The University of Cambridge has developed a new method for creating the blue-light-emitting diodes found in OLED displays. By insulating the diodes with alkylene straps, researchers say that they have created a more energy-efficient OLED that eliminates one of the display type’s most notable flaws: burn-in.
Scientists discover new method for more stable and efficient blue OLED
“Here we introduce a molecular design where ultranarrowband blue emitters are covalently encapsulated by insulating alkylene straps,” the scientists write in their paper, published in the journal Nature Materials. “Organic light-emitting diodes with simple emissive layers consisting of pristine thermally activated delayed fluorescence hosts doped with encapsulated terminal emitters exhibit negligible external quantum efficiency drops compared with non-doped devices, enabling a maximum external quantum efficiency of 21.5%.”
The current manufacturing process of OLED displays include the introduction of additional materials to help combat the dreaded OLED burn-in. If OLED development shifted over to include proper insulation for the blue-light-emitting diodes, the scientists hypothesize that production could become cheaper since any additional burn-in prevention methods would be unnecessary. Additionally, utilizing this method would create OLED displays that would reduce operating costs by requiring lower amounts of power.
