OLED Technology and Trends

Alexander Biebel

Merck KgaA

December 2013

Milestones in the history of Merck

1668

Friedrich Jacob Merck (1621-1678)

buys the Angel Pharmacy (Engel-Apotheke)

1827

Heinrich Emanuel Merck (1794-1855) starts

production on an industrial scale

Merck is the oldest pharmaceutical and chemical company in the world

Corporate structure

Group functions

Merck

Serono

Div

isio

ns

Merck Group

Consumer

Health Care

Merck

Millipore

Performance

Materials

Performance Materials

Liquid Crystals Merck has been pioneering the development of liquid crystals for more than 100 years. Today we are the leading global supplier of liquid crystal mixtures for

displays (LCDs) in

– LCD televisions

– Notebooks and LCD monitors

– Consumer electronics such as navigation systems, eBooks, MP3-players,

mobile telephones, smart phones, digital frames, advertising space.

Further products:

– OLED1 materials for OLED displays and new large light sources;

Reactive mesogens for brightness enhancement, 3D and compensation films for LCDs;

Structuring materials for photovoltaics and display applications.

Note: 1 OLED: organic light-emitting diode

Selected applications:

LCD TVs 3D glasses 3D monitors Large-screen televisions

Fully developed OLED materials will offer significant USPs for display and lighting

• Good Performance

• New Design Rules

• Processibility

• Cost Advantage

OLED Materials’

Unique Selling Propositions

Source: GE , MOM-GE Conf.

…. Material design delivers advantages to customers in display and lighting

Short switching time Flexible

Thin and low power

consumption

Principle of OLED and LC

= Light Modulation

3 – 6 V

= Light Generation

Organic Light Emitting Diode Liquid Crystal

Back Light Back Light

3–6 V

- +

+

- -

+

- - - - - -

+ + + + + + EF

EF

eU

Anode Kathode Farbstoff

oder

Polymer

+ + + +

- - - -

-

+

- + - +

OLED Light Emission Principle

Anode

Cathode

Light

LIGHT emission by applying a current, color based on material

Small Molecule OLEDs vs. Solution-based OLED Decives

Hole

Blocking HBL 10 nm

ITO

Hole

injection HIL

5-150 nm

Hole

transport HTL 10-20 nm

Emission EML 20-40 nm

Electron

transport ETL 20 nm

LiF / Al Cathode 100-200nm

ITO

Conductive

Polymer CP

~200 nm

Interlayer IL 5-10 nm

Emission EML ~80 nm

Ba / Al Cathode 100-200nm

OLED Device on Small Molecules

Materials

OLED Device on Solution-based

Materials

3–6 V

-

+

+

-

- - - - - -

+ + + + + +

- + -

+ +

Blue color is based on Singlet currently and mid future. Green / Red is based on

Triplet (OLED will be able to compete with LCD on power consumption)

Singlet vs. Triplet OLED Emitters

There are two possible types of emitters (dopants)

Singlet (Fluorescent Emitter)

max. 25 % of energy

transformed into light

Triplet (Phosphorescent Emitter)

max. 100 % of energy

transformed into light

Triplet emitter offer up to 4x more

efficiency Singlet emitter offer less efficiency

Vapor and Solution Based Deposition of OLED Materials

Source

Substrate Shadow-

mask

Small Molecules –

Deposition in Vacuum

Solution-based Materials –

Deposition by Coating or Printing

TFT ITO

SiO2

Substrate

Polymerbank

Printer Head

OLED - Ink

Current Market, Smaller Sizes Future Application for Larger Sizes

OLED Material Stacks in Devices - Exremly Thin, Superior Design Options!

HBL 10 nm

ITO

HIL 5-150 nm

HTL 10-20 nm

EML 20-40 nm

ETL 20 nm

Cathode 100-200nm

3–6 V

-

+

+

-

- - - - - -

+ + + + + +

- + -

+ +

Human Hair

A human hair is about 300 times thicker than the OLED material stack

OLED Encapsulation Requirements are much higher than for other technologies

Merck OLED Technologies R&D Process and Synergies to Locations

Multi-step!!

SM/

Monomers

Polymers

Glass

INKJET or

Evaporation

Light Emitting

Material Layers

Injection/Transport Layers

Anode Layer (ITO)

Substrate (glass)

Cathode Layer (metal)

STRUCTURE SYNTHESIS ANALYTICS PHYSICS

FORMULATION APPLICATION DEVICE ARCHITECTURE

Customer

(In Case of

Solution

Based)

Merck OLED : Products and Technology Range

Merck OLED Materials Offering commercial volumes of both,

Evaporation Systems & Printable Systems

Printable Material

• Small Molecule based soluble

systems

• Range of polymers

• With or without Interlayer

• Hole Injection materials

• Formulations for printing

applications

Evaporation Material

• Hole transport materials

• Range of triplet emitters

• Respective triplet matrices

• Blue singlet emitters with matching

hosts.

• Electron transport materials

White light from OLEDs

Cathode

Electron transport

Blue emission

Green or Yellow

emission

Red emission

Hole transport

ITO

individual

or mixed

layers

all fluorescent

lifetime

efficiency

plays only minor role for lighting

+ _

hybrid (with fluorescent blue)

for efficiencies up to 80 lm/W

currently state-of-the-art

all phosphorescent

lifetime

efficiency

for max efficiency >100 lm/W

_

+

Cathode

Electron transport

Blue emission

Charge generation

Green emission

Red emission

Hole transport

ITO

Need for high performance (fluorescent) s-blue , (phosphorescent) t-green /yellow/red

subunits as building blocks for white OLEDs

Cathode

Electron transport

Blue emission

Charge generation

Yellow emission

Red emission

Hole transport

ITO

Cathode

Electron transport

Blue emission

Charge generation

Yellow emission

Charge generation

Red emission

Hole transport

ITO ... many options

Current most prominent approach: stacking

From White OLED to RGBW OLED TV

OLED Actual Developments

LGD curved

OLED TV

SDC curved OLED Mobile Phone

Panasonic 4k printed OLED TV

LGD – G Flex

OLED Future Samsung

Mobil

Display

0,05 mm

dick

Aktiv

Matrix 4“

400x272

1:100k

100%

NTSC

Samsung

Transparent OLED

Monitor Prototype Philips Fluid wrist display

OLED has to have the performance in application and productivity for manufacturer to compete with LC technology

Advantages :

Reduced Bill of material

Green technology

Vivid, natural colours

@ high contrast

Platform to enable

future flexible displays

Displays build to

visualize the world as it is

Technology needs:

High efficiency materials

Long lifetime materials

Easy to process materials

Material quality and supply

chain

IP

Cooperation between material

&

device & process

manufacturer

OLED TV by LGD, Source : Merck

In certain applications OLED has advantages already if used in a clever way

Icons on black background save energy compared to TFT LCD

High contrast combined with high resolution gives 3d like picture quality

Fast response time allows very good video capability

OLED Media Tablet by OEM: Moto , Source : OLED Info.com

First prototypes already show the

potential

Flexibility

Transparency

Rugged construction

3d & touch integration

Plastic Substrate

Foldable displays

Large high resolution wall screens

New advantages arising out off the OLED technology will show up soon

Danke für Ihre

Aufmerksamkeit

http://www.merck-performance-materials.com

Merck OLED