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.     

Small‐Sized High‐Power PIN Diode Switch with Defected Ground Structure for Wireless Broadband Internet

This letter presents a small‐sized, high‐power single‐pole double‐throw (SPDT) switch with defected ground structure (DGS) for wireless broadband Internet application. To reduce the circuit size by using a slow‐wave characteristic, the DGS is used for the quarter‐wave (°/4) transmission line of the switch. To secure a high degree of isolation, the switch with DGS is composed of shunt‐connected PIN diodes. It shows an insertion loss of 0.8 dB, an isolation of 50 dB or more, and power capability of at least 50 W at 2.3 GHz. The switch shows very similar performance to the conventional shunt‐type switch, but the circuit size is reduced by about 50% simply with the use of DGS patterns.     

MEMS移相器及其在微型通信系统中的应用

从传统移相器的构造和原理出发，进一步分析了MEMS移相器的结构、特性。结果表明，MEMS移相器具有传统移相器所无法比拟的体积小、损耗小、成本低、频带宽、易于集成等突出优点。随着高阻硅衬底在微波领域应用的扩展，MEMS移相器介质损耗大幅度降低，将能与信号处理电路一同集成于硅衬底上，便于相控阵雷达等通信系统实现微小型化。     

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。     

单片InGaAs／InP PIN PD阵列

文章简要地介绍了ＩｎＧａＡｓ／ＩｎＰ ＰＩＮ ＰＤ阵列的制作现状及其应用和发展趋势。     

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).