Near‐Infrared (NIR) Organic Light‐Emitting Diodes (OLEDs): Challenges and Opportunities

The rapid development of the science and technology of organic semiconductors has already led to mass application of organic light‐emitting diodes (OLEDs) in television monitors of outstanding quality as well as in a large variety of smaller displays found in smartphones, tablets, and other gadgets, while introduction of the technology to the illumination sector is imminent. Notably, the requirements of all such applications for emission in the visible range of the electromagnetic spectrum are well tuned to the optical and electronic properties of typical organic semiconductors, thereby representing relatively “low‐hanging fruits,” in terms of material development and exploitation. However, the question arises as to whether developing materials suited for efficient near‐infrared (NIR, 700–1000 nm) emission is possible, and, crucially, desirable to enable new classes of applications spanning from through‐space, short‐range communications to biomedical sensors, night vision, and more generally security applications to name but a few. Here, the major fundamental hurdles to be overcome to achieve efficient NIR emission from organic π‐conjugated systems are discussed, recent progress is reviewed, and an outlook for further development of both materials and applications is provided.     

Thickness dependent barrier performance of permeation barriers made from atomic layer deposited alumina for organic devices

Organic devices like organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs) or organic solar cells degrade fast when exposed to ambient air. Hence, thin-films acting as permeation barriers are needed for their protection. Atomic layer deposition (ALD) is known to be one of the best technologies to reach barriers with a low defect density at gentle process conditions. As well, ALD is reported to be one of the thinnest barrier layers, with a critical thickness – defining a continuous barrier film – as low as 5–10 nm for ALD processed Al₂O₃. In this work, we investigate the barrier performance of Al₂O₃ films processed by ALD at 80 °C with trimethylaluminum and ozone as precursors. The coverage of defects in such films is investigated on a 5 nm thick Al₂O₃ film, i.e. below the critical thickness, on calcium using atomic force microscopy (AFM). We find for this sub-critical thickness regime that all spots giving raise to water ingress on the 20 × 20 μm² scan range are positioned on nearly flat surface sites without the presence of particles or large substrate features. Hence below the critical thickness, ALD leaves open or at least weakly covered spots even on feature-free surface sites. The thickness dependent performance of these barrier films is investigated for thicknesses ranging from 15 to 100 nm, i.e. above the assumed critical film thickness of this system. To measure the barrier performance, electrical calcium corrosion tests are used in order to measure the water vapor transmission rate (WVTR), electrodeposition is used in order to decorate and count defects, and dark spot growth on OLEDs is used in order to confirm the results for real devices. For 15–25 nm barrier thickness, we observe an exponential decrease in defect density with barrier thickness which explains the likewise observed exponential decrease in WVTR and OLED degradation rate. Above 25 nm, a further increase in barrier thickness leads to a further exponential decrease in defect density, but an only sub-exponential decrease in WVTR and OLED degradation rate. In conclusion, the performance of the thin Al₂O₃ permeation barrier is dominated by its defect density. This defect density is reduced exponentially with increasing barrier thickness for alumina thicknesses of up to at least 25 nm.     

Effect of Heat Treatment on Luminescent Properties of White Organic Light Emitting Device

The white organic light emitting device (OLED) with single-structure using a polymer blend as the light emitting layer is fabricated. Heat treatment is used to control the ratio between the intensities of main electroluminescent spectral peaks. The electroluminescent spectrum of our device is quite similar to that of white inorganic LED produced by Nichia Corporation after being annealed, and its turn-on voltage can be decreased by 1V.     

有机发光显示的几项新技术

有机发光显示(OLED)作为下一代显示器倍受关注。本文简要介绍OLED显示器的几项新技术和制作方法，以及其研究现状和今后的发展趋势。     

一种96×64彩色OLED显示驱动电路的设计

OLED是一种新型平板显示器件,文章设计了一种应用于96×64彩色PM-OLED的显示驱动芯片。该芯片能实现256级对比度调节和65k色彩显示。芯片为高压、大电流的数模混合电路,内部包括数字控制电路,片内SRAM,片内振荡器,DC-DC升压电路,行驱动电路,高压基准电流源电路,以及电流精确可调的列驱动电路。该芯片是一种电流驱动型电路,列驱动电路采用PAM方式实现灰度调制,以及大电流预充的方式对PM-OLED屏幕像素进行预充。全芯片已通过Nanosim仿真,并进行了部分测试。仿真和测试结果验证了设计的正确性。     

