STTR Phase I: Printable electron transport layers (PrETLs) for organic electronics

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Phase I project is the development of printable electron transport layer (PrETL) materials to greatly simplify the production of organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs) and significantly lower their manufacturing cost. OLEDs are found in an increasingly broad range of commercial products, such as televisions, portable devices, automotive lighting, flexible luminaries, and displays.

Current commercial OLED manufacturing technologies typically require methods that are expensive, energy intensive, and slow. The biggest barrier preventing the transition from thermal evaporation to printable technologies has been a lack of commercially available printable electron transport layers. The adoption of PrETL technology will allow manufacturers to eliminate the thermal evaporation steps and enable fully-printed OLEDs at a fraction of the cost of current devices.

This development will spur further penetration of OLEDs throughout the lighting and display market, providing the benefits of improved energy-efficiency, reduced eye-strain, flexible forms, minimal heat production, and lower cost device.

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project addresses the lack of efficient, long-lifetime, printable electron transport layers (PrETLs) for organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs). The objectives of this project are to demonstrate the feasibility of PrETLs and PrETL-enabled, fully printed OLEDs. The innovative PrETLs developed here rely on a solution processable hexacoordinate silicon-based scaffold, that can be synthetically tuned to the electronic and material needs of the manufacturer.

The Phase I project will develop PrETL thin films for material and electronic testing and for building prototype OLEDs enabled by PrETLs. The ultimate anticipated outcome of the proposed Phase I research will be a fully printed PrETL-enabled OLED with an external quantum efficiency greater than 10% and a lifetime of 10,000 hours at 1,000 nit brightness.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.