{"71334":{"#nid":"71334","#data":{"type":"news","title":"OLED Sealing Process Reduces Water Intrusion and Increases Lifetime","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EResearchers have developed an improved organic light emitting diode (OLED) sealing process to reduce moisture intrusion and improve device lifetime.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EOLEDs are promising for the next generation of displays and solid state lighting because they use less power and can be more efficiently manufactured than current technology. However, the intrusion of moisture into the displays can damage or destroy an OLED\u0027s organic material.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0022OLEDs have better color and flexibility and the capability of larger displays, but companies still need an inexpensive encapsulation method that can be used to mass produce organic electronics that don\u0027t allow moisture in,\u0022 said Wusheng Tong, a senior research scientist at the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI).\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EManufacturers now seal displays in an inert atmosphere or in a vacuum environment. They glue a glass lid on top of the display substrate with a powder inside the display to absorb moisture that diffuses through the glue. These seals are expensive and labor-intensive to assemble.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EWith funding from GTRI\u0027s independent research and development program, Tong and his GTRI collaborators - senior research scientist Hisham Menkara and principal research scientist Brent Wagner - have replaced the glass enclosure with a thin-film barrier formed by a less expensive conventional deposition method. \n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0022We chose a passivation coating process that could be performed at room temperature so that the organic material remained intact,\u0022 said Tong.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EThe researchers selected advanced ion assisted deposition, which utilizes reactive ions to deposit a high-density, pinhole-free thin silicon oxynitride (SiON) film on the OLED surface. \n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0022Ideally, the film should be as thin as possible, but if it\u0027s too thin, a pinhole or other defect could appear and cause a problem,\u0022 explained Tong. \u0022We found that a film of 50-200 nanometer thickness was perfect.\u0022\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EDuring testing, the SiON-encapsulated OLEDs showed no sign of degradation after seven months in an open-air environment, while the OLEDs without the coating degraded completely in less than two weeks under the same conditions.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EWhen Tong conducted accelerating aging tests in an environmental chamber that maintained a temperature of 50 degrees Celsius and 50 percent relative humidity, the OLEDs encapsulated with SiON films showed little degradation for at least two weeks. The OLEDs without encapsulation, however, decomposed immediately.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0022We\u0027ve demonstrated that this deposition process improves the lifetime of the OLEDs by blocking the intrusion of moisture, so now we\u0027re hoping to work with industry partners to develop a mass production process for our encapsulation technique,\u0022 added Tong.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EResearch News \u0026amp; Publications Office\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nGeorgia Institute of Technology\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n75 Fifth Street, N.W., Suite 100\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nAtlanta, Georgia  30308  USA\n\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EMedia Relations Contacts: Abby Vogel (404-385-3364); E-mail: (\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:avogel@gatech.edu\u0022\u003Eavogel@gatech.edu\u003C\/a\u003E) or Kirk Englehardt (404-407-7280); E-mail: (\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:kirk.englehardt@gtri.gatech.edu\u0022\u003Ekirk.englehardt@gtri.gatech.edu\u003C\/a\u003E) or John Toon (404-894-6986); E-mail: (\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:jtoon@gatech.edu\u0022\u003Ejtoon@gatech.edu\u003C\/a\u003E).\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EWriter:\u003C\/strong\u003E Abby Vogel\n\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"Researchers have developed an improved organic light emitting diode (OLED) sealing process to reduce moisture intrusion and improve device lifetime. They are using advanced ion assisted deposition to deposit a high-density, pinhole-free thin silicon oxynitride film on the OLED surface. The process can be completed at room temperature, which keeps the organic material intact.","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Depositing silicon oxynitride film on OLED surface improves life"}],"uid":"27206","created_gmt":"2008-04-22 00:00:00","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:03:24","author":"Abby Vogel Robinson","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2008-04-22T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2008-04-22T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"71335":{"id":"71335","type":"image","title":"OLED encapsulation1","body":null,"created":"1449177367","gmt_created":"2015-12-03 21:16:07","changed":"1475894634","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:43:54"},"71336":{"id":"71336","type":"image","title":"OLED encapsulation 2","body":null,"created":"1449177367","gmt_created":"2015-12-03 21:16:07","changed":"1475894634","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:43:54"},"71337":{"id":"71337","type":"image","title":"OLED encapsulation 3","body":null,"created":"1449177367","gmt_created":"2015-12-03 21:16:07","changed":"1475894634","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:43:54"}},"media_ids":["71335","71336","71337"],"related_links":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.gtri.gatech.edu\/","title":"Georgia Tech Research Institute"}],"groups":[{"id":"1188","name":"Research Horizons"}],"categories":[{"id":"145","name":"Engineering"},{"id":"149","name":"Nanotechnology and Nanoscience"},{"id":"135","name":"Research"},{"id":"150","name":"Physics and Physical Sciences"}],"keywords":[{"id":"1326","name":"advanced"},{"id":"7208","name":"assisted"},{"id":"7310","name":"coat"},{"id":"7311","name":"coating"},{"id":"7339","name":"deposition"},{"id":"7431","name":"encapsulate"},{"id":"2402","name":"film"},{"id":"7019","name":"ion"},{"id":"7430","name":"light emitting diode"},{"id":"7433","name":"moisture"},{"id":"2387","name":"oled"},{"id":"2289","name":"organic"},{"id":"7434","name":"oxynitride"},{"id":"170879","name":"seal"},{"id":"167355","name":"silicon"},{"id":"788","name":"Water"}],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cstrong\u003EAbby Robinson\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EResearch News and Publications\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.gatech.edu\/contact\/index.html?id=avogel6\u0022\u003EContact Abby Robinson\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003E404-385-3364\u003C\/strong\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["abby@innovate.gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}