ORGANIC EL DISPLAY PANEL, AND METHOD FOR PRODUCING SAME

• US 20130099221A1
• Filed: 12/10/2012
• Published: 04/25/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 08/06/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: JDI Design and Development GK
• Original Assignee: Panasonic Corporation (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: NISHIYAMA, Seiji, KAWAMURA, Hiroshi
• Granted Patent: US 8,816,339 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 257/40
• CPC Class Codes: H05B 33/10 Apparatus or processes specially adapted to the manufacture of electroluminescent light sources
• CPC Class Codes: H10K 50/171 Electron injection layers
• CPC Class Codes: H10K 50/80 Constructional details
• CPC Class Codes: H10K 59/122 Pixel-defining structures or layers, e.g. banks
• CPC Class Codes: H10K 59/124 Insulating layers formed between TFT elements and OLED elements
• CPC Class Codes: H10K 59/35 comprising red-green-blue [RGB] subpixels
• CPC Class Codes: H10K 71/00 Manufacture or treatment specially adapted for the organic devices covered by this subclass
• CPC Class Codes: H10K 71/135 using ink-jet printing

Abstract

An organic EL display panel includes a substrate; an interlayer insulating layer on the substrate; first electrodes on the interlayer insulating layer to correspond to element formation regions in rows and columns; banks extending in columns to partition the regions in rows; organic light-emitting layers above the first electrodes, and each containing organic light-emitting material having light-emitting color differing between each two adjacent regions in rows; and second electrodes above the light-emitting layers, and being opposite in polarity to the first electrodes, wherein the interlayer insulating layer has first opening corresponding to interval between each two adjacent first electrodes in rows, the banks each have integrally formed buried part and main part, the buried part fills the interval and the first opening, and the main part is protrusion of the buried part and has recess on top thereof along with shapes of the interval and the first opening.

Claims

1. An organic EL display panel comprising:

a substrate;

an interlayer insulating layer that is provided on the substrate;

first electrodes that are provided on the interlayer insulating layer so as to correspond one-to-one to element formation regions arranged in rows and columns above the substrate;

banks that are provided extending in columns to partition the element formation regions arranged in rows;

organic light-emitting layers that are provided above the first electrodes in one-to-one correspondence, and each contain an organic light-emitting material having a light-emitting color differing between each two adjacent element formation regions arranged in rows; and

second electrodes that are provided above the organic light-emitting layers in one-to-one correspondence, and are opposite in polarity to the first electrodes, wherein

the interlayer insulating layer has a first opening that corresponds in position to an interval between each two adjacent first electrodes in rows,

the banks each have a buried part and a main part that are integrally formed, the buried part fills the interval and the first opening, and the main part is a protrusion of the buried part, and

the main part has, on a top thereof, a first recess along with respective shapes of the interval and the first opening.

2. The organic EL display panel of claim 1, wherein

the organic light-emitting layers each result from applying ink containing the organic light-emitting material to one of the element formation regions, and drying the applied ink.

3. The organic EL display panel of claim 1, wherein

the banks are arranged in parallel rows at predetermined intervals.

4. The organic EL display panel of claim 3, wherein

the first recesses are formed in columns.

5. The organic EL display panel of claim 1, further comprising

banks that are provided extending in rows to partition the element formation regions arranged in columns.

6. The organic EL display panel of claim 5, wherein

the interlayer insulating layer has further provided therein a second opening that corresponds in position to an interval between each two adjacent first electrodes in columns,

the banks extending in rows each have a buried part and a main part that are integrally formed, the buried part fills the interval in columns and the second opening, and the main part is a protrusion of the buried part, and

the main part has, on a top thereof, a second recess along with the respective shapes of the interval in columns and the second opening.

7. The organic EL display panel of claim 1, wherein

the first recess has higher lyophilicity than a surface of the main part.

8. The organic EL display panel of claim 6, wherein

the second recess has higher lyophilicity than a surface of the main part.

9. The organic EL display panel of claim 1, further comprising

one or more functional layers that are provided between the first electrodes and the organic light-emitting layers, wherein

the functional layers each include a charge injection transport layer for injecting or transporting charge, and

the charge injection transport layer directly contacts the first electrodes and covers the interval between each two adjacent first electrodes in rows and an inner periphery of each of the first openings.

10. The organic EL display panel of claim 1, further comprising

one or more functional layers that are provided between the first electrodes and the organic light-emitting layers, wherein

the functional layers each include a charge injection transport layer for injecting or transporting charge, and

the banks each contact the interval between each two adjacent first electrodes in rows and an inner periphery of each of the first openings.

11. The organic EL display panel of claim 1, wherein

the first recess has a depth equivalent to 10% to 100% of a length from an upper surface of the interlayer insulating layer to the top of the main part.

12. A method of manufacturing an organic EL display panel, comprising:

an interlayer insulating layer forming step of forming an interlayer insulating layer on a substrate;

a first electrode forming step of forming first electrodes on the interlayer insulating layer so as to correspond one-to-one to element formation regions arranged in rows and columns above the substrate;

a bank forming step of forming banks so as to extend in columns to partition the element formation regions arranged in rows;

an organic light-emitting layer forming step of forming organic light-emitting layers above the first electrodes in one-to-one correspondence, by applying inks that each contain an organic light-emitting materials and drying the applied inks; and

a second electrode forming step of forming second electrodes above the organic light-emitting layers in one-to-one correspondence so as to be opposite in polarity to the first electrodes, wherein

in the interlayer insulating layer forming step, the interlayer insulating layer is formed by a photoresist method so as to have provided therein a first opening that corresponds in position to an interval between each two adjacent first electrodes in rows,

in the organic light-emitting layer forming step, the organic light-emitting layers are formed so as to each contain an organic light-emitting material having a light-emitting color differing between each two adjacent element formation regions arranged in rows, and

in the bank forming step, the banks are each formed by filling a buried part in the interval and the first opening and forming a main part integrally with the buried part, and a first recess is formed by recessing a top of the main part along with respective shapes of the interval and the first opening.

13. The method of manufacturing the organic EL display panel of claim 12, wherein

after the bank forming step is performed, lyophilic processing is performed on the first recess so as to have a higher lyophilicity than a surface of the main part.

14. The method of manufacturing the organic EL display panel of claim 13, wherein

the lyophilic processing is performed by performing halftone exposure processing or ultraviolet irradiation processing.

15. The method of manufacturing the organic EL display panel of claim 12, further comprising

between the first electrode forming step and the bank forming step, a functional layer forming step of forming one or more functional layers over each of the first electrodes, wherein

in the functional layer forming step, a charge injection transport layer is provided as each of the functional layers so as to directly contact the first electrodes and cover the interval between each two adjacent first