Integration of organic LEDs and amorphous Si TFTs onto flexible and lightweight metal foil substrates

Abstract

We report the integration of organic light emitting devices (OLEDs) and amorphous Si (a-Si) thin-film transistors (TFTs) on both glass, and unbreakable and lightweight thin stainless steel foil substrates. The doped-polymer OLEDs were built following fabrication of driver TFTs in a stacked structure. Due to the opacity of the steel substrate, top-emitting OLED structures were developed. It is shown that the a-Si TFTs provide adequate current levels to drive the OLEDs at video brightness (/spl sim/100 cd/m/sup 2/). This work demonstrates that lightweight and rugged TFT backplanes with integrated OLEDs are essential elements for robust and highly portable active-matrix emissive flat-panel displays.