驱动AM-OLED的2-a-Si:H TFT的设计与制作

a-Si：H／SiNx：H TFT在长时间栅偏应力作用下，会产生阈值电压漂移，这主要是由绝缘层电荷注入和有源层亚稳态产生而引起的。针对电荷注入现象，文章首先通过控制源气体SiH4和NH3流量的不同，利用PECVD制作了不同N／Si比（0．87～1．68）的氮化硅绝缘材料，对其进行了椭偏、红外和光电子散射能谱（EDS）测试。制作了不同的MIS结构电容，对其进行老化实验和C-V测试分析，结果表明稍富氮（N／Si比稍大于标准Si3N4的化学计量比1．33）的氮化硅做成的M1S样品在老化前后C-V曲线偏移不是很明显，表明其缺陷态密度相对较小，能够有效减小半导体／绝缘层界面间的电荷注入。设计了驱动OLED的2-a-Si：H TFT像素电路及其阵列版图，优化了电路中的几个关键参数，即T1的W／L=2．5、T2的W／L=25和存储电容Cs=0．8pF。运用7PEP生产工艺，制作了13cm（5．2in）的TFT阵列样品。对TFT进行I-V特性测试，其开态电流为10μA，开关比为10^6；对AMOLED显示屏样品进行了静态驱动下的亮度测试，其最高亮度为341cd／m^2。     

Process development and accurate low‐cost characterization for OLED sealants by using a calcium test

Abstract— A calcium measurement setup was built for testing encapsulation especially for OLED applications. This setup is able to measure both reflective and transmissive cells. For the characterization of sealants, a method to compare them with other sealing products will be described. This includes the use of spacers, a homogeneous surface energy, and the geometry of the sealant line. The effects of different geometries will be discussed. The setup was designed to achieve good accuracy at a very reasonable component cost, which will allow other facilities to replicate this setup. Therefore, the construction plan as well as the list of components can be downloaded from our website (Ref. 3).     

基于μPSD3200的人机对话设计

在介绍具有USB、I2C、ADC、DDC和PWM功能并嵌入8032控制器内核的滋PSD3200单片机的基础上,重点分析利用滋PSD3200单片机与内嵌SSD1303驱动芯片的超薄OLED显示屏P09703的硬件连接和软件编程,同时给出利用滋PSD3200单片机一个A/D口实现32个按键的原理图,从而实现完整的人机对话设计。     

Image quality evaluation for OLED-based smart-phone displays at various lighting conditions

The image quality of three organic light-emitting diode (OLED) based smart-phone displays was assessed at three levels of ambient lighting conditions corresponding to the darkroom, indoor and outdoor environment, respectively. Seven perceptual attributes, i.e., naturalness, colorfulness, brightness, contrast, sharpness, preference, and overall image quality (IQ), were evaluated in both standard dynamic range (SDR) and high dynamic range (HDR) mode via psychophysical experiments by rank order method, while readability was assessed only in SDR mode and gradation was investigated only in HDR mode. The experimental results demonstrate that, besides the color gamut, the tone reproduction curve is also an important factor affecting the colorfulness of mobile display in the two modes. Higher peak luminance would not mean better performance on brightness and contrast for HDR images, which is opposite to SDR mode. Further analysis of variance (ANOVA) indicates that the ranking results of all perceptual attributes are not significantly affected by the ambient lighting levels in both SDR and HDR modes.     

基于Petri网的OLED生产线建模与仿真

介绍了OLED(Organic Light Emitting Diodes)的制造过程及制造系统的PN模型。讨论了Petri网的分析技术。针对OLED制造生产线的复杂性,描述了具体的加工过程。采用结构化方法,综合应用自上而下与自下而上相结合的方法,建立了基于赋时变迁Petri网的OLED制造生产线模型,反映了整个生产线的加工动态特性。利用仿真工具Hpsim,对模型进行了仿真分析,并对其结果进行了定性分析,同时验证了模型的合理性和有效性。