Although flexible optoelectronic devices can be easily fabricated by integrating OLEDs on flexible substrates, this technique suffers from the rapid growth of the non-emitting area due to the oxygen and moisture degradation of reactive electron injection layer materials such as alkali metals. Flexible substrates that can completely block oxygen and moisture are essential for extending the lifetime of flexible devices, but such flexible substrates cannot be easily fabricated. In recent years, inverted OLEDs (iOLEDs) with a bottom cathode have been intensively studied as an ideal structure for realizing air-stable OLEDs. As an alternative to the alkali metals that are commonly used in conventional OLEDs, metal oxides and organic interlayers such as polyethylene imine are employed in most reported iOLEDs. Despite the recent advances in the iOLED technology, the development of interlayers that can prevent the decrease in brightness caused by iOLED operation is lacking. Here, we report the design strategy of an interlayer for the fabrication of efficient and stable iOLEDs. The efficiency and the operational lifetime of the optimized iOLED were comparable to that of the conventional OLED that used the same emitter. Two flexible displays were fabricated to ascertain the feasibility of the application of the interlayer to real devices and the air stability of the iOLED-based devices: one using iOLEDs and the other using conventional OLEDs. The iOLED-based flexible display emits light over 1 year under the simplified encapsulation though the conventional OLED-based flexible display shows almost no luminosity only after 21 days under the same encapsulation.
OLEDs are key devices for realizing next-generation displays such as flexible displays. Although the emission mechanism along with new luminescence materials have been intensively studied with the goal of harvesting all excitons as emission, it has not been uncommon to hear of devices with internal quantum efficiencies of approximately 100% that use phosphorescent or thermally activated delayed fluorescent (TADF) emitters in recent years. Thus, the device performances directly related to practical applications, such as operational lifetime and color purity, have begun to attract much attention. Here, we report on recent advances in phosphorescent OLEDs (PHOLEDs) related to these two device performances. First, the molecular design of the host material to obtain an operationally stable PHOLED is clarified. By analysing the device characteristics of several PHOLEDs utilising similar TADF materials as hosts, a TADF material with a small molecular size is found to be suitable for the phosphorescent host. Second, we demonstrated efficient green OLEDs with high color purity utilising a platinum complex with a rigid molecular structure. A current efficiency of 84 cd/A was obtained from a bottom-emitting OLED with CIE x-y coordinates of (0.27, 0.67), which is much greater than that of a bottom-emitting green OLED using conventional iridium complexes with CIE x-y coordinates of (0.33, 0.62). Furthermore, the CIE x-y coordinates reached (0.18, 0.74) upon employing a top-emitting structure.
The OLED is one of the key devices for realizing next-generation displays and lighting. The efficiency of OLEDs has been improved markedly by employing phosphorescent emitters. However, there are two main issues in the practical application of phosphorescent OLEDs (PHOLEDs): the relatively short operational lifetime of green/blue devices and the relatively high cost owing to the use of a costly emitter with a concentration of about 10% in the emitting layer. Here, we report on our success in resolving these issues by the utilization of thermally activated delayed fluorescent (TADF) materials as the host materials for phosphorescent emitters. Operationally stable green PHOLEDs are demonstrated by employing a TADF material as the host since the triplet excitons of the host, which are key elements in operational degradation, are transferred rapidly to the emitter following the Förster process via reverse intersystem crossing from the triplet to singlet states. In this case, the concentration of the emitter can be reduced to 1–3 wt%, similar to that in fluorescent OLEDs. Although an external quantum efficiency (EQE) of about 20% is obtained in many PHOLEDs regardless of the TADF host, the operational lifetime strongly depends on the host. Our optimized green PHOLED employing only 1 wt% phosphorescent emitter exhibits an EQE of over 20%, a small efficiency roll-off, and a long operational lifetime on the order of 10,000 h with an initial luminance of 1,000 cd/m2.
The OLED is one of the key devices for realizing future flexible displays and lightings. One of the biggest challenges left for the OLED fabricated on a flexible substrate is the improvement of its resistance to oxygen and moisture. A high barrier layer [a water vapor transmission rate (WVTR) of about 10-6 g/m2/day] is proposed to be necessary for the encapsulation of conventional OLEDs. Some flexible high barrier layers have recently been demonstrated; however, such high barrier layers require a complex process, which makes flexible OLEDs expensive. If an OLED is prepared without using air-sensitive materials such as alkali metals, no stringent encapsulation is necessary for such an OLED. In this presentation, we will discuss our continuing efforts to develop an inverted OLED (iOLED) prepared without using alkali metals. iOLEDs with a bottom cathode are considered to be effective for realizing air-stable OLEDs since the electron injection layer (EIL) can be prepared by fabrication processes that might damage the organic layers, resulting in the enhanced range of materials suitable for EILs. We have demonstrated that a highly efficient and relatively air-stable iOLED can be realized by employing poly(ethyleneimine) as an EIL. Dark spot formation was not observed after 250 days in the poly(ethyleneimine)-based iOLED encapsulated by a barrier film with a WVTR of 10-4 g/m2/day. In addition, we have demonstrated the fabrication of a highly operational stable iOLED utilizing a newly developed EIL. The iOLED exhibits an expected half-lifetime of over 10,000 h from an initial luminance of 1,000 cd/m2.
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