I-Corps: Low-Cost Organic Light-Emitting Diode (OLED)-Based Infrared Sensor

The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project is to provide an innovative ultra low-cost but high-performance organic light-emitting diode (OLED)-based infrared sensor technology. The infrared detector market is expected to grow significantly, driven by sensing applications for people and motion, temperature measurement, and security and surveillance applications.

Current infrared sensor technology is limited due to high costs and limited pixel resolution of about 1 million pixels. The OLED-based infrared sensor technology can potentially achieve sensors with small and lightweight form factors with high-resolution and ultra low-cost. Potential areas of integration for these sensors can include drones, smartphones, smart glasses, and automobile applications.

This I-Corps project is based on the development of an organic light-emitting diode (OLED) based infrared sensor technology. Traditional infrared sensor technologies are expensive because infrared-sensitive semiconductors require an epitaxial growth process and the infrared photodetector pixel arrays must be electrically connected to silicon-based readout integrated circuits (ROIC) by a complicated chip bonding processes.

The proposed OLED-based infrared sensor structure does not require these steps. The sensors are fabricated with an infrared-to-visible up-conversion OLED coupled optically (not electronically) on an inexpensive Commercial-Off-The-Shelf visible complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor image sensor. These OLED-based infrared sensors can achieve both higher resolution and significantly lower cost than traditional sensors.

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.