Improved light out-coupling in organic light emitting diodes employing ordered microlens arrays

We demonstrate that ordered microlens arrays with 10 mum diam poly-dimethyl-siloxane lenses attached to glass substrates increase the light output of organic light emitting devices (OLED) by a factor of 1.5 over unlensed substrates. The lenses, which are considerably smaller than, and not aligned to the OLEDs, outcouple light that is emitted outside of the escape cone of the substrate. We show that an electrophosphorescent device based on a fac tris(2-phenylpyridine)Iridium (Ir(ppy)(3)) doped emitting layer has its external quantum efficiency increased from 9.5% using a flat glass substrate, to 14.5% at low current densities using a substrate with microlenses. No change in the emission spectrum is observed for different viewing angles using the lens arrays. (C) 2002 American Institute of Physics.