A light-emitting diode ( LED ) is a semiconductor device that emits light when current flows through it. Electrons in the semiconductor recombine with electron holes , releasing energy in the form of photons . The color of the light (corresponding to the energy of the photons) is determined by the energy required for electrons to cross the band gap of the semiconductor. White light is obtained by using multiple semiconductors or a layer of light-emitting phosphor on the semiconductor device.
147-607: An organic light-emitting diode ( OLED ), also known as organic electroluminescent ( organic EL ) diode , is a type of light-emitting diode (LED) in which the emissive electroluminescent layer is an organic compound film that emits light in response to an electric current. This organic layer is situated between two electrodes ; typically, at least one of these electrodes is transparent. OLEDs are used to create digital displays in devices such as television screens, computer monitors , and portable systems such as smartphones and handheld game consoles . A major area of research
294-436: A semiconductor , the work function is sensitive to the doping level at the surface of the semiconductor. Since the doping near the surface can also be controlled by electric fields , the work function of a semiconductor is also sensitive to the electric field in the vacuum. The reason for the dependence is that, typically, the vacuum level and the conduction band edge retain a fixed spacing independent of doping. This spacing
441-476: A thin film for full-spectrum colour displays. Polymer OLEDs are quite efficient and require a relatively small amount of power for the amount of light produced. Vacuum deposition is not a suitable method for forming thin films of polymers. If the polymeric OLED films are made by vacuum vapor deposition, the chain elements will be cut off and the original photophysical properties will be compromised. However, polymers can be processed in solution, and spin coating
588-563: A GaAs p-n junction light emitter and an electrically isolated semiconductor photodetector. On August 8, 1962, Biard and Pittman filed a patent titled "Semiconductor Radiant Diode" based on their findings, which described a zinc-diffused p–n junction LED with a spaced cathode contact to allow for efficient emission of infrared light under forward bias . After establishing the priority of their work based on engineering notebooks predating submissions from G.E. Labs, RCA Research Labs, IBM Research Labs, Bell Labs , and Lincoln Lab at MIT ,
735-405: A controlled and complete operating environment, helping to obtain uniform and stable films, thus ensuring the final fabrication of high-performance OLED devices.However, small molecule organic dyes are prone to fluorescence quenching in the solid state, resulting in lower luminescence efficiency. The doped OLED devices are also prone to crystallization, which reduces the luminescence and efficiency of
882-671: A current source of a battery or a pulse generator and with a comparison to a variant, pure, crystal in 1953. Rubin Braunstein of the Radio Corporation of America reported on infrared emission from gallium arsenide (GaAs) and other semiconductor alloys in 1955. Braunstein observed infrared emission generated by simple diode structures using gallium antimonide (GaSb), GaAs, indium phosphide (InP), and silicon-germanium (SiGe) alloys at room temperature and at 77 kelvins . In 1957, Braunstein further demonstrated that
1029-788: A damage issue due to the sputtering process. Thus, a thin metal film such as pure Ag and the Mg:Ag alloy are used for the semi-transparent cathode due to their high transmittance and high conductivity . In contrast to the bottom emission, light is extracted from the opposite side in top emission without the need of passing through multiple drive circuit layers. Thus, the light generated can be extracted more efficiently. Using deuterium instead of hydrogen, in other words deuterated compounds, in red light , green light , blue light and white light OLED light emitting material layers and other layers nearby in OLED displays can improve their brightness by up to 30%. This
1176-415: A driver IC, often mounted using the chip-on-glass (COG) technology with an anisotropic conductive film . The most commonly used patterning method for organic light-emitting displays is shadow masking during film deposition, also called the "RGB side-by-side" method or "RGB pixelation" method. Metal sheets with multiple apertures made of low thermal expansion material, such as nickel alloy, are placed between
1323-400: A focus of research, although complexes based on other heavy metals such as platinum have also been used. The heavy metal atom at the centre of these complexes exhibits strong spin-orbit coupling, facilitating intersystem crossing between singlet and triplet states. By using these phosphorescent materials, both singlet and triplet excitons will be able to decay radiatively, hence improving
1470-554: A glass window or lens to let the light out. Modern indicator LEDs are packed in transparent molded plastic cases, tubular or rectangular in shape, and often tinted to match the device color. Infrared devices may be dyed, to block visible light. More complex packages have been adapted for efficient heat dissipation in high-power LEDs . Surface-mounted LEDs further reduce the package size. LEDs intended for use with fiber optics cables may be provided with an optical connector. The first blue -violet LED, using magnesium-doped gallium nitride
1617-466: A great deal of care, as an incorrectly designed experimental geometry can result in an erroneous measurement of work function. This may be responsible for the large variation in work function values in scientific literature. Moreover, the minimum energy can be misleading in materials where there are no actual electron states at the Fermi level that are available for excitation. For example, in a semiconductor
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#17327721431611764-431: A green light emitter, electron transport material and as a host for yellow light and red light emitting dyes. Because of the structural flexibility of small-molecule electroluminescent materials, thin films can be prepared by vacuum vapor deposition, which is more expensive and of limited use for large-area devices. The vacuum coating system, however, can make the entire process from film growth to OLED device preparation in
1911-403: A hot material (called the 'emitter') into the vacuum. If these electrons are absorbed by another, cooler material (called the collector ) then a measurable electric current will be observed. Thermionic emission can be used to measure the work function of both the hot emitter and cold collector. Generally, these measurements involve fitting to Richardson's law , and so they must be carried out in
2058-568: A longer lifetime, improved physical robustness, smaller sizes, and faster switching. In exchange for these generally favorable attributes, disadvantages of LEDs include electrical limitations to low voltage and generally to DC (not AC) power, the inability to provide steady illumination from a pulsing DC or an AC electrical supply source, and a lesser maximum operating temperature and storage temperature. LEDs are transducers of electricity into light. They operate in reverse of photodiodes , which convert light into electricity. Electroluminescence as
2205-485: A loudspeaker. Intercepting the beam stopped the music. We had a great deal of fun playing with this setup." In September 1961, while working at Texas Instruments in Dallas , Texas , James R. Biard and Gary Pittman discovered near-infrared (900 nm) light emission from a tunnel diode they had constructed on a GaAs substrate. By October 1961, they had demonstrated efficient light emission and signal coupling between
2352-407: A low temperature and low current regime where space charge effects are absent. In order to move from the hot emitter to the vacuum, an electron's energy must exceed the emitter Fermi level by an amount determined simply by the thermionic work function of the emitter. If an electric field is applied towards the surface of the emitter, then all of the escaping electrons will be accelerated away from
2499-635: A melted phosphor consisting of ground anthracene powder, tetracene, and graphite powder. Their proposed mechanism involved electronic excitation at the contacts between the graphite particles and the anthracene molecules. The first Polymer LED (PLED) to be created was by Roger Partridge at the National Physical Laboratory in the United Kingdom. It used a film of polyvinylcarbazole up to 2.2 micrometers thick located between two charge-injecting electrodes. The light generated
