DNA Origami Guided Assembly of Monolayer Quantum Dot Pixels for Flexible Electroluminescent Displays

Colloidal quantum dot (QD)s with widely tunable emission wavelength, high photoluminescence quantum yield (PLQY), and high color purity have established themselves as the key element of advanced information display technologies. Electroluminescent quantum dot light emitting diodes (QLEDs) promise to be the next generation flexible, efficient and wide-color gamut display with wide military and consumer electronics application potentials, yet the lack of an effective, low cost, high-resolution patterning method of close-packed, monolayer QDs remains a major technical hurdle to overcome. Herein, QLEDCures in collaboration with the Gopinath group at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the Dong group at the University of Central Florida (UCF) propose to combine their unique capabilities in QDs, DNA origami-based assembly and QLEDs to solve the pressing patterning problems of flexible QLED displays. QDs will be functionalized to be biologically compatible with single stranded (ss) DNA and transferred by DNA origami into patterned pixel arrays with the assistance of elastomer poly (dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) microcontact printing stamps. The transferred QD pixels will be integrated into multilayer device stacks of functional QLEDs first on rigid glass substrates and subsequently on flexible colorless polyimide (CPI) substrates under the consultation of flexible OLED veteran, ex-Samsung expert Dr. Lorenza Moro. The performance parameters including Luminance-current density-voltage (LJV) and operational lifetime of the fabricated QLEDs will be systematically characterized to verify that the display meets or exceeds the target efficiency, brightness, resolution, flexibility and lifetime performances. Overall, this proposal aims to demonstrate the feasibility of using DNA-origami based assembly method to precisely position pixel arrays of close-packed, monolayer quantum dots (QDs) for flexible, efficient, wide-color gamut electroluminescent displays to meet demanding military and consumer electronics application needs.