R2R Manufacturing of WOLED Lighting

-Methods-Results-Costs-
Stephen Forrest
Boning Qu
Mike Hack
Max Shtein

[email protected]
 Lab System Overview
Loading & Prototype device fabrication system
Encapsula5on
• Understand limitations
• Test Assumptions
• Use for cost basis in scale-up
OVPD
Computer
Control

VTE

Future encapsulation
• Combination of VTE and OVPD growth EVA (ethylene-vinyl-acetate)
encapsula+on foil
• In-situ mask patterning, registration to <0.1 mm
• 10 materials sources (metals and organics) Heated lamina+on
rollers

Product aBer
encapsula+on
LEDs made from R2R system

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 OLED Deposition Processes
Vapor (PVD) Condensed Phase Organic PVD
Examples VTE Inkjet
OVPD Nozzle Printing
OVJP LITI
μ-contact printing
Materials Small molecules Small molecules or
polymers
Multilayer Molecularly Less thickness ctrl.
VTE
Structures sharp interfaces May damage
Co-deposition Even Mixing heterojunctions &
Amorphous film complicate doping. OVPD
Patterning Thin Metal Mask Direct Print
Direct Print OVJP
Atmosphere Vacuum Inert Gas
Media None Solvent or xfer film
Use Commercial & Research
Research Shtein et al. J. Appl. Phys.
93, 7, 4005 (2003)
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 Organic Vapor Phase Deposition: Concept
0.1 - 10 Torr • Controlled and
accurate doping
(gas saturated with
organics - equilibrium)
• Dust free chamber
• Efficient materials use
• Control of film crystal
structure
Constant Flow Rate Constant Temperature
•Very high, controlled
kinetically deposition rates
Porg Porg kinetically
limited limited •
Peq Peq V src P0 exp(-DH RTcell )
diffusion diffusion rout = × •
RTcell 1+V src Aevap × k
limited limited
Tcell Carrier Gas Flow Rate

M. Shtein, et al., J. Appl. Phys., 89, 1470 (2001).

 Nanomorphology control by temperature
Towards Equilibrium
T cell (°C)
420 432 446 460
T sub
(°C)
2
Towards Equilibrium

26

50

74

98
500 nm

(flowrate = constant, pressure = constant)

 Nanomorphology control by flow rate
(fixed source and substrate temperatures)
N2 flow rate: 100 sccm 125 sccm 150 sccm 200 sccm

500 nm

Increasing carrier gas flow rate

Crystals Needle morph. Flat morph.

Long, large Uniaxial, small
Source temperature Low High
Substrate High Low
temperature
Carrier gas flow rate Low High
Chamber pressure Low High 6
 OLED Performance vs. Growth Rate
Increased Roll-Off at Highest Growth Heterogeneous Nucleation of Defects at
Rates High OVPD Growth Rates

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 Alternative R2R encapsulation: ALD

• Current OLED display encapsulation: CVD

thin film encapsulation (TFE)
• Atomic layer deposition (ALD) advantages:
• Pin-hole free layer
• R2R compatible
• Low WVTR < 2x10-6 (Ref. E.G. Jeong, et al, Journal
of Information Display, 2020)
• Approach at U of Michigan:
• Test package: electrical Ca-test circuit
covered by ALD-grown metal oxide TFEs Ref. S.M. George, et al, 2011 Society of
• Test set-up: customized acrylic box with Vacuum coaters, 2011.
epoxy seal and controlled humidity
• Impact on cost analysis:
• One or two additional vacuum chambers
• Negligible material cost increase

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 R2R System Design: Cost Analysis

ITO coated plastic

substrate rolls with
outcoupling fixtures

Alternative
interconnected
Laser scribing & VTE & OVPD Metal electrode ALD TFE Dicing &
ITO patterning sputterer Encapsulation segmentation
vacuum
chambers

Lighting panels

Target: $10 /klm or $100 /m2 (lighting at 10 klm/m2 )

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 Stacked WOLED Structure

Reliable efficient WOLED structure design

• 3 R-G cells and 1 Blue cell
• CRI = 85.2, CCT = 2890 K
• EQE =141% with outcoupling scheme
• LPE= 47.2 lm/W at 1000 nits.
• T70 = 50000 hr.
2
pairs • Intensity: 200k cd/m2
• [CGL+ETL+HTL+cathode] in VTE
• [R-G-B EML] in OVPD
• 24 VTE subchambers +10 OVPD
subchambers (blends) + sputterer (Al)
Ref. Caleb Coburn, et al, ACS Photonics, 2018.5

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 Production Capacity

1.5 m-long growth window,

5 nm/s rate, thickest
Capacity Unit Base case organic layer 50nm ⇒ 0.15
Rolling speed m/hour 540 m/s
Roll prep / loading time hour/hour 0.05 5% prep/loading time
Substrate width m 1.5 Uniform growth in Gen6
Campaign Length Month 11 chamber (R. Lunt, et al, APL,
Maintenance Time Month 1 2009)
Production per line m2/machine/year 6094 k

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 Lighting panel cost
12

10
lighting panel cost ($/klm)

4
equipment organic materials
inorganic materials utilities
2
labor misc. cost

0
base material luminance future estimate

• 10% miscellaneous cost

• Material cost reduction
• 20% higher operation luminance compared to initial assumption (10000 lm/m2)
• Future estimate: $5.2/klm
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 Comparison with DoE metrics

DoE 2019* DoE 2025* DoE 2035* R2R

Capital cost ($M) 50 200 400 293
Capacity(m2/yr) 25k 500k 2400k 6094k
Depreciation($/m2) 400 80 35 4.8
Organic cost($/m2) 200 80 35 50.2
Inorganic cost($/m2) 600 200 100 31.6
Labor($/m2) 100 15 5 0.5
Others($/m2) 50 10 5 1.1
Total unyielded($/m2) 1350 385 180 88.2
Yield (%) 70 80 90 90
Total($/m2) 1930 480 200 98

* DoE EERE “2019 Lighting R&D Opportunities”, Table 3.9. Current status and cost targets for OLED
panels produced by traditional methods.

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 Parting Thoughts

• R2R Systems can combine multiple deposition

technologies (including encapsulation) for
efficient, high throughput manufacturing
• OVPD provides extraordinary control over
morphology, doping concentration, device
structure
• DOE cost targets for WOLEDs can be met using
high volume R2R deposition

Thanks to the DOE/EERE for support of this work

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