Fabrication and Employment of Organic thin films for Organic Light Emitting Diodes

Abstract

Organic light emitting diodes based lighting technology is focus of significant academic research and industrial development interest, as they potentially offer unique advantages over their inorganic counterparts in terms of cost reductions, compatibility with low-temperature and printing-based manufacturing. Potential applications of organic light emitting devices span a broad range of products including displays, large area lighting, advertising, information, communication and bio-sensing devices. Although a great progress has been made in this area so far, still requires the search for alternative cost effective fabrication for the development of these low cost organic electronics devices is vital in order meet the demand of industrial large scale production. A wealth of solution processable materials has been synthesized that hold key advantages such as reduced production cost, compatibility with a vast range of substrates such as transparent glass and flexible polymeric materials, and also open new doors to explore alternative low cost fabrication methods. In this thesis, fabrication methods of functional thin films of organic solution processable materials have been reported and also their deployment for organic light emitting diodes device fabrication from them. Thin films are deposited by electrospray deposition technique in a vacuum-free environment using solution processable materials' inks as precursors. The effects of electrospray process parameters on film's characteristics are described thoroughly. As a means of film characterization, morphology, elemental analysis, optical analysis and current density analysis for organic light emitting diode device applications are reported. The results obtained have showed that in terms of functionality, the thin films of solution processing materials are suitable to replace their vacuum processed analogues as building blocks in organic light emitting diodes devices. The work opens a fabrication route for a next generation organic electronics device which could lead to important advancement in electronics industry.