General Illumination Using Dye-Doped Polymer Light Emitting Devices

70594 The United States spends nearly 25% of its electrical budget on general lighting applications, which use conventional light sources such as filament lamps, mercury vapor lamps, etc. Advances in solid state light emitting diodes suggest that this cost could be reduced, but many technical barriers would have to be overcome before they emerge as a cost effective substitute to existing broad band illumination sources. Alternatively, organic light emitting diodes show great promise due to (1) the low cost of organic materials processing, (2) the vast number of materials that can be chemically engineered, (3) the capability of exceptionally high power efficiencies, and (4) the fact that they are inherently diffuse light sources. This project will demonstrate that molecularly doped polymer based organic light emitting diodes can be used as low cost general illumination sources. Phase I will improve organic light emitting diodes by exploiting the use of novel combinations of organic dyes and polymer hosts within the device architecture, which is expected to lead to substantial increases in the light emitting device efficiencies. Commercial Applications and Other Benefits as described by the awardee: Thin, bright, flexible organic light emitting diode panels should provide energy-efficient illumination that surpasses that of conventional light emitting diodes. Applications include workplace lighting, indicator lights, numeric displays, backlighting displays, strip lighting for marking, and emergency way finding.