Organic light-emitting diode (OLED) technology: materials, devices and display technologies

Since the breakthrough by Kodak in 1987, organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) have been seen as one of the most promising technologies for future displays. A number of materials have been developed and improved in order to fulfil the requirements of this application. The materials differ from one another by their structure but also by the mechanism involved in the electroluminescence produced (fluorescence versus phosphorescence). When properly stacked, these materials result in a device that can achieve the required high efficiency and long lifetime. Such red, green and blue devices can then be combined in matrices to become the core of a display. Building up these structures onto a display backplane is one of the challenges facing the industry. The circuitry for driving the pixels can be adapted to the OLED, sometimes at the expense of the simplicity of the display, but bearing in mind that the fabrication process must remain industrially viable. (c) 2006 Society of Chemical Industry.