Organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs) provide potential for power-efficient large area light sources that combine revolutionary properties. They are thin and flat and in addition they can be transparent, colour-tuneable, or flexible. We review the state of the art in white OLEDs and present performance data for three-colour hybrid white OLEDs on indexmatched substrates. With improved optical outcoupling 45 lm/W are achieved. Using a half-sphere to collect all the light that is in the substrate results in 80 lm/W. Optical modelling supports the experimental work. For decorative applications features like transparency and colour tuning are very appealing. We show results on transparent white OLEDs and two ways to come to a colour-variable OLED. These are lateral separation of different colours in a striped design and direct vertical stacking of the different emitting layers. For a striped colour tuneable OLED 36 lm/W are achieved in white with improved optical outcoupling.

Date Published: 2 September 2008
PDF: 9 pages
Proc. SPIE 7051, Organic Light Emitting Materials and Devices XII, 70511A (2 September 2008); doi: 10.1117/12.797457

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 7051:
Organic Light Emitting Materials and Devices XII
Franky So; Chihaya Adachi, Editor(s)