Efficient multi-barrier thin film encapsulation of OLED using alternating Al2O3 and polymer layers

• Published in: RSC advances Vol. 8; no. 11; pp. 5721 - 5727
• Main Authors: Wu, Jie, Fei, Fei, Changting Wei, Chen, Xiaolian, Nie, Shuhong, Zhang, Dongyu, Su, Wenming, Cui, Zheng
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Cambridge Royal Society of Chemistry 01.01.2018; The Royal Society of Chemistry
• Subjects: Aluminum oxide; Atomic layer epitaxy; Atomic structure; Chemical vapor deposition; Chemistry; Commercialization; Diffusion barriers; Diffusion layers; Encapsulation; Gaseous diffusion; Optoelectronic devices; Organic light emitting diodes; Service life assessment; Thickness; Thin films; Water vapor
• ISSN: 2046-2069
• DOI: 10.1039/c8ra00023a

Organic optoelectronic devices, especially for OLEDs, are extremely susceptibility to water vapor and oxygen which limit their widespread commercialization. In order to extend the shelf-lifetime of devices, thin film encapsulation is the most promising and challenging encapsulation process. In this study, dyad-style multilayer encapsulation structures based on alternating Al2O3 layer and parylene C have been discussed as gas diffusion barriers, in which dense and pinhole-free Al2O3 films were grown by atomic layer deposition (ALD) and flexible parylene C layers were deposited by chemical vapor deposition (CVD). We found the particle in ALD deposited Al2O3 films process is the key killer to barrier property. The thickness of Al2O3 films is the key factor which limit the amount of strain placed on barrier films. With three dyads of the optimal thickness of 30 nm Al2O3 film and 500 nm parylene C, WVTR value is lower than 10−5 g m−2 per day. In addition, the lifetime of OLEDs with and without encapsulation was 190 h and 10 h, respectively. All the results show that this TFE structure has the effective encapsulated property and does not cause degradation of the OLED devices.