Laminated aluminum thin-films as low-cost opaque moisture ultra-barriers for flexible organic electronic devices

Flexible aluminum moisture barrier films are shown to meet ultra-barrier requirements with water vapor transmission rates as low as 1*10⁻⁴ g/m²/day at 38 °C and 90% R.H. These low transmission rates are achieved by lamination of two films that are independently processed on individual substrates. The integration in organic electronic devices like organic solar cells or OLEDs is particularly easy in a single lamination step, since an existing aluminum electrode can be utilized as one half of the moisture barrier. The resulting laminate maintains flexibility of the device and improves the barrier quality by an order of magnitude compared to conventional stacking of two barriers. Organic solar cells with this type of encapsulation are manufactured and aged in controlled climate. They do not exhibit significant extrinsic degradation.