Status of red, green and blue light emitting polymers for passive matrix displays

An overview of the requirements for full color passive matrix displays and their implications for the light emitting materials will be presented. Using the performance of light emitting polymers tested in Philips devices the status of the light emitting polymers is reviewed. It will be shown that the performance of light emitting polymers is at the edge of being acceptable for practical applications. Red and green light emitting polymers can already be used for certain monochrome applications. However, for the high-resolution displays used in mobile telecom applications the efficacy for red and the lifetime for green are still somewhat low. Optimization routes for further improvement in terms of efficacies and lifetimes for red and green are identified. The peformance of blue light emitting polymers has rapidly improved over the last year, but the lifetime is still too short for full color applications. Improvement routes for the blue light emitting polymers and its device structure are outlined.