2646-557: A method for producing high-brightness blue LEDs using a new two-step process in 1991. In 2015, a US court ruled that three Taiwanese companies had infringed Moustakas's prior patent, and ordered them to pay licensing fees of not less than US$ 13 million. Two years later, in 1993, high-brightness blue LEDs were demonstrated by Shuji Nakamura of Nichia Corporation using a gallium nitride (GaN) growth process. These LEDs had efficiencies of 10%. In parallel, Isamu Akasaki and Hiroshi Amano of Nagoya University were working on developing
2793-401: A microcavity in top-emission OLEDs with color filters also contributes to an increase in the contrast ratio by reducing the reflection of incident ambient light. In a conventional panel, a circular polarizer was installed on the panel surface. While this was provided to prevent the reflection of ambient light, it also reduced the light output. By replacing this polarizing layer with color filters,
2940-467: A more gradual electronic profile, or block a charge from reaching the opposite electrode and being wasted. Many modern OLEDs incorporate a simple bilayer structure, consisting of a conductive layer and an emissive layer. Developments in OLED architecture in 2011 improved quantum efficiency (up to 19%) by using a graded heterojunction. In the graded heterojunction architecture, the composition of hole and electron-transport materials varies continuously within
3087-472: A mother substrate that is later thinned and cut into several displays. Substrates for OLED displays come in the same sizes as those used for manufacturing LCDs. For OLED manufacture, after the formation of TFTs (for active matrix displays), addressable grids (for passive matrix displays), or indium tin oxide (ITO) segments (for segment displays), the display is coated with hole injection, transport and blocking layers, as well with electroluminescent material after
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#17327721431613234-616: A partnership to jointly research, develop, and produce OLED displays. They announced the world's first 2.4-inch active-matrix, full-color OLED display in September the same year. In September 2002, they presented a prototype of 15-inch HDTV format display based on white OLEDs with color filters at the CEATEC Japan. Manufacturing of small molecule OLEDs was started in 1997 by Pioneer Corporation , followed by TDK in 2001 and Samsung - NEC Mobile Display (SNMD), which later became one of
3381-523: A phenomenon was discovered in 1907 by the English experimenter Henry Joseph Round of Marconi Labs , using a crystal of silicon carbide and a cat's-whisker detector . Russian inventor Oleg Losev reported the creation of the first LED in 1927. His research was distributed in Soviet, German and British scientific journals, but no practical use was made of the discovery for several decades, partly due to
3528-574: A phosphor-silicon mixture on the LED using techniques such as jet dispensing, and allowing the solvents to evaporate, the LEDs are often tested, and placed on tapes for SMT placement equipment for use in LED light bulb production. Some "remote phosphor" LED light bulbs use a single plastic cover with YAG phosphor for one or several blue LEDs, instead of using phosphor coatings on single-chip white LEDs. Ce:YAG phosphors and epoxy in LEDs can degrade with use, and
3675-508: A red light-emitting diode. GaAsP was the basis for the first wave of commercial LEDs emitting visible light. It was mass produced by the Monsanto and Hewlett-Packard companies and used widely for displays in calculators and wrist watches. M. George Craford , a former graduate student of Holonyak, invented the first yellow LED and improved the brightness of red and red-orange LEDs by a factor of ten in 1972. In 1976, T. P. Pearsall designed
3822-453: A sample material and probe material. The electric field can be varied by the voltage Δ V sp that is applied to the probe relative to the sample. If the voltage is chosen such that the electric field is eliminated (the flat vacuum condition), then Since the experimenter controls and knows Δ V sp , then finding the flat vacuum condition gives directly the work function difference between the two materials. The only question is, how to detect
3969-595: A single polymer molecule, representing the smallest possible organic light-emitting diode (OLED) device. Scientists will be able to optimize substances to produce more powerful light emissions. Finally, this work is a first step towards making molecule-sized components that combine electronic and optical properties. Similar components could form the basis of a molecular computer. Polymer light-emitting diodes (PLED, P-OLED), also light-emitting polymers (LEP), involve an electroluminescent conductive polymer that emits light when connected to an external voltage. They are used as
4116-403: A small area silver electrode at 400 volts . The proposed mechanism was field-accelerated electron excitation of molecular fluorescence. Pope's group reported in 1965 that in the absence of an external electric field, the electroluminescence in anthracene crystals is caused by the recombination of a thermalized electron and hole, and that the conducting level of anthracene is higher in energy than
4263-485: A trade-off between the luminous efficacy and color rendering. For example, the dichromatic white LEDs have the best luminous efficacy (120 lm/W), but the lowest color rendering capability. Although tetrachromatic white LEDs have excellent color rendering capability, they often have poor luminous efficacy. Trichromatic white LEDs are in between, having both good luminous efficacy (>70 lm/W) and fair color rendering capability. Work function In solid-state physics ,
4410-451: A work function difference, it is possible to obtain an absolute work function by first calibrating the probe against a reference material (with known work function) and then using the same probe to measure a desired sample. The Kelvin probe technique can be used to obtain work function maps of a surface with extremely high spatial resolution, by using a sharp tip for the probe (see Kelvin probe force microscope ). The work function depends on
4557-405: Is a common method of depositing thin polymer films. This method is more suited to forming large-area films than thermal evaporation. No vacuum is required, and the emissive materials can also be applied on the substrate by a technique derived from commercial inkjet printing. However, as the application of subsequent layers tends to dissolve those already present, formation of multilayer structures
OLED - Misplaced Pages Continue
4704-449: Is achieved by improving the current handling capacity, and lifespan of these materials. Making indentations shaped like lenses on a transparent layer through which light passes from an OLED light emitting material, reduces the amount of scattered light and directs it forward, improving brightness. When light waves meet while traveling along the same medium, wave interference occurs. This interference can be constructive or destructive. It
4851-406: Is applied into the surface of the emitter. Excess photon energy results in a liberated electron with non-zero kinetic energy. It is expected that the minimum photon energy ℏ ω {\displaystyle \hbar \omega } required to liberate an electron (and generate a current) is where W e is the work function of the emitter. Photoelectric measurements require
4998-404: Is called the electron affinity (note that this has a different meaning than the electron affinity of chemistry); in silicon for example the electron affinity is 4.05 eV. If the electron affinity E EA and the surface's band-referenced Fermi level E F - E C are known, then the work function is given by where E C is taken at the surface. From this one might expect that by doping
5145-462: Is commonly used as the anode material. It is transparent to visible light and has a high work function which promotes injection of holes into the HOMO level of the organic layer. A second conductive (injection) layer is typically added, which may consist of PEDOT:PSS , as the HOMO level of this material generally lies between the work function of ITO and the HOMO of other commonly used polymers, reducing
5292-550: Is difficult but desirable since it takes advantage of existing semiconductor manufacturing infrastructure. It allows for the wafer-level packaging of LED dies resulting in extremely small LED packages. GaN is often deposited using metalorganic vapour-phase epitaxy (MOCVD), and it also uses lift-off . Even though white light can be created using individual red, green and blue LEDs, this results in poor color rendering , since only three narrow bands of wavelengths of light are being emitted. The attainment of high efficiency blue LEDs
5439-492: Is difficult on silicon , while others, like the University of Cambridge, choose a multi-layer structure, in order to reduce (crystal) lattice mismatch and different thermal expansion ratios, to avoid cracking of the LED chip at high temperatures (e.g. during manufacturing), reduce heat generation and increase luminous efficiency. Sapphire substrate patterning can be carried out with nanoimprint lithography . GaN-on-Si
