RECENT ADVANCES

Universal Display is actively engaged in research and development to bring exciting FOLED™ technology to market. Supported, in part, by funding from the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD), we demonstrated the world’s first high-resolution AMOLED built on flexible metal foil using amorphous-Silicon (a-Si) backplane technology several years ago at the 2007 Society for Information Display Conference and Symposium in Long Beach, California.  Since then, through our continued collaborations with LG Display and L-3 Communications Display Systems, we have made steady advances in this technology platform.  Described below, our most recent flexible metal foil prototypes, with their extremely thin, lightweight and rugged form factor, demonstrate the potential of this exciting technology platform. View a video.

FOLED Display Format
Featuring crisp, full-color video images, this 4.3” HVGA display combines LG Display's innovative a-Si backplane technology — adapted to metal foil — with Universal Display’s proprietary high-efficiency UniversalPHOLED® and FOLED® flexible technologies. The display prototype is a portrait-configured, 134 ppi full-color AMOLED display.

Flexible Substrates
A variety of flexible polymeric materials have been evaluated for FOLED use; however, the development of barrier coatings for these substrates and better film properties, such as thermal stability (for the fabrication of high-temperature TFTs), are still required. To enable an alternative, Universal Display has been a leader in developing FOLEDs on flexible metallic foil. Metallic foil features excellent barrier properties, good thermal/ dimensional stability for TFT backplane integration, and cost-effectiveness. The ultra-thin display described here was built on 76 micron thick metal foil (0.076 mm).

FOLED Packaging and Encapsulation
Glass-based OLEDs are conventionally protected from the effects of water and oxygen with a glass lid and ultraviolet-cured epoxy resin. Flexible OLED packaging is much more challenging, however, especially where conformability or flexibility is key. Universal Display is working on approaches that may provide the necessary protective properties.