A study on full color organic light emitting diodes with blue common layer under the patterned emission layer

Color patterning steps for red, green, and blue emission layers (EMLs) are crucial for the production of full color organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs). The most common method to form individually patterned EMLs is to use a shadow mask as the key component for patterning. However, most pixel defects are caused by such kinds of patterning steps. Therefore, skipping certain color patterning steps could significantly improve the production yield during the fine metal masking process in the OLED fabrication. A representative example of such approach is the top blue common layer (TBCL) structure with a non-patterned BCL on top of both green and red EMLs. However, this structure could cause blue color mixing in green or red devices. To prevent this effect, we propose a newly devised bottom BCL (BBCL) structure with the BCL that is totally separated from both green and red EMLs. In particular, we utilized 1,4,5,8,9,11-hexaazatriphenylene-hexacarbonitrile interlayer (7 nm) between the underlying BCL and the hole injection layer to completely extinguish blue emission. As a result, both green and red devices with the BBCL structure showed relatively better efficiencies compared to those with the TBCL structure without any color mixing. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.