5586-467: Is difficult with these methods. The metal cathode may still need to be deposited by thermal evaporation in vacuum. An alternative method to vacuum deposition is to deposit a Langmuir-Blodgett film . Typical polymers used in PLED displays include derivatives of poly( p -phenylene vinylene) and polyfluorene . Substitution of side chains onto the polymer backbone may determine the colour of emitted light or
5733-421: Is difficult, as an accurate model requires a careful treatment of both electronic many body effects and surface chemistry ; both of these topics are already complex in their own right. One of the earliest successful models for metal work function trends was the jellium model, which allowed for oscillations in electronic density nearby the abrupt surface (these are similar to Friedel oscillations ) as well as
5880-794: Is more apparent with higher concentrations of Ce:YAG in phosphor-silicone mixtures, because the Ce:YAG decomposes with use. The output of LEDs can shift to yellow over time due to degradation of the silicone. There are several variants of Ce:YAG, and manufacturers in many cases do not reveal the exact composition of their Ce:YAG offerings. Several other phosphors are available for phosphor-converted LEDs to produce several colors such as red, which uses nitrosilicate phosphors, and many other kinds of phosphor materials exist for LEDs such as phosphors based on oxides, oxynitrides, oxyhalides, halides, nitrides, sulfides, quantum dots, and inorganic-organic hybrid semiconductors. A single LED can have several phosphors at
6027-476: Is not a characteristic of a bulk material, but rather a property of the surface of the material (depending on crystal face and contamination). The work function W for a given surface is defined by the difference where − e is the charge of an electron , ϕ is the electrostatic potential in the vacuum nearby the surface, and E F is the Fermi level ( electrochemical potential of electrons) inside
OLED - Misplaced Pages Continue
6174-595: Is optimizing the thickness of the charge transporting layers but is hard to control. Another way is using the exciplex. Exciplex formed between hole-transporting (p-type) and electron-transporting (n-type) side chains to localize electron-hole pairs. Energy is then transferred to luminophore and provide high efficiency. An example of using exciplex is grafting Oxadiazole and carbazole side units in red diketopyrrolopyrrole-doped Copolymer main chain shows improved external quantum efficiency and color purity in no optimized OLED. Organic small-molecule electroluminescent materials have
6321-599: Is perceived as white light, with improved color rendering compared to wavelengths from the blue LED/YAG phosphor combination. The first white LEDs were expensive and inefficient. The light output then increased exponentially . The latest research and development has been propagated by Japanese manufacturers such as Panasonic and Nichia , and by Korean and Chinese manufacturers such as Samsung , Solstice, Kingsun, Hoyol and others. This trend in increased output has been called Haitz's law after Roland Haitz. Light output and efficiency of blue and near-ultraviolet LEDs rose and
6468-596: Is similar to that of the Fabry-Perot resonator or laser resonator , which contains two parallel mirrors comparable to the two reflective electrodes), this effect is especially strong in TEOLED. This two-beam interference and the Fabry-Perot interferences are the main factors in determining the output spectral intensity of OLED. This optical effect is called the "micro-cavity effect." In the case of OLED, that means
6615-470: Is sometimes desirable for several waves of the same frequency to sum up into a wave with higher amplitudes. Since both electrodes are reflective in TEOLED, light reflections can happen within the diode, and they cause more complex interferences than those in BEOLEDs. In addition to the two-beam interference, there exists a multi-resonance interference between two electrodes. Because the structure of TEOLEDs
6762-489: Is the applied collector–emitter voltage, and Δ V S is the Seebeck voltage in the hot emitter (the influence of Δ V S is often omitted, as it is a small contribution of order 10 mV). The resulting current density J c through the collector (per unit of collector area) is again given by Richardson's Law , except now where A is a Richardson-type constant that depends on the collector material but may also depend on
6909-475: Is the architecture that was used in the early-stage AMOLED displays. It had a transparent anode fabricated on a glass substrate, and a shiny reflective cathode. Light is emitted from the transparent anode direction. To reflect all the light towards the anode direction, a relatively thick metal cathode such as aluminum is used. For the anode, high-transparency indium tin oxide (ITO) was a typical choice to emit as much light as possible. Organic thin-films, including
7056-439: Is the development of white OLED devices for use in solid-state lighting applications. There are two main families of OLED: those based on small molecules and those employing polymers . Adding mobile ions to an OLED creates a light-emitting electrochemical cell (LEC) which has a slightly different mode of operation. An OLED display can be driven with a passive-matrix (PMOLED) or active-matrix ( AMOLED ) control scheme. In
7203-468: Is to switch the mode of emission. A reflective anode, and a transparent (or more often semi-transparent) cathode are used so that the light emits from the cathode side, and this configuration is called top-emission OLED (TE-OLED). Unlike BEOLEDs where the anode is made of transparent conductive ITO, this time the cathode needs to be transparent, and the ITO material is not an ideal choice for the cathode because of
7350-451: Is to use individual LEDs that emit three primary colors —red, green and blue—and then mix all the colors to form white light. The other is to use a phosphor material to convert monochromatic light from a blue or UV LED to broad-spectrum white light, similar to a fluorescent lamp . The yellow phosphor is cerium -doped YAG crystals suspended in the package or coated on the LED. This YAG phosphor causes white LEDs to appear yellow when off, and
7497-452: Is used to create p- and n-regions by changing the conductivity of the host semiconductor . OLEDs do not employ a crystalline p-n structure. Doping of OLEDs is used to increase radiative efficiency by direct modification of the quantum-mechanical optical recombination rate. Doping is additionally used to determine the wavelength of photon emission. OLED displays are made in a similar way to LCDs, including manufacturing of several displays on
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#17327721431617644-648: The Nancy-Université in France made the first observations of electroluminescence in organic materials in the early 1950s. They applied high alternating voltages in air to materials such as acridine orange dye, either deposited on or dissolved in cellulose or cellophane thin films . The proposed mechanism was either direct excitation of the dye molecules or excitation of electrons . In 1960, Martin Pope and some of his co-workers at New York University in
7791-934: The Nobel Prize in Physics in 2014 for "the invention of efficient blue light-emitting diodes, which has enabled bright and energy-saving white light sources." In 1995, Alberto Barbieri at the Cardiff University Laboratory (GB) investigated the efficiency and reliability of high-brightness LEDs and demonstrated a "transparent contact" LED using indium tin oxide (ITO) on (AlGaInP/GaAs). In 2001 and 2002, processes for growing gallium nitride (GaN) LEDs on silicon were successfully demonstrated. In January 2012, Osram demonstrated high-power InGaN LEDs grown on silicon substrates commercially, and GaN-on-silicon LEDs are in production at Plessey Semiconductors . As of 2017, some manufacturers are using SiC as
7938-553: The U.S. patent office issued the two inventors the patent for the GaAs infrared light-emitting diode (U.S. Patent US3293513 ), the first practical LED. Immediately after filing the patent, Texas Instruments (TI) began a project to manufacture infrared diodes. In October 1962, TI announced the first commercial LED product (the SNX-100), which employed a pure GaAs crystal to emit an 890 nm light output. In October 1963, TI announced
8085-682: The exciton energy level. Also in 1965, Wolfgang Helfrich and W. G. Schneider of the National Research Council in Canada produced double injection recombination electroluminescence for the first time in an anthracene single crystal using hole and electron injecting electrodes, the forerunner of modern double-injection devices. In the same year, Dow Chemical researchers patented a method of preparing electroluminescent cells using high-voltage (500–1500 V) AC-driven (100–3000 Hz) electrically insulated one millimetre thin layers of
