Trap-level-engineered common red layer for fabricating red, green, and blue subpixels of full-color organic light-emitting diode displays

We report a novel strategy to reduce one fine metal mask (FMM) step in a full-color organic light-emitting diode (OLED) display by introducing a common red layer (CRL) which replaces a hole transporting layer (HTL) with the same thickness of a red phosphorescent dye-doped layer. Because the dopant in the HTL acts as a hole trap, careful trap-level engineering is required for achieving efficient green and blue emission from the emitting layer while minimizing the red emission from the CRL. We investigated the characteristics of OLEDs depending on hole trap levels of the CRL with five different organic HTLs, and demonstrated efficient red, green and blue (RGB) emitting devices using the CRL. The electroluminescence spectrum of the devices with the CRL is nearly identical with those of the devices without the CRL. These results open up the possibility of simplified fabrication of practical full-color OLED displays with the reduced FMM steps, resulting in lower manufacturing cost. (C)2015 Optical Society of America