Japan Display (JDI) announced that it has developed a new OLED deposition technology, which they refer to as eLEAP, that is cost effective and can be used to create OLEDs that are brighter, more efficient, and longer lasting compared to OLEDs produced using mask evaporation (FMM). eLEAP also enables OLED freeform deposition. JDI regards its new technology as a " historic breakthrough in display technology".

eLEAP is based on a lithographic method, and does not require any masks. The main advantage seems to be that OLED displays produced by eLEAP technology can achieve an aperture ratio of 60%, compared with FMM OLEDs which achieve a ratio of about 28%. This means that the OLED displays can be driven at lower currents - which extends the lifetime, improves the efficiency and also enables higher-peak brightness when needed.

As we reported last week, LG Display is developing OLED TV panels that utilize a microlens array to increase the light output. LGD unveiled its first prototype display at SID Displayweek 2022.

LGD is showing a 77" 8K panel that features what the company refers to as Meta-lit Lens Array, or MLA technology. The MLA layer increases light output by more than 20%, and the panel achieves a brightness of 2,000 nits. LGD says that the viewing angles is also increased using the MLA technology.

Reports from Korea suggest that LG Display is looking into adopting a microLens array in its large OLED TV panel architecture. The microlens layer could boost brightness by up to 20%, which will also increase efficiency (if brightness is kept as before).

MicroLens array structure, University of Michigan

According to the report, the project is at an advanced stage, and panels with the microLens array could be introduced by the end of this year. LGD will apply the technology to its OLED.EX panels, so brightness could reach up to 1,200 nits. LGD considers this technology as it faces competition in large-area OLED production, from Samsung's QD-OLED panels, for the first time.

This is a sponsored article by Nanomatch

Recent applications of the Nanomatch Toolkit to improve OLEDs:

• Charge carrier mobility
• Charge screening in OLED materials
• Doping
• Excited states in molecular thin films

Attend our talk at SID Display Week (Session 28 on May 11 2022, 10:40 AM) for further information.

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In 2016, Researchers from Japan's Semiconductor Energy Laboratory (SEL) announced a new OLED device architecture, called ExTET ('exciplex triplet energy transfer'), that can increase the performance of OLED devices. The technology was applied for a patent in 2011.

The ExTET technology, which is a modification of the host material and the EML layer in phosphorescent OLED devices, have since been introduced to commercial AMOLED panels, increasing the efficiency and lifetime of the materials, while also lowering the drive voltage.

Next week, Toray Research Center (TRC) will host an online webinar focused on OLED technologies. TRC, who supplies technical analysis and support for R&D and manufacturing, invites you to attend the online lectures at no cost, to learn more about OLED technologies and analysis of OLED devices.

One of the topics covered in these online webinars will be the degradation analysis of OLED devices. The researchers at TRC can use nine different techniques to analyze the OLED stack, looking for organic impurities, degradation products, outgas and luminescence properties of an OLED device. The researchers can also look at the sealing property of the encapsulation layer and analyze the OLED device's cathode.

Eindhoven's Technical University (TU/e) announced a new project called SEQUOIA that aims to develop a strategy for the suppression of exciton quenching in OLED devices.

Exciton quenching, caused due to unwanted interactions among excitons and between excitons and charges, causes the efficiency of OLEDs to drop as brightness increases. The researchers hope to develop new materials and new OLED design to suppress (or hopefully eliminate entirely) this problem.

Researchers from National Taiwan University, led by Prof. Chung-Chih Wu, have developed a 3D pixel configuration for OLED devices, which can improve the light extraction. The new design can improve the external quantum efficiency of a top-emitting OLED device by up to 30%.

The new design uses a 3D reflective pixel structure filled with a patterned high-index material. The researchers created several pixels with difference sizes, and found that the smaller the pixel, the higher the efficiency boost.

Researchers from Korea's KAIST and ETRI institute developed a new metal oxide charge transfer complex that, when dispersed in the OLED stack, can improve the OLED efficiency.

The researchers have applied this material to a green and blue OLED device. The current efficiency of the green OLED was enhanced by 189%, while the external quantum efficiency of the blue OLED was improved by 17%.

LG Display unveiled its latest OLED TV technology, branded as OLED EX. LG says that these WOLED panels combine new deuterium compounds and personalized algorithms to improve the image quality and increase brightness by up to 30%. EX is an acronym of Evolution and eXperience.

LG Display says that it has "successfully converted the hydrogen elements present in organic light emitting elements into stable deuterium". LGD extracts the deuterium compounds from water, and after stabilization, the compounds allow the OLED devices to be brighter - and also last longer.