Title: |
Multilayer barrier films comprising nitrogen spacers between free-standing barrier films |
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Speaker: |
Mr. Jimmy Granstrom |
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Affiliation: |
University of California Santa Barbara |
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When: |
Monday, December 7, 2009 at 11:00:00 AM |
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Where: |
MRDC Building, Room 4211 |
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Host: |
Dr. Samuel Graham | |
Abstract As flexible organic electronic devices become more realistic as a consumer device, the need for low-cost, high performance encapsulations has risen sharply. The organic active components of organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) and organic photovoltaic (OPV) devices readily deteriorate with minimal exposure to the atmosphere, resulting in the rapid degradation of device performance.1 The air sensitivity of organic electronic devices has delayed the broad commercialization of the printed “plastic” electronics technology. We have recently demonstrated an encapsulation architecture for organic electronic devices utilizing nitrogen gas-phase spacers between free-standing barrier films.2 The nitrogen spacers act as sinks for permeating H2O and O2, delaying establishment of steady-state chemical potential gradients across the barriers and thereby reducing permeation rates. A Russian Doll encapsulation architecture utilizing pairs of free-standing barrier films and epoxy seals separated by nitrogen spacers will also be presented, enabling the use of low-cost epoxy to attach two or more free-standing barrier films to a substrate with improved barrier performance. The performance of various Russian Doll encapsulations was evaluated with the calcium thin film optical transmission test, showing improved performance of the Russian doll configuration relative to a non-nested barrier/spacer architecture, and demonstrating that water vapor transmission rates of 0.0021 g/(m2, day) or below can be achieved with low-cost materials in this architecture. These Ca lifetimes correlate with predicted device lifetimes of at least 10 years for inverted OPV modules fabricated and tested by Konarka Technologies (Lowell, MA) |
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Biography Jimmy Granstrom earned his Masters of Science in Chemical Engineering (major: Polymer Technology) at Kungliga Tekniska Hogskolan (Royal Institute of Technology) in Stockholm, Sweden in December 2004. He was a research contractor at Bell Laboratories (supervisor: Howard Katz) in Murray Hill, New Jersey, between November 2003 to June 2005. At Bell Labs, Jimmy made significant contributions to the development of the first fiber transistor and the first oscillator circuit produced with mass printing technologies (in collaboration with BASF and Chemnitz Printing Institute in Germany). Jimmy is currently a Ph. D Candidate at the University of California Santa Barbara (UCSB) where he is working on the development of low cost encapsulation for Prof. Alan J. Heeger (Nobel Laureate in Chemistry 2000). |