Integration of organic LEDs and amorphous Si TFTs onto flexible and lightweight metal foil substrates

Author

Wu, C.C. ; Theiuss, S.D. ; Gu, G. ; Lu, M.H. ; Sturm, J.C. ; Wagner, S. ; Forrest, S.R.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electr. Eng., Princeton Univ., NJ, USA

Volume

18

Issue

12

fYear

1997

Firstpage

609

Lastpage

612

Abstract

We report the integration of organic light emitting devices (OLEDs) and amorphous Si (a-Si) thin-film transistors (TFTs) on both glass, and unbreakable and lightweight thin stainless steel foil substrates. The doped-polymer OLEDs were built following fabrication of driver TFTs in a stacked structure. Due to the opacity of the steel substrate, top-emitting OLED structures were developed. It is shown that the a-Si TFTs provide adequate current levels to drive the OLEDs at video brightness (/spl sim/100 cd/m/sup 2/). This work demonstrates that lightweight and rugged TFT backplanes with integrated OLEDs are essential elements for robust and highly portable active-matrix emissive flat-panel displays.

Keywords

LED displays; amorphous semiconductors; driver circuits; elemental semiconductors; flat panel displays; foils; integrated optoelectronics; organic compounds; silicon; stainless steel; substrates; thin film transistors; Si; amorphous Si TFTs; doped-polymer OLEDs; driver TFTs; flexible lightweight metal foil substrates; glass substrates; integration; organic LEDs; portable active-matrix emissive flat-panel displays; rugged TFT backplanes; stacked structure; stainless steel foil substrates; steel substrate opacity; top-emitting OLED structures; video brightness; Amorphous materials; Brightness; Driver circuits; Fabrication; Glass; Light emitting diodes; Organic light emitting diodes; Steel; Substrates; Thin film transistors;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Electron Device Letters, IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0741-3106

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/55.644086

Filename

644086