prospects for superior durability captured a vast interest in the military and commercial markets. Current protection techniques usually compromise the flexibility of OLEDs by using sealing techniques that involve rigid substrates such as glass. Atomic Layer Deposition encapsulating films (ALD-Cap) are flexible ceramic films, with exceptional conformality, adherence and mechanical strength. Developed originally as a low-cost environmental protection and corrosion barrier alternative to hermetic packaging, ALD-Cap was successfully used to provide hermetic-like protection of mission critical electronics and to contain tin-whiskers as well as similar commercial applications. The phase I effort will focus on the optimization of ALD cap materials, structures and manufacturing techniques, as well as the integration with FOLED.