8232-457: The human eye as a pure ( saturated ) color. Also unlike most lasers, its radiation is not spatially coherent , so it cannot approach the very high intensity characteristic of lasers . By selection of different semiconductor materials , single-color LEDs can be made that emit light in a narrow band of wavelengths from near-infrared through the visible spectrum and into the ultraviolet range. The required operating voltages of LEDs increase as
8379-411: The kinetics and charge transport mechanisms of an organic material and can be useful when trying to study energy transfer processes. As current through the device is composed of only one type of charge carrier, either electrons or holes, recombination does not occur and no light is emitted. For example, electron only devices can be obtained by replacing ITO with a lower work function metal which increases
8526-523: The valence and conduction bands of inorganic semiconductors. Originally, the most basic polymer OLEDs consisted of a single organic layer. One example was the first light-emitting device synthesised by J. H. Burroughes et al. , which involved a single layer of poly(p-phenylene vinylene) . However multilayer OLEDs can be fabricated with two or more layers in order to improve device efficiency. As well as conductive properties, different materials may be chosen to aid charge injection at electrodes by providing
8673-428: The work function (sometimes spelled workfunction ) is the minimum thermodynamic work (i.e., energy) needed to remove an electron from a solid to a point in the vacuum immediately outside the solid surface. Here "immediately" means that the final electron position is far from the surface on the atomic scale, but still too close to the solid to be influenced by ambient electric fields in the vacuum. The work function
8820-436: The "internal vacuum level" inside the material (i.e., its average electrostatic potential), because of the formation of an atomic-scale electric double layer at the surface. This surface electric dipole gives a jump in the electrostatic potential between the material and the vacuum. A variety of factors are responsible for the surface electric dipole. Even with a completely clean surface, the electrons can spread slightly into
8967-451: The 3-subpixel model for digital displays. The technology uses a gallium nitride semiconductor that emits light of different frequencies modulated by voltage changes. A prototype display achieved a resolution of 6,800 PPI or 3k x 1.5k pixels. In a light-emitting diode, the recombination of electrons and electron holes in a semiconductor produces light (be it infrared, visible or UV), a process called " electroluminescence ". The wavelength of
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#17327721431619114-552: The OLED material adversely affecting lifetime. Mechanisms to decrease anode roughness for ITO/glass substrates include the use of thin films and self-assembled monolayers. Also, alternative substrates and anode materials are being considered to increase OLED performance and lifetime. Possible examples include single crystal sapphire substrates treated with gold (Au) film anodes yielding lower work functions, operating voltages, electrical resistance values, and increasing lifetime of OLEDs. Single carrier devices are typically used to study
9261-461: The PMOLED scheme, each row and line in the display is controlled sequentially, one by one, whereas AMOLED control uses a thin-film transistor (TFT) backplane to directly access and switch each individual pixel on or off, allowing for higher resolution and larger display sizes. OLEDs are fundamentally different from LEDs , which are based on a p-n diode crystalline solid structure. In LEDs, doping
9408-552: The United States developed ohmic dark-injecting electrode contacts to organic crystals. They further described the necessary energetic requirements ( work functions ) for hole and electron injecting electrode contacts. These contacts are the basis of charge injection in all modern OLED devices. Pope's group also first observed direct current (DC) electroluminescence under vacuum on a single pure crystal of anthracene and on anthracene crystals doped with tetracene in 1963 using
9555-429: The advantages of a wide variety, easy to purify, and strong chemical modifications. In order to make the luminescent materials to emit light as required, some chromophores or unsaturated groups such as alkene bonds and benzene rings will usually be introduced in the molecular structure design to change the size of the conjugation range of the material, so that the photophysical properties of the material changes. In general,
9702-499: The back reflection of emitted light out to the transparent ITO layer. Experimental research has proven that the properties of the anode, specifically the anode/hole transport layer (HTL) interface topography plays a major role in the efficiency, performance, and lifetime of organic light-emitting diodes. Imperfections in the surface of the anode decrease anode-organic film interface adhesion, increase electrical resistance, and allow for more frequent formation of non-emissive dark spots in
9849-800: The blending of the colors. Since LEDs have slightly different emission patterns, the color balance may change depending on the angle of view, even if the RGB sources are in a single package, so RGB diodes are seldom used to produce white lighting. Nonetheless, this method has many applications because of the flexibility of mixing different colors, and in principle, this mechanism also has higher quantum efficiency in producing white light. There are several types of multicolor white LEDs: di- , tri- , and tetrachromatic white LEDs. Several key factors that play among these different methods include color stability, color rendering capability, and luminous efficacy. Often, higher efficiency means lower color rendering, presenting
9996-404: The bulk of the semiconductor, the work function can be tuned. In reality, however, the energies of the bands near the surface are often pinned to the Fermi level, due to the influence of surface states . If there is a large density of surface states, then the work function of the semiconductor will show a very weak dependence on doping or electric field. Theoretical modeling of the work function
10143-422: The cavity in a TEOLED could be especially designed to enhance the light output intensity and color purity with a narrow band of wavelengths, without consuming more power. In TEOLEDs, the microcavity effect commonly occurs, and when and how to restrain or make use of this effect is indispensable for device design. To match the conditions of constructive interference, different layer thicknesses are applied according to
10290-1088: The cladding and quantum well layers for ultraviolet LEDs, but these devices have not yet reached the level of efficiency and technological maturity of InGaN/GaN blue/green devices. If unalloyed GaN is used in this case to form the active quantum well layers, the device emits near-ultraviolet light with a peak wavelength centred around 365 nm. Green LEDs manufactured from the InGaN/GaN system are far more efficient and brighter than green LEDs produced with non-nitride material systems, but practical devices still exhibit efficiency too low for high-brightness applications. With AlGaN and AlGaInN , even shorter wavelengths are achievable. Near-UV emitters at wavelengths around 360–395 nm are already cheap and often encountered, for example, as black light lamp replacements for inspection of anti- counterfeiting UV watermarks in documents and bank notes, and for UV curing . Substantially more expensive, shorter-wavelength diodes are commercially available for wavelengths down to 240 nm. As
10437-446: The collector, and the height of the potential barrier in this case depends on the collector's work function, rather than the emitter's. The current is still governed by Richardson's law. However, in this case the barrier height does not depend on W e . The barrier height now depends on the work function of the collector, as well as any additional applied voltages: where W c is the collector's thermionic work function, Δ V ce
10584-431: The configurations of atoms at the surface of the material. For example, on polycrystalline silver the work function is 4.26 eV, but on silver crystals it varies for different crystal faces as (100) face : 4.64 eV, (110) face : 4.52 eV, (111) face : 4.74 eV. Ranges for typical surfaces are shown in the table below. Due to the complications described in the modelling section below, it is difficult to theoretically predict
10731-417: The cost of reliable devices fell. This led to relatively high-power white-light LEDs for illumination, which are replacing incandescent and fluorescent lighting. Experimental white LEDs were demonstrated in 2014 to produce 303 lumens per watt of electricity (lm/W); some can last up to 100,000 hours. Commercially available LEDs have an efficiency of up to 223 lm/W as of 2018. A previous record of 135 lm/W
