Full Color Top Emission AMOLED Displays on Flexible Metal Foil

Advanced mobile communication devices require a bright, high information content display in a small, light-weight, low power consumption package. For portable applications flexible (or conformable) and rugged displays will be the future. In this paper we outline our progress towards developing such a low power consumption active-matrix flexible OLED $(FOLED^{TM})$ display. We demonstrate full color 100 ppi QVGA active matrix OLED displays on flexible stainless steel substrates. Our work in this area is focused on integrating three critical enabling technologies. The first technology component is based on UDC's high efficiency long-lived phosphorescent OLED $(PHOLED^{TM})$ device technology, which has now been commercially demonstrated as meeting the low power consumption performance requirements for mobile display applications. Secondly, is the development of flexible active-matrix backplanes, and for this our team are employing PARC's Excimer Laser Annealed (ELA) poly-Si TFTs formed on metal foil substrates as this approach represents an attractive alternative to fabricating poly-Si TFTs on plastic for the realization of first generation flexible active matrix OLED displays. Unlike most plastics, metal foil substrates can withstand a large thermal load and do not require a moisture and oxygen permeation barrier. Thirdly, the key to reliable operation is to ensure that the organic materials are fully encapsulated in a package designed for repetitive flexing, and in this device we employ a multilayer thin film Barix encapsulation technology in collaboration with Vitex systems. Drive electronics and mechanical packaging are provided by L3 Displays.