Fully 3D-printed, flexible OLED display
Technology opens door to ubiquitous, more easily fabricated electronic
screens

Date:
January 7, 2022
Source:
University of Minnesota
Summary:
Researchers used a customized printer to fully 3D print a flexible
organic light-emitting diode (OLED) display. The discovery could
result in low-cost OLED displays in the future that could be
widely produced using 3D printers by anyone at home, instead of
by technicians in expensive microfabrication facilities.



FULL STORY ==========================================================================
In a groundbreaking new study, researchers at the University of Minnesota
Twin Cities used a customized printer to fully 3D print a flexible organic light- emitting diode (OLED) display. The discovery could result in
low-cost OLED displays in the future that could be widely produced using
3D printers by anyone at home, instead of by technicians in expensive microfabrication facilities.


==========================================================================
The OLED display technology is based on the conversion of electricity
into light using an organic material layer. OLEDs function as high
quality digital displays, which can be made flexible and used in both large-scale devices such as television screens and monitors as well as
handheld electronics such as smartphones. OLED displays have gained
popularity because they are lightweight, power-efficient, thin and
flexible, and offer a wide viewing angle and high contrast ratio.

"OLED displays are usually produced in big, expensive, ultra-clean
fabrication facilities," said Michael McAlpine, a University of Minnesota Kuhrmeyer Family Chair Professor in the Department of Mechanical
Engineering and the senior author of the study. "We wanted to see if we
could basically condense all of that down and print an OLED display on
our table-top 3D printer, which was custom built and costs about the same
as a Tesla Model S." The group had previously tried 3D printing OLED
displays, but they struggled with the uniformity of the light-emitting
layers. Other groups partially printed displays but also relied on
spin-coating or thermal evaporation to deposit certain components and
create functional devices.

In this new study, the University of Minnesota research team combined
two different modes of printing to print the six device layers that
resulted in a fully 3D-printed, flexible organic light-emitting diode
display. The electrodes, interconnects, insulation, and encapsulation
were all extrusion printed, while the active layers were spray printed
using the same 3D printer at room temperature. The display prototype was
about 1.5 inches on each side and had 64 pixels. Every pixel worked and displayed light.

"I thought I would get something, but maybe not a fully working display,"
said Ruitao Su, the first author of the study and a 2020 University of Minnesota mechanical engineering Ph.D. graduate who is now a postdoctoral researcher at MIT. "But then it turns out all the pixels were working, and
I can display the text I designed. My first reaction was 'It is real!' I
was not able to sleep, the whole night." Su said the 3D-printed display
was also flexible and could be packaged in an encapsulating material,
which could make it useful for a wide variety of applications.



==========================================================================
"The device exhibited a relatively stable emission over the 2,000 bending cycles, suggesting that fully 3D printed OLEDs can potentially be used for important applications in soft electronics and wearable devices," Su said.

The researchers said the next steps are to 3D print OLED displays that
are higher resolution with improved brightness.

"The nice part about our research is that the manufacturing is all
built in, so we're not talking 20 years out with some 'pie in the sky'
vision," McAlpine said. "This is something that we actually manufactured
in the lab, and it is not hard to imagine that you could translate this
to printing all kinds of displays ourselves at home or on the go within
just a few years, on a small portable printer." In addition to McAlpine
and Su, the research team included University of Minnesota mechanical engineering researchers Xia Ouyang, a postdoctoral researcher; Sung Hyun
Park, who is now a senior researcher at Korea Institute of Industrial Technology; and Song Ih Ahn, who is now an assistant professor of
mechanical engineering at Pusan National University in Korea.

Video: https://youtu.be/k7KV_lOIp8o The research was funded primarily
by the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering of
the National Institutes of Health (Award No.

1DP2EB020537) with additional support from The Boeing Company and the
Minnesota Discovery, Research, and InnoVation Economy (MnDRIVE) Initiative through the State of Minnesota. Portions of this study were conducted
in the Minnesota Nano Center, which is supported by the National Science Foundation through the National Nano Coordinated Infrastructure Network
(NNCI).

========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by University_of_Minnesota. Note:
Content may be edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Ruitao Su, Sung Hyun Park, Xia Ouyang, Song Ih Ahn, Michael
C. McAlpine.

3D-printed flexible organic light-emitting diode displays. Science
Advances, 2022; 8 (1) DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abl8798 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/01/220107164610.htm
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