10878-539: The crystal face dependence (this requires the inclusion of the actual atomic lattice, something that is neglected in the jellium model). The electron behavior in metals varies with temperature and is largely reflected by the electron work function. A theoretical model for predicting the temperature dependence of the electron work function, developed by Rahemi et al. explains the underlying mechanism and predicts this temperature dependence for various crystal structures via calculable and measurable parameters. In general, as
11025-425: The dependence of J e on T e can be fitted to yield W e . The same setup can be used to instead measure the work function in the collector, simply by adjusting the applied voltage. If an electric field is applied away from the emitter instead, then most of the electrons coming from the emitter will simply be reflected back to the emitter. Only the highest energy electrons will have enough energy to reach
11172-474: The device from cathode to anode, as electrons are injected into the LUMO of the organic layer at the cathode and withdrawn from the HOMO at the anode. This latter process may also be described as the injection of electron holes into the HOMO. Electrostatic forces bring the electrons and the holes towards each other and they recombine forming an exciton , a bound state of the electron and hole. This happens closer to
11319-457: The devices. Therefore, the development of devices based on small-molecule electroluminescent materials is limited by high manufacturing costs, poor stability, short life, and other shortcomings. Coherent emission from a laser dye-doped tandem SM-OLED device, excited in the pulsed regime, has been demonstrated. The emission is nearly diffraction limited with a spectral width similar to that of broadband dye lasers. Researchers report luminescence from
11466-410: The difference in energy between the HOMO and LUMO. As electrons and holes are fermions with half integer spin , an exciton may either be in a singlet state or a triplet state depending on how the spins of the electron and hole have been combined. Statistically three triplet excitons will be formed for each singlet exciton. Decay from triplet states ( phosphorescence ) is spin forbidden, increasing
11613-1075: The earliest LEDs emitted low-intensity infrared (IR) light. Infrared LEDs are used in remote-control circuits, such as those used with a wide variety of consumer electronics. The first visible-light LEDs were of low intensity and limited to red. Early LEDs were often used as indicator lamps, replacing small incandescent bulbs , and in seven-segment displays . Later developments produced LEDs available in visible , ultraviolet (UV), and infrared wavelengths with high, low, or intermediate light output, for instance, white LEDs suitable for room and outdoor lighting. LEDs have also given rise to new types of displays and sensors, while their high switching rates are useful in advanced communications technology with applications as diverse as aviation lighting , fairy lights , strip lights , automotive headlamps , advertising, general lighting , traffic signals , camera flashes, lighted wallpaper , horticultural grow lights , and medical devices. LEDs have many advantages over incandescent light sources, including lower power consumption,
11760-538: The electroluminescent material, which is in powder form. The mask is aligned with the mother substrate before every use, and it is placed just below the substrate. The substrate and mask assembly are placed at the top of the deposition chamber. Afterwards, the electrode layer is deposited, by subjecting silver and aluminum powder to 1000 °C, using an electron beam. Shadow masks allow for high pixel densities of up to 2,250 DPI (890 dot/cm). High pixel densities are necessary for virtual reality headsets . Although
11907-407: The electron-transport layer part of the emissive layer, because in organic semiconductors holes are generally more mobile than electrons. The decay of this excited state results in a relaxation of the energy levels of the electron, accompanied by emission of radiation whose frequency is in the visible region . The frequency of this radiation depends on the band gap of the material, in this case
12054-423: The emissive layer that actually generates the light, are then sandwiched between the ITO anode and the reflective metal cathode. The downside of bottom emission structure is that the light has to travel through the pixel drive circuits such as the thin film transistor (TFT) substrate, and the area from which light can be extracted is limited and the light emission efficiency is reduced. An alternative configuration
12201-521: The emissive layer with a dopant emitter. The graded heterojunction architecture combines the benefits of both conventional architectures by improving charge injection while simultaneously balancing charge transport within the emissive region. During operation, a voltage is applied across the OLED such that the anode is positive with respect to the cathode. Anodes are picked based upon the quality of their optical transparency, electrical conductivity, and chemical stability. A current of electrons flows through
12348-543: The emitted wavelengths become shorter (higher energy, red to blue), because of their increasing semiconductor band gap. Blue LEDs have an active region consisting of one or more InGaN quantum wells sandwiched between thicker layers of GaN, called cladding layers. By varying the relative In/Ga fraction in the InGaN quantum wells, the light emission can in theory be varied from violet to amber. Aluminium gallium nitride (AlGaN) of varying Al/Ga fraction can be used to manufacture
12495-526: The emitter and absorbed into whichever material is applying the electric field. According to Richardson's law the emitted current density (per unit area of emitter), J e (A/m ), is related to the absolute temperature T e of the emitter by the equation: where k is the Boltzmann constant and the proportionality constant A e is the Richardson's constant of the emitter. In this case,
12642-400: The emitter material, and the diode geometry. In this case, the dependence of J c on T e , or on Δ V ce , can be fitted to yield W c . This retarding potential method is one of the simplest and oldest methods of measuring work functions, and is advantageous since the measured material (collector) is not required to survive high temperatures. The photoelectric work function is
12789-432: The energy barrier of hole injection. Similarly, hole only devices can be made by using a cathode made solely of aluminium, resulting in an energy barrier too large for efficient electron injection. Balanced charge injection and transfer are required to get high internal efficiency, pure emission of luminance layer without contaminated emission from charge transporting layers, and high stability. A common way to balance charge
12936-409: The energy barriers for hole injection. Metals such as barium and calcium are often used for the cathode as they have low work functions which promote injection of electrons into the LUMO of the organic layer. Such metals are reactive, so they require a capping layer of aluminium to avoid degradation. Two secondary benefits of the aluminum capping layer include robustness to electrical contacts and
13083-496: The field of luminescence with research on radium . Hungarian Zoltán Bay together with György Szigeti patenting a lighting device in Hungary in 1939 based on silicon carbide, with an option on boron carbide, that emitted white, yellowish white, or greenish white depending on impurities present. Kurt Lehovec , Carl Accardo, and Edward Jamgochian explained these first LEDs in 1951 using an apparatus employing SiC crystals with
13230-431: The filters absorb most of the emitted light, requiring the background white light to be relatively strong to compensate for the drop in brightness, and thus the power consumption for such displays can be higher. Color filters can also be implemented into bottom- and top-emission OLEDs. By adding the corresponding RGB color filters after the semi-transparent cathode, even purer wavelengths of light can be obtained. The use of
13377-612: The first commercial hemispherical LED, the SNX-110. In the 1960s, several laboratories focused on LEDs that would emit visible light. A particularly important device was demonstrated by Nick Holonyak on October 9, 1962, while he was working for General Electric in Syracuse, New York . The device used the semiconducting alloy gallium phosphide arsenide (GaAsP). It was the first semiconductor laser to emit visible light, albeit at low temperatures. At room temperature it still functioned as
