High barrier properties of transparent thin-film encapsulations for top emission organic light-emitting diodes

Abstract This paper reported a low-temperature thin film encapsulation (TFE) process based on atomic layer deposition Al 2 O 3 layer for top-emission organic light-emitting devices (TE-OLEDs). The barrier characteristics of both H 2 O-based and O 3 -based Al 2 O 3 films were investigated. O 3 -based Al 2 O 3 TFE showed lower water vapor transmission rate (WVTR) of 8.7 × 10 −6  g/m 2 day and longer continuous operation lifetime of 5 folds compared to the device with H 2 O-based Al 2 O 3 TFE under identical environmental and driving conditions. Furthermore, the extraction of emitting light of the devices with barrier layer was enhanced compared to the bared one. The theory simulation data were consistent with our experimental results and showed the potential for the design of TFE structures optimized for enhancing light transmission.