Researchers have developed a method for oleds to produce on a plastic surface. This would be the oleds enough light output to compete with oleds that are more expensive, glass substrates are made.
The majority of the oleds for displays is produced using glass as the substrate, allowing the displays are relatively heavy and are fragile. Glass is, however, resistant to high temperatures, so that vacuumtechnieken can be used to provide the necessary components to vapors. That is a costly process, but yields the highest returns on. Researchers claim, however, now a process to have been developed using plastic as a substrate can be used, while the yield could compete with that of glass oleds.
The researchers from the university of Toronto make use of a plastic substrate which, thanks to a thin layer of tantaaloxide a high refractive index, similar to that of glass. Graduate students Wang and Helander claim, thanks to the 50 to 100 nanometer thick layer on plastic-based oleds with the highest light output have been realized.
The use of plastic in place of glass as a substrate not only leads to flexibility and a reduced weight of the oled displays, the production method is also cheaper than glass as a substrate is used.