13524-521: The first commercially available blue LED, based on the indirect bandgap semiconductor, silicon carbide (SiC). SiC LEDs had very low efficiency, no more than about 0.03%, but did emit in the blue portion of the visible light spectrum. In the late 1980s, key breakthroughs in GaN epitaxial growth and p-type doping ushered in the modern era of GaN-based optoelectronic devices. Building upon this foundation, Theodore Moustakas at Boston University patented
13671-721: The first high-brightness, high-efficiency LEDs for optical fiber telecommunications by inventing new semiconductor materials specifically adapted to optical fiber transmission wavelengths. Until 1968, visible and infrared LEDs were extremely costly, on the order of US$ 200 per unit, and so had little practical use. The first commercial visible-wavelength LEDs used GaAsP semiconductors and were commonly used as replacements for incandescent and neon indicator lamps , and in seven-segment displays , first in expensive equipment such as laboratory and electronics test equipment, then later in such appliances as calculators, TVs, radios, telephones, as well as watches. The Hewlett-Packard company (HP)
13818-495: The first two layers, after which ITO or metal may be applied again as a cathode . Later, the entire stack of materials is encapsulated. The TFT layer, addressable grid, or ITO segments serve as or are connected to the anode , which may be made of ITO or metal. OLEDs can be made flexible and transparent, with transparent displays being used in smartphones with optical fingerprint scanners and flexible displays being used in foldable smartphones . André Bernanose and co-workers at
13965-472: The flat vacuum condition? Typically, the electric field is detected by varying the distance between the sample and probe. When the distance is changed but Δ V sp is held constant, a current will flow due to the change in capacitance . This current is proportional to the vacuum electric field, and so when the electric field is neutralized no current will flow. Although the Kelvin probe technique only measures
14112-409: The government's Department for Industry tried and failed to find industrial collaborators to fund further development. Chemists Ching Wan Tang and Steven Van Slyke at Eastman Kodak built the first practical OLED device in 1987. This device used a two-layer structure with separate hole transporting and electron transporting layers such that recombination and light emission occurred in the middle of
14259-563: The heated evaporation source and substrate, so that the organic or inorganic material from the evaporation source is masked off, or blocked by the sheet from reaching the substrate in most locations, so the materials are deposited only on the desired locations on the substrate, and the rest is deposited and remains on the sheet. Almost all small OLED displays for smartphones have been manufactured using this method. Fine metal masks (FMMs) made by photochemical machining , reminiscent of old CRT shadow masks , are used in this process. The dot density of
14406-407: The important GaN deposition on sapphire substrates and the demonstration of p-type doping of GaN. This new development revolutionized LED lighting, making high-power blue light sources practical, leading to the development of technologies like Blu-ray . Nakamura was awarded the 2006 Millennium Technology Prize for his invention. Nakamura, Hiroshi Amano , and Isamu Akasaki were awarded
14553-569: The internal quantum efficiency of the device compared to a standard OLED where only the singlet states will contribute to emission of light. Applications of OLEDs in solid state lighting require the achievement of high brightness with good CIE coordinates (for white emission). The use of macromolecular species like polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxanes (POSS) in conjunction with the use of phosphorescent species such as Ir for printed OLEDs have exhibited brightnesses as high as 10,000 cd/m. The bottom-emission organic light-emitting diode (BE-OLED)
14700-695: The larger the range of π-electron conjugation system, the longer the wavelength of light emitted by the material. For instance, with the increase of the number of benzene rings, the fluorescence emission peak of benzene , naphthalene , anthracene , and tetracene gradually red-shifted from 283 nm to 480 nm. Common organic small molecule electroluminescent materials include aluminum complexes, anthracenes , biphenyl acetylene aryl derivatives, coumarin derivatives, and various fluorochromes. Efficient OLEDs using small molecules were first developed by Ching W. Tang et al. at Eastman Kodak . The term OLED traditionally refers specifically to this type of device, though
14847-507: The light absorption by the color filter, state-of-the-art OLED televisions can reproduce color very well, such as 100% NTSC , and consume little power at the same time. This is done by using an emission spectrum with high human-eye sensitivity, special color filters with a low spectrum overlap, and performance tuning with color statistics into consideration. This approach is also called the "Color-by-white" method. Light-emitting diode Appearing as practical electronic components in 1962,
14994-417: The light depends on the energy band gap of the semiconductors used. Since these materials have a high index of refraction, design features of the devices such as special optical coatings and die shape are required to efficiently emit light. Unlike a laser , the light emitted from an LED is neither spectrally coherent nor even highly monochromatic . Its spectrum is sufficiently narrow that it appears to
15141-712: The light intensity is not affected, and essentially all ambient reflected light can be cut, allowing a better contrast on the display panel. This potentially reduced the need for brighter pixels and can lower the power consumption. Transparent OLEDs use transparent or semi-transparent contacts on both sides of the device to create displays that can be made to be both top and bottom emitting (transparent). TOLEDs can greatly improve contrast, making it much easier to view displays in bright sunlight. This technology can be used in Head-up displays , smart windows or augmented reality applications. Graded heterojunction OLEDs gradually decrease
15288-420: The light produced is engineered to suit the human eye. Because of metamerism , it is possible to have quite different spectra that appear white. The appearance of objects illuminated by that light may vary as the spectrum varies. This is the issue of color rendition, quite separate from color temperature. An orange or cyan object could appear with the wrong color and much darker as the LED or phosphor does not emit
15435-441: The mask will determine the pixel density of the finished display. Fine Hybrid Masks (FHMs) are lighter than FFMs, reducing bending caused by the mask's own weight, and are made using an electroforming process. This method requires heating the electroluminescent materials at 300 °C using a thermal method in a high vacuum of 10 Pa. An oxygen meter ensures that no oxygen enters the chamber as it could damage (through oxidation)
15582-419: The material surface means that the space between two dissimilar conductors will have a built-in electric field , when those conductors are in total equilibrium with each other (electrically shorted to each other, and with equal temperatures). The work function refers to removal of an electron to a position that is far enough from the surface (many nm) that the force between the electron and its image charge in
15729-410: The material. The term − eϕ is the energy of an electron at rest in the vacuum nearby the surface. In practice, one directly controls E F by the voltage applied to the material through electrodes, and the work function is generally a fixed characteristic of the surface material. Consequently, this means that when a voltage is applied to a material, the electrostatic potential ϕ produced in
15876-420: The minimum photon energy required to liberate an electron from a substance, in the photoelectric effect . If the photon's energy is greater than the substance's work function, photoelectric emission occurs and the electron is liberated from the surface. Similar to the thermionic case described above, the liberated electrons can be extracted into a collector and produce a detectable current, if an electric field
16023-408: The minimum photon energy would actually correspond to the valence band edge rather than work function. Of course, the photoelectric effect may be used in the retarding mode, as with the thermionic apparatus described above. In the retarding case, the dark collector's work function is measured instead. The Kelvin probe technique relies on the detection of an electric field (gradient in ϕ ) between
