Novel High Performance Permeation Barrier for Long Lifetime Flexible OLED Lighting

In 2001, lighting was estimated to consume 8.2 quads (approximately 762 TWh), about 22% of the total electricity generated in the U.S. New high-efficiency solid-state light sources, such as light emitting diodes (LEDs) and organic LEDs (OLEDs), are needed to help reduce the ever increasing demand for energy. An OLED is potentially an inexpensive diffuse source that may compete most directly with, and offer a `green¿ alternative to, conventional incandescent light sources. However, improvements in the overall efficiency of these devices and lower manufacturing costs are still required before they become commercially viable products and attain expected goals in terms of cost ($3 per 1000 lumens) and performance (150 lumens per watt). This project will utilize a novel OLED permeation barrier to enable highly efficient, organic, solid-state, lighting sources to be fabricated on plastic substrates, in order to achieve the low manufacturing costs necessary for OLED lighting to replace the short-lifetime, inefficient incandescent sources. Commercial Applications and other Benefits as described by the awardee: Today, OLED technology is the leading emerging technology for flat panel displays (FPDs), with recent product introductions in cell phones. Many of the features that are desired for FPDs are also making OLED technology of great interest to the solid-state lighting community. OLEDs are highly efficient devices that provide thin form factors, especially when built on flexible substrates. The technology developed under this program also should have applications in the photovoltaic and thin-film battery industries.