Yongmin Jeon

Functional Design of Dielectric–Metal–Dielectric-Based Thin-Film Encapsulation with Heat Transfer and Flexibility for Flexible Displays

In this study, a new and efficient dielectric-metal-dielectric-based thin-film encapsulation (DMD-TFE) with an inserted Ag thin film is proposed to guarantee the reliability of flexible displays by improving the barrier properties, mechanical flexibility, and heat dissipation, which are considered to be essential requirements for organic light-emitting diode (OLED) encapsulation. The DMD-TFE, which is composed of Al2O3, Ag, and a silica nanoparticle-embedded sol-gel hybrid nanocomposite, shows a water vapor transmission rate of 8.70 × 10-6 g/m2/day and good mechanical reliability at a bending radius of 30 mm, corresponding to 0.41% strain for 1000 bending cycles. The electrical performance of a thin-film encapsulated phosphorescent organic light-emitting diode (PHOLED) was identical to that of a glass-lid encapsulated PHOLED. The operational lifetimes of the thin-film encapsulated and glass-lid encapsulated PHOLEDs are 832 and 754 h, respectively. After 80 days, the thin-film encapsulated PHOLED did not show performance degradation or dark spots on the cell image in a shelf-lifetime test. Finally, the difference in lifetime of the OLED devices in relation to the presence and thickness of a Ag film was analyzed by applying various TFE structures to fluorescent organic light-emitting diodes (FOLEDs) that could generate high amounts of heat. To demonstrate the difference in heat dissipation effect among the TFE structures, the saturated temperatures of the encapsulated FOLEDs were measured from the back side surface of the glass substrate, and were found to be 67.78, 65.12, 60.44, and 39.67 °C after all encapsulated FOLEDs were operated at an initial luminance of 10u2009000 cd/m2 for sufficient heat generation. Furthermore, the operational lifetime tests of the encapsulated FOLED devices showed results that were consistent with the measurements of real-time temperature profiles taken with an infrared camera. A multifunctional hybrid thin-film encapsulation based on a dielectric-metal-dielectric structure was thus effectively designed considering the transmittance, gas-permeation barrier properties, flexibility, and heat dissipation effect by exploiting the advantages of each separate layer.

Functional Design of Highly Robust and Flexible Thin-Film Encapsulation Composed of Quasi-Perfect Sublayers for Transparent, Flexible Displays

In this study, a structurally and materially designed thin-film encapsulation is proposed to guarantee the reliability of transparent, flexible displays by significantly improving their barrier properties, mechanical stability, and environmental reliability, all of which are essential for organic light-emitting diode (OLED) encapsulation. We fabricated a bioinspired, nacre-like ZnO/Al2O3/MgO laminate structure (ZAM) using atomic layer deposition for the microcrack toughening effect. The ZAM film was formed with intentional voids and defects through the formation of a quasi-perfect sublayer, rather than the simple fabrication of nanolaminate structures. The 240 nm thick ZAM-based multibarrier (ZAM-TFE) with a compressively strained organic layer demonstrated an optical transmittance of 91.35% in the visible range, an extremely low water vapor transmission rate of 2.06 × 10-6 g/m2/day, a mechanical stability enduring a strain close to 1%, and a residual stress close to 0, showing significant improvement of key TFE properties in comparison to an Al2O3-based multibarrier. In addition, ZAM-TFE demonstrated superior environmental resistance without degradation of barrier properties in a severe environment of 85 °C and 90% relative humidity (RH). Thus, our structurally and materially designed ZAM film has been well optimized in terms of its applicability as a gas diffusion barrier as well as in terms of its mechanical and environmental reliability. Finally, we confirmed the feasibility of the ZAM-TFE through application in OLEDs. The low-temperature ZAM-TFE technology showed great potential to provide a highly robust and flexible TFE of TFOLEDs.

Low-Temperature Fabrication of Robust, Transparent, and Flexible Thin-Film Transistors with a Nanolaminated Insulator

The lack of reliable, transparent, and flexible electrodes and insulators for applications in thin-film transistors (TFTs) makes it difficult to commercialize transparent, flexible TFTs (TF-TFTs). More specifically, conventional high process temperatures and the brittleness of these elements have been hurdles in developing flexible substrates vulnerable to heat. Here, we propose electrode and insulator fabrication techniques considering process temperature, transmittance, flexibility, and environmental stability. A transparent and flexible indium tin oxide (ITO)/Ag/ITO (IAI) electrode and an Al2O3/MgO (AM)-laminated insulator were optimized at the low temperature of 70 °C for the fabrication of TF-TFTs on a polyethylene terephthalate (PET) substrate. The optimized IAI electrode with a sheet resistance of 7 Ω/sq exhibited the luminous transmittance of 85.17% and maintained its electrical conductivity after exposure to damp heat conditions because of an environmentally stable ITO capping layer. In addition, the electrical conductivity of IAI was maintained after 10u2009000 bending cycles with a tensile strain of 3% because of the ductile Ag film. In the metal/insulator/metal structure, the insulating and mechanical properties of the optimized AM-laminated film deposited at 70 °C were significantly improved because of the highly dense nanolaminate system, compared to those of the Al2O3 film deposited at 70 °C. In addition, the amorphous indium-gallium-zinc oxide (a-IGZO) was used as the active channel for TF-TFTs because of its excellent chemical stability. In the environmental stability test, the ITO, a-IGZO, and AM-laminated films showed the excellent environmental stability. Therefore, our IGZO-based TFT with IAI electrodes and the 70 °C AM-laminated insulator was fabricated to evaluate robustness, transparency, flexibility, and process temperature, resulting in transfer characteristics comparable to those of an IGZO-based TFT with a 150 °C Al2O3 insulator.

Synergistic gas diffusion multilayer architecture based on the nanolaminate and inorganic-organic hybrid organic layer

Al2O3 films have long been widely used as inorganic encapsulation or passivation layers. The Al2O3 single layer, however, exhibits not only a relatively low barrier performance but also poor environmental stability under harsh conditions due to its hydrolysis reaction with water vapor. Thus, to further improve its environmental reliability and barrier performance as a gas diffusion barrier (GDB), the GDB should be newly designed by forming a nanolaminate structure with ultra-thin sublayers. In addition, through the use of a multilayer based on nanolaminate/organic layers, the nanolaminate film can be effectively protected by a SiO2-inserted organic layer. In this study, alternately stacked nanolaminate/silane-based organic layers are proposed. The nanolaminate-based multilayer achieved a water vapor transmission rate (WVTR) of 5.94u2009×u200910−5u2009g/m2/day under 60°C/90% accelerated conditions. In addition, after a bending test, the nanolaminate-based multilayer showed a WVTR increase by a magnitude of one order under a 0.63% bending strain. The proposed environmentally and mechanically stable hybrid thin-film encapsulation offers a strong potential for the realization of washable, wearable, or flexible displays in the future.

Robust Transparent and Conductive Gas Diffusion Multibarrier Based on Mg- and Al-Doped ZnO as Indium Tin Oxide-Free Electrodes for Organic Electronics

Thin-film encapsulation is strictly required to protect transparent, flexible organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) based on plastic substrates with poor moisture barrier performances against water vapor and oxygen. However, additional encapsulation process makes OLED fabrication complex and expensive, resulting in lower yield and higher costs for the manufacture of OLEDs. Therefore, to develop simple, transparent conductive gas diffusion barrier (TCGDB) technologies by providing barrier performances to electrodes can be alternatives. Furthermore, TCGDB based on dielectric/metal/dielectric structures exhibit not only excellent barrier performances to protect metallic and organic layers against the ambient environment but also mechanical flexibility overcoming the brittleness of oxides. In this work, to improve the moisture-resistant, electrical, and optical properties of ZnO film, periodical dopant layers were inserted during the deposition of atomic layer deposition ZnO film. These dopant layers make the intrinsic ZnO film more optically and electrically functional. The dopant of MgO with a wide band gap enables blue-shifted optical transmittance, and the dopant of Al atoms makes doped ZnO more electrically conductive. In addition, these dopant layers in the ZnO film interrupt the film crystallization, making the film less crystalline with fewer channels and grain boundaries. This effect results in significant improvement of its GDB properties. With a functional and material design that takes full advantage of the synergetic combination of highly flexible conductive Ag and a moisture-resistant MAZO layer, the MAZO/Ag/MAZO (MAM) multilayer with a thickness of approximately 110 nm achieves a sheet resistance of 5.60 Ω/sq, an average transmittance of 89.72% in the visible range, and a water vapor transmission rate on the order of 10-5 g/m2/day. In addition, OLEDs with the MAM electrode demonstrated a great potential of indium tin oxide- and encapsulation-free organic electronics.

Design of Highly Water-Resistant, Impermeable, and Flexible Thin-Film Encapsulation Based on Inorganic/Organic Hybrid Layers

The lack of a transparent, flexible, and reliable encapsulation layer for organic-based devices makes it difficult to commercialize wearable, transparent, flexible displays. The reliability of organic-based devices sensitive to water vapor and oxygen must be guaranteed through an additional encapsulation layer for the luminance efficiency and lifetime. Especially, one of the major difficulties in current and future OLED applications has been the absence of thin-film encapsulation with superior barrier performance, mechanical flexibility, and water-resistant properties. In this work, we fabricated highly water-resistant, impermeable, and flexible inorganic/organic multilayers with optimized Al2O3 and functional organic layers. The key properties of the fabricated multilayers were compared according to the thickness and functionality of the inorganic and organic layers. Improvement of the barrier performance is mainly attributed to the optimized thickness of the Al2O3 films, and is additionally due to the increased lag time and effective surface planarization effects caused by the use of micrometer-thick organic layers. As a result, the 3-dyad multilayer structure composed of 60 nm-thick Al2O3 layers deposited at 70 °C and 2-μm-thick silane-based inorganic/organic hybrid polymer (silamer) layers with layered silica exhibited the lowest WVTR value of 1.11 × 10-6 g/m2/day in storage conditions of 30 °C/90% relative humidity. In addition, the multibarrier exhibited good mechanical stability through the use of alternating stacks of brittle inorganic and soft organic layers, without showing a large increase in the WVTR after bending tests. In addition, silamer layers improved the environmental stability of the Al2O3 ALD film. The silamer layer coated on the Al2O3 film effectively worked as a protective layer against harsh environments. The effective contact at the interface of Al2O3/silamer makes the barrier structure more impermeable and corrosion-resistant. In this study, we not only demonstrated an optimized multilayer based on functional organic layers but also provided a methodology for designing a wearable encapsulation applicable to wearable organic electronics.