16170-509: The organic layer; this resulted in a reduction in operating voltage and improvements in efficiency. Research into polymer electroluminescence culminated in 1990, with J. H. Burroughesat the Cavendish Laboratory at Cambridge University , UK, reporting a high-efficiency green light-emitting polymer-based device using 100 nm thick films of poly(p-phenylene vinylene) . Moving from molecular to macromolecular materials solved
16317-448: The phosphors, the Ce:YAG phosphor converts blue light to green and red (yellow) light, and the PFS phosphor converts blue light to red light. The color, emission spectrum or color temperature of white phosphor converted and other phosphor converted LEDs can be controlled by changing the concentration of several phosphors that form a phosphor blend used in an LED package. The 'whiteness' of
16464-599: The photosensitivity of microorganisms approximately matches the absorption spectrum of DNA , with a peak at about 260 nm, UV LED emitting at 250–270 nm are expected in prospective disinfection and sterilization devices. Recent research has shown that commercially available UVA LEDs (365 nm) are already effective disinfection and sterilization devices. UV-C wavelengths were obtained in laboratories using aluminium nitride (210 nm), boron nitride (215 nm) and diamond (235 nm). There are two primary ways of producing white light-emitting diodes. One
16611-465: The principle of electrophosphorescence to convert electrical energy in an OLED into light in a highly efficient manner, with the internal quantum efficiencies of such devices approaching 100%. PHOLEDs can be deposited using vacuum deposition through a shadow mask. Typically, a polymer such as poly( N-vinylcarbazole ) is used as a host material to which an organometallic complex is added as a dopant. Iridium complexes such as Ir(mppy) 3 as of 2004 were
16758-480: The problems previously encountered with the long-term stability of the organic films and enabled high-quality films to be easily made. Subsequent research developed multilayer polymers and the new field of plastic electronics and OLED research and device production grew rapidly. White OLEDs, pioneered by J. Kido et al. at Yamagata University , Japan in 1995, achieved the commercialization of OLED-backlit displays and lighting. In 1999, Kodak and Sanyo had entered into
16905-537: The ratio of electron holes to electron transporting chemicals. This results in almost double the quantum efficiency of existing OLEDs. Stacked OLEDs use a pixel architecture that stacks the red, green, and blue subpixels on top of one another instead of next to one another, leading to substantial increase in gamut and color depth, and greatly reducing pixel gap. Other display technologies with RGB (and RGBW) pixels mapped next to each other, tend to decrease potential resolution. Tandem OLEDs are similar but have 2 layers of
17052-517: The resonance wavelength of that specific color. The thickness conditions are carefully designed and engineered according to the peak resonance emitting wavelengths of the blue light (460 nm), green light (530 nm), and red light (610 nm) color LEDs. This technology greatly improves the light-emission efficiency of OLEDs, and are able to achieve a wider color gamut due to high color purity. In " white + color filter method ", also known as WOLED, red, green, and blue emissions are obtained from
17199-421: The rudimentary devices could be used for non-radio communication across a short distance. As noted by Kroemer Braunstein "…had set up a simple optical communications link: Music emerging from a record player was used via suitable electronics to modulate the forward current of a GaAs diode. The emitted light was detected by a PbS diode some distance away. This signal was fed into an audio amplifier and played back by
17346-427: The same color stacked together. This improves the brightness of OLED displays. In contrast to a conventional OLED, in which the anode is placed on the substrate, an inverted OLED uses a bottom cathode that can be connected to the drain end of an n-channel TFT, especially for the low-cost amorphous silicon TFT backplane useful in the manufacturing of AMOLED displays. All OLED displays (passive and active matrix) use
17493-480: The same time. Some LEDs use phosphors made of glass-ceramic or composite phosphor/glass materials. Alternatively, the LED chips themselves can be coated with a thin coating of phosphor-containing material, called a conformal coating. The temperature of the phosphor during operation and how it is applied limits the size of an LED die. Wafer-level packaged white LEDs allow for extremely small LEDs. In 2024, QPixel introduced as polychromatic LED that could replace
17640-484: The same white-light LEDs using different color filters. With this method, the OLED materials produce white light, which is then filtered to obtain the desired RGB colors. This method eliminated the need to deposit three different organic emissive materials, so only one kind of OLED material is used to produce white light. It also eliminated the uneven degradation rate of blue pixels vs. red and green pixels. Disadvantages of this method are low color purity and contrast. Also,
17787-605: The shadow-mask patterning method is a mature technology used from the first OLED manufacturing, it causes many issues like dark spot formation due to mask-substrate contact or misalignment of the pattern due to the deformation of shadow mask. Such defect formation can be regarded as trivial when the display size is small, however it causes serious issues when a large display is manufactured, which brings significant production yield loss. To circumvent such issues, white emission devices with 4-sub-pixel color filters (white, red, green and blue) have been used for large televisions. In spite of
17934-408: The space between the crystals allow some blue light to pass through in LEDs with partial phosphor conversion. Alternatively, white LEDs may use other phosphors like manganese(IV)-doped potassium fluorosilicate (PFS) or other engineered phosphors. PFS assists in red light generation, and is used in conjunction with conventional Ce:YAG phosphor. In LEDs with PFS phosphor, some blue light passes through
18081-556: The stability and solubility of the polymer for performance and ease of processing. While unsubstituted poly(p-phenylene vinylene) (PPV) is typically insoluble, a number of PPVs and related poly(naphthalene vinylene)s (PNVs) that are soluble in organic solvents or water have been prepared via ring opening metathesis polymerization . These water-soluble polymers or conjugated poly electrolytes (CPEs) also can be used as hole injection layers alone or in combination with nanoparticles like graphene. Phosphorescent organic light-emitting diodes use
18228-547: The subsequent device Pankove and Miller built, the first actual gallium nitride light-emitting diode, emitted green light. In 1974 the U.S. Patent Office awarded Maruska, Rhines, and Stanford professor David Stevenson a patent for their work in 1972 (U.S. Patent US3819974 A ). Today, magnesium-doping of gallium nitride remains the basis for all commercial blue LEDs and laser diodes . In the early 1970s, these devices were too dim for practical use, and research into gallium nitride devices slowed. In August 1989, Cree introduced
18375-480: The substrate for LED production, but sapphire is more common, as it has the most similar properties to that of gallium nitride, reducing the need for patterning the sapphire wafer (patterned wafers are known as epi wafers). Samsung , the University of Cambridge , and Toshiba are performing research into GaN on Si LEDs. Toshiba has stopped research, possibly due to low yields. Some opt for epitaxy , which
18522-404: The surface can be neglected. The electron must also be close to the surface compared to the nearest edge of a crystal facet, or to any other change in the surface structure, such as a change in the material composition, surface coating or reconstruction. The built-in electric field that results from these structures, and any other ambient electric field present in the vacuum are excluded in defining
18669-545: The tail of electron density extending outside the surface. This model showed why the density of conduction electrons (as represented by the Wigner–Seitz radius r s ) is an important parameter in determining work function. The jellium model is only a partial explanation, as its predictions still show significant deviation from real work functions. More recent models have focused on including more accurate forms of electron exchange and correlation effects, as well as including
18816-569: The team at Fairchild led by optoelectronics pioneer Thomas Brandt to achieve the needed cost reductions. LED producers have continued to use these methods as of about 2009. The early red LEDs were bright enough for use as indicators, as the light output was not enough to illuminate an area. Readouts in calculators were so small that plastic lenses were built over each digit to make them legible. Later, other colors became widely available and appeared in appliances and equipment. Early LEDs were packaged in metal cases similar to those of transistors, with
