Soft Lamination Improves Organic LED Performance

Scientists at Bell Labs in Murray Hill, N.J., and at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have demonstrated that organic LEDs assembled using the soft contact lamination process display superior performance over those fabricated using conventional evaporation techniques. A report of their work appeared in the Jan. 13 issue of PNAS.

In the process, they separately fabricated a transparent elastomeric element coated with a metal film and an electroluminescent organic film with an electrode. The two halves of the device were then brought into contact, and van der Waals forces caused them to bond.

Measurements of the current vs. voltage and photoluminescence characteristics of organic LEDs produced by soft contact lamination and by conventional techniques revealed comparable electrical properties and superior quantum efficiencies in the devices constructed using the former approach.