Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - FLEXOLIGHTING (FLEXOLIGHTING)

Teaser

Effective lighting is essential for daily life, but replacements for the incandescent lamp that has been phased out are not ideal; CFLs contain mercury and inorganic LEDs have poor colour rendering index owing to significant UV/blue emission and increasing the risk of cancer...

Summary

Effective lighting is essential for daily life, but replacements for the incandescent lamp that has been phased out are not ideal; CFLs contain mercury and inorganic LEDs have poor colour rendering index owing to significant UV/blue emission and increasing the risk of cancer. Warm, candle-like white colour with high efficiency is possible with OLED lighting. Moreover, OLEDs are free of UV, toxic materials and flickering. In addition, OLEDs have high CRI and most of the components can be recycled. They also permit novel design features and new form factors.
Participating in project has allowed partners to understand the benefits of OLED and the future of energy efficient lighting. It is clear that the main tangible benefits to the end user are even light dispersion and space utilisation. The software and hardware development work carried out during the project can be exploited further for customer and product development.

Work performed

1.RGBY emitters evaluated for WOLED suitability by VTE and OVPD
2.VTE, OVPD and solution processing technologies evaluated
3.Various WOLED architectures evaluated. Design of charge generation layer
4.Development of planarised steel
5.Development of OVPD, PVPD, PEALD, spatial ALD equipment
6.Development of transparent electrodes
7.Synthesis of transport materials and emitters and purification by vac. sublimation to 99.9%
8.Ink formulation and evaluation
9.Development of light extraction (LE) films

Achievements
1.WOLED demonstrators
2.G8.5 OVPD (2.25x2.5m) equipment built, demonstrated to give superior device performance to current VTE production method, material utilisation of 70%, uniformity ±2%. Over 400 hours continuous operation
3.High efficiency WOLEDs by OVPD
4.PEALD equipment built and commissioned. TFE demonstrated superior barrier than glass/glass encapsulation. WVTR < 8 x 10-5 gm-2 day-1
5.Large area (400x500mm) spatial ALD built. Barrier layers developed with WVTR < 1 x 10-3 gm-2 day-1
6.New hole injectors and transporters synthesised. Demonstrated to be superior to commercial materials
7.Hybrid OLED devices demonstrated where hole injector and transporter layers sequentially inkjet printed
8. VTE, OVPD, IJP, slot coating, spray coating and flexo printing deposition methods compared
9.Large area devices manufactured by OVPD
10.Transparent PEDOT deposited with conductivity in excess of 100Scm-1
11.Parylene demonstrated as effective barrier layer in conjunction with ALD deposited Al2O3. WVTR < 8 x 10-5 gm-2day-1
12.Highly transparent (85%@550nm) and conducting (surface resistance <1Ω/□) graphene layers transferred onto glass
13.Planarisation of Ni coated steel. OLEDs successfully built on steel
14.Low cost light extraction film that doubles light output developed
15.Formulation of MoO3 ink and demonstration of its solution processability by IJP, slot and spray coating. Achieves comparable device performance to VTE ref.
16.WOLEDs with 113cd/A and 37lm/W fabricated by OVPD. With LE, efficiency 226cd/A and 74lm/W. Similar devices yield 60cd/A and 20lm/W by VTE. With LE 120cd/A and 40lm/W

Apeva involved in qualification of G8.5 OVPD equipment with OLED manufacturer. Developing an entire assembly of equipment to manufacture transparent electrode (PEDOT), OLED stack and encapsulation (parylene)
M&S designed and built a number of OLED prototype lamps. Intending to subcontract manufacture OLED panels for lighting in clothing stores
Beneq secured the sale of two ALD machines. PEALD shown to give faster deposition of metal oxide barrier, thus increasing productivity and enabling widespread acceptance by OLED manufacturers. Large area spatial ALD equipment developed in Flexolighting to be supplied to OLED manufacturers
Brunel invented patentable hole injectors and transporters available for licensing. In leveraging knowledge gained in developing OLED materials, processing and device architectures, Brunel is offering its facilities to SMEs to develop lighting products. OLED lighting will be incorporated into design and engineering MSc course in 2019. Commercialisation of LE film being pursued with film manufacturer
Tata Steel exploring commercial potential of graphene film and planarization layer
Robinson Brothers offering material scale up services to OLED manufacturers
Novalia and Intrinsiq evaluating results for potential new business opportunities

Two one day conferences held at SCI, London. Over 40 papers presented at conferences globally by partners, including at Display Week in 2016 and 2017, Eurodisplay 2017, LOPEC and IMID 2017.

Final results

EU-wide supply chain developed from materials and equipment to processing WOLED lighting panels. M&S is an end user and supplier of finished OLED panels. Flexolighting tech is available for any European manufacturer with suitable commercial agreement as a “turn-key” solution.
High throughput production with high uniformity and lower cost enables wider acceptance of OLED lighting. Material cost reduced by almost 50%. Puts European manufacturers at the forefront of OLED industry. Reduction of CO2 and SO2. Supports EU Directives 2012/27/EC, 2005/32/EC, 2002/91/EC, 2009/125/EC, 2002/95/EC. Large area spatial ALD reduces cost of barrier film manufacture by ≥25%. Creation of new products = secured employment, higher revenues. LE films will overcome challenge of reducing light loss and will make OLED panels more efficient and competitive. Planarised Ni coated steel suitable substrate for OLED will lead to 20% reduction in cost (cf ITO glass) and new products for steel industry. New hole injectors and transporters shown to be superior to commercial materials and solution processible charge transport materials mean new products for EU chem industry. Highly transparent and conducting graphene layers manufactured and successfully transferred from Cu sheet to glass and plastic. Enables mass production of high quality graphene films, puts EU in world leading position.
Cost is currently limiting OLED tech for general lighting. OVPD reduces cost to €5/1000lm. Further savings can be made by using materials and components, developed in project, and capable of producing same performance as current commercial alternatives. For example, replacing glass with Ni/Cu coated steel would reduce cost by 20%. Using PEDOT produced by OVPD, overprinted with Cu track, would reduce cost by 16%. Replacing top glass plate with barrier layer coated plastic would reduce cost by 4%. Direct TFE by atmospheric ALD would reduce cost by ≥5%. Overall, consortium estimates costs of €3.80/1000lm (assuming 100lm/W with 100% LE) for OLED, which is considerably cheaper than halogen lamps or LED luminaires with diffusers.
Development of OLED for lighting purposes will have spin-off applications in industries such as OPV, OTFT, touch sensitive panels, automotive headlights, signage, wearable and flexible displays, electronic textiles. Interest in photonics among the general public would be improved.
Commercialisation of OLED for general lighting applications will create employment within EU. Assuming sales of €100k/yr will result in employment of one person, more than 2000 downstream jobs could be created by 2025 with an anticipated rise according to market penetration. This represents a roughly 1.3% increase in a sector that currently employs 150,000 people.
OLED lighting panels benefit the environment by making efficient use of energy and thus reducing CO2 and SO2 from power plants. Substrates and most materials can be recycled.

Website & more info

More info: http://flexolighting.eu.