Water stable and matrix addressable OLED fiber textiles for wearable displays with large emission area

Abstract

Organic light-emitting diode (OLED) fibers with favorable electroluminescence properties and interconnectable pixel configurations have represented the potential for wearable electronic textile displays. Nevertheless, the current technology of OLED fiber-based textile displays still leaves to be desired due to several challenges, including limited emission area and lack of encapsulation systems. Here we present a fibrous OLED textile display that can attain a large emission area and long-term stability by implementing addressable networks comprised of integrated phosphorescence OLED fibers and by designing multilayer encapsulations. The integrated fiber configuration offers decoupled functional fiber surfaces for an interconnectable 1-dimensional OLED pixel array and a data-addressing conductor. Tailored triadic metal/ultrathin oxide/polymer multilayer enables not only the oxygen/water permeation inhibition but also the controllable conductive channels of dielectric antifuses. Together with reliable bending stability, the long-term operation of OLED textiles in water manifests the feasibility of the present device concept toward water-resistant full-emitting-area fibrous textile displays.

Anode‐Patterned Monorail‐Structure Fiber‐Based Organic Light‐Emitting Diodes with Long Lifetime and High Performance for Truly Wearable Displays

“…In addition, there is a limit to signal transmission between fibers due to contact resistance, and an unstable physical connection at the electrical connection between fibers. Therefore, to implement a fiber‐based wearable display, future research on structures and materials, such as forming a selective electrical channel while forming an encapsulation film using a dielectric antifuse structure, [ 43 ] is essential.…”

“…To solve the problem, considerable ingenious and breakthrough approaches have been reported, including applying a dip-coating method to coat uniform layers on the entire surface of the fiber, [36,37,42,44] modifying a thermal evaporator to rotate around a fiber axis for uniform deposition, [34,35] or fabricating OLEDs on a one-dimensional (1D) rectangular substrate. [40,41,43] However, despite some outstanding results, such as excellent electroluminescence (EL) performance, scalability, and addressability, [37,42] the dip coating method, which is a type of solution process, has limitations, including operating lifetime, due to difficulties in process impurity control. In contrast, although the rotational thermal evaporation method is advantageous in controlling impurities, device fabrication is difficult because it requires equipment modification, and EL performance needs to be improved.…”

“…[16] DOI: 10.1002/adom.202203130 Fiber-based light-emitting devices have already been implemented using various light-emitting technologies, including alternating-current electroluminescence (ACEL), [27,29] light-emitting electrochemical cells (LECs), [30,31] quantum dots (QDs), [32] inorganic light-emitting diodes (LEDs) [26,33] and organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs). [34,35,44,[36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43] Among them, OLEDs are a proven technology in commercialized products, with fast response time, low driving voltage, and high flexibility. However, unlike conventional flat substrates, it is difficult to fabricate OLEDs along the curved surface of a since the fiber is cylindrical.…”

“…In addition, despite the marvelous functionality, environmental durability, and addressability while being fully encapsulated, [ 40,41,43 ] the use of 1D rectangular substrates requires improvement of the cylindrical substrates and excellent deformation properties [ 42 ] before they can be employed in clothing, which requires bending at various angles.…”

Progresses and Perspectives of Near-Infrared Emission Materials with “Heavy Metal-Free” Organic Compounds for Electroluminescence

“…In 1987, the thin-film organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) which have high brightness and high electroluminescent efficiency at low driving voltage was launched by Tang and Vanslyke [ 1 ]. Since then, the applications of organic/polymer light emitting diodes (OLEDs/PLEDs) in solid-state lighting source and flat-panel displays have entered a new period [ 2 , 3 , 4 ]. After years of hard works, OLEDs/PLEDs have been used to achieve great breakthroughs, especially in the visible region (400–700 nm) [ 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 ].…”