Abstract
The large volume production of flexible electronics by solution based roll-to-roll (R2R) manufacturing technologies is a promising upscaling strategy for the organic electronics industry. Typical optoelectronic devices like organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs) consist of a complex stack of functional layers. Solution deposition of these structures eliminates the need for expensive vacuum processing. This contribution presents approaches for solution based R2R production methods of functional OLED layers on flexible polymer substrates. The development of a R2R line with two slot-die coating stations is discussed which can deposit two uniform layers consecutively in a single run (“tandem coating”) at web speeds up to 30 m/min. Furthermore, it offers the unique feature that there is no contact between the rollers and the top side of the substrate where the functional coating is deposited. Thereby, an important source of particle contamination and other damage to the device is eliminated. In addition to continuous deposition, stripe and intermittent coating techniques have been developed, allowing the production of patterned layers. Finally, examples will be shown of OLEDs where two functional materials are deposited by R2R processing from solution.
Highlights
A typical organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs) device architecture is shown in Fig. 1, displaying the various materials necessary for efficient charge injection and transport and light emission by radiative recombination
We report on our own results regarding the R2R processing of OLED devices by wet deposition of functional inks for the hole injection and emissive layers
Particle contamination is a serious problem in the production of organic electronic devices, a. o., because the functional layers used are rather thin, and any particles of a comparable or larger size pose a high risk for defects
Summary
Organic and hybrid optoelectronic devices like perovskite and organic photovoltaic cells, organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs), and the like consist of a complex stack of thin layers of functional materials.[1,2,3] Relatively efficient OLEDs have already been demonstrated some decades ago where the organic semiconducting layers were deposited as thin films by evaporation.[4,5] A typical OLED device architecture is shown in Fig. 1, displaying the various materials necessary for efficient charge injection and transport and light emission by radiative recombination. Organic and hybrid optoelectronic devices like perovskite and organic photovoltaic cells, organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs), and the like consist of a complex stack of thin layers of functional materials.[1,2,3] Relatively efficient OLEDs have already been demonstrated some decades ago where the organic semiconducting layers were deposited as thin films by evaporation.[4,5] A typical OLED device architecture is shown, displaying the various materials necessary for efficient charge injection and transport and light emission by radiative recombination. Messing a)Address all correspondence to this author This approach exhibits its own specific challenges not encountered in vacuum processing, but there are distinct benefits associated with it, which, for certain application areas, show good prospects for replacing dry deposition technologies on the mid-term. In the field of flexible electronics, the technology is used for making the active layers in OLEDs and organic or perovskite based solar cells.[16,17,18] Recently, impressive progress has been achieved in the field of organic photovoltaic (OPV) device production by the R2R solution based approach.[19,20,21] In this paper, we report on our own results regarding the R2R processing of OLED devices by wet deposition of functional inks for the hole injection and emissive layers
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