18963-482: The temperature increases, the EWF decreases via φ ( T ) = φ 0 − γ ( k B T ) 2 φ 0 {\textstyle \varphi (T)=\varphi _{0}-\gamma {\frac {(k_{\text{B}}T)^{2}}{\varphi _{0}}}} and γ {\displaystyle \gamma } is a calculable material property which
19110-685: The term SM-OLED is also in use. Molecules commonly used in OLEDs include organometallic chelates (for example Alq 3 , used in the organic light-emitting device reported by Tang et al. ), fluorescent and phosphorescent dyes and conjugated dendrimers . A number of materials are used for their charge transport properties, for example triphenylamine and derivatives are commonly used as materials for hole transport layers. Fluorescent dyes can be chosen to obtain light emission at different wavelengths, and compounds such as perylene , rubrene and quinacridone derivatives are often used. Alq 3 has been used as
19257-431: The timescale of the transition and limiting the internal efficiency of fluorescent OLED emissive layers and devices. Phosphorescent organic light-emitting diodes (PHOLEDs) or emissive layers make use of spin–orbit interactions to facilitate intersystem crossing between singlet and triplet states, thus obtaining emission from both singlet and triplet states and improving the internal efficiency. Indium tin oxide (ITO)
19404-503: The typical "work function" as they average or select differently among the microscopic work functions. Many techniques have been developed based on different physical effects to measure the electronic work function of a sample. One may distinguish between two groups of experimental methods for work function measurements: absolute and relative. The work function is important in the theory of thermionic emission , where thermal fluctuations provide enough energy to "evaporate" electrons out of
19551-406: The vacuum will be somewhat lower than the applied voltage, the difference depending on the work function of the material surface. Rearranging the above equation, one has where V = − E F / e is the voltage of the material (as measured by a voltmeter , through an attached electrode), relative to an electrical ground that is defined as having zero Fermi level. The fact that ϕ depends on
19698-442: The vacuum, leaving behind a slightly positively charged layer of material. This primarily occurs in metals, where the bound electrons do not encounter a hard wall potential at the surface but rather a gradual ramping potential due to image charge attraction. The amount of surface dipole depends on the detailed layout of the atoms at the surface of the material, leading to the variation in work function for different crystal faces. In
19845-461: The very inefficient light-producing properties of silicon carbide, the semiconductor Losev used. In 1936, Georges Destriau observed that electroluminescence could be produced when zinc sulphide (ZnS) powder is suspended in an insulator and an alternating electrical field is applied to it. In his publications, Destriau often referred to luminescence as Losev-Light. Destriau worked in the laboratories of Madame Marie Curie , also an early pioneer in
19992-538: The wavelength it reflects. The best color rendition LEDs use a mix of phosphors, resulting in less efficiency and better color rendering. The first white light-emitting diodes (LEDs) were offered for sale in the autumn of 1996. Nichia made some of the first white LEDs which were based on blue LEDs with Ce:YAG phosphor. Ce:YAG is often grown using the Czochralski method . Mixing red, green, and blue sources to produce white light needs electronic circuits to control
20139-401: The work function with accuracy. Various trends have, however, been identified. The work function tends to be smaller for metals with an open lattice, and larger for metals in which the atoms are closely packed. It is somewhat higher on dense crystal faces than open crystal faces, also depending on surface reconstructions for the given crystal face. The work function is not simply dependent on
20286-493: The work function. Certain physical phenomena are highly sensitive to the value of the work function. The observed data from these effects can be fitted to simplified theoretical models, allowing one to extract a value of the work function. These phenomenologically extracted work functions may be slightly different from the thermodynamic definition given above. For inhomogeneous surfaces, the work function varies from place to place, and different methods will yield different values of
20433-637: The world's first commercial shipment of inkjet-printed OLED panels. A typical OLED is composed of a layer of organic materials situated between two electrodes, the anode and cathode , all deposited on a substrate . The organic molecules are electrically conductive as a result of delocalization of pi electrons caused by conjugation over part or all of the molecule. These materials have conductivity levels ranging from insulators to conductors, and are therefore considered organic semiconductors . The highest occupied and lowest unoccupied molecular orbitals ( HOMO and LUMO ) of organic semiconductors are analogous to
20580-451: The world's largest OLED display manufacturers - Samsung Display, in 2002. The Sony XEL-1 , released in 2007, was the first OLED television. Universal Display Corporation , one of the OLED materials companies, holds a number of patents concerning the commercialization of OLEDs that are used by major OLED manufacturers around the world. On 5 December 2017, JOLED , the successor of Sony and Panasonic 's printable OLED business units, began
20727-618: Was achieved by Nichia in 2010. Compared to incandescent bulbs, this is a huge increase in electrical efficiency, and even though LEDs are more expensive to purchase, overall lifetime cost is significantly cheaper than that of incandescent bulbs. The LED chip is encapsulated inside a small, plastic, white mold although sometimes an LED package can incorporate a reflector. It can be encapsulated using resin ( polyurethane -based), silicone, or epoxy containing (powdered) Cerium-doped YAG phosphor particles. The viscosity of phosphor-silicon mixtures must be carefully controlled. After application of
20874-415: Was engaged in research and development (R&D) on practical LEDs between 1962 and 1968, by a research team under Howard C. Borden, Gerald P. Pighini at HP Associates and HP Labs . During this time HP collaborated with Monsanto Company on developing the first usable LED products. The first usable LED products were HP's LED display and Monsanto's LED indicator lamp , both launched in 1968. Monsanto
21021-433: Was made at Stanford University in 1972 by Herb Maruska and Wally Rhines , doctoral students in materials science and engineering. At the time Maruska was on leave from RCA Laboratories , where he collaborated with Jacques Pankove on related work. In 1971, the year after Maruska left for Stanford, his RCA colleagues Pankove and Ed Miller demonstrated the first blue electroluminescence from zinc-doped gallium nitride, though
21168-443: Was quickly followed by the development of the first white LED . In this device a Y 3 Al 5 O 12 :Ce (known as " YAG " or Ce:YAG phosphor) cerium -doped phosphor coating produces yellow light through fluorescence . The combination of that yellow with remaining blue light appears white to the eye. Using different phosphors produces green and red light through fluorescence. The resulting mixture of red, green and blue
21315-427: Was readily visible in normal lighting conditions though the polymer used had 2 limitations; low conductivity and the difficulty of injecting electrons. Later development of conjugated polymers would allow others to largely eliminate these problems. His contribution has often been overlooked due to the secrecy NPL imposed on the project. When it was patented in 1974 it was given a deliberately obscure "catch all" name while
21462-571: Was the first intelligent LED display, and was a revolution in digital display technology, replacing the Nixie tube and becoming the basis for later LED displays. In the 1970s, commercially successful LED devices at less than five cents each were produced by Fairchild Optoelectronics. These devices employed compound semiconductor chips fabricated with the planar process (developed by Jean Hoerni , ). The combination of planar processing for chip fabrication and innovative packaging methods enabled
21609-484: Was the first organization to mass-produce visible LEDs, using Gallium arsenide phosphide (GaAsP) in 1968 to produce red LEDs suitable for indicators. Monsanto had previously offered to supply HP with GaAsP, but HP decided to grow its own GaAsP. In February 1969, Hewlett-Packard introduced the HP Model 5082-7000 Numeric Indicator, the first LED device to use integrated circuit (integrated LED circuit ) technology. It
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