Elucidation on Joule heating and its consequences on the performance of organic light emitting diodes

Current work presents a quantitative analysis of Joule heating by temperature measurements using infrared thermography and heat estimation of organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs) and their correlation with device life time. These temperature measurements were performed at 10, 20, 30, 40, and 50 mA/cm(2) current densities and studied with operational time. The temperature rise of the device has increased from 9.8 to 16.6 degrees C within 168 h at an operating current density of 40 mA/cm(2). This has been ascribed as due to the external contamination by water, oxygen, and dust particles as well as by internal heat generation. Encapsulation of the device avoids external degradation of OLEDs by preventing the destruction caused by these external contaminations. In this way, encapsulation has led to the decreased temperature rise of 12.4 degrees C within the duration of 168 h, which reflects the improved stability of the device. The temperature measured has been used to calculate the heat generated inside the device by solving the heat conduction equation using a transverse matrix approach. It has been found by these calculations that about 97%-98% of the power supplied to the device are converted into the heat for un-encapsulated device and results in rapid degradation of device with time, which in turns leads to the increase in operating voltage and decrease in luminous intensity with operational time. Proper encapsulation has reduced the heat generated inside the device by about 3%-4%, thereby, increasing the life time of the device. However, the glass encapsulation reduces the possibilities of the device cooling by heat convection to the atmosphere and prohibited the maximum utilization of encapsulation. (C) 2014 AIP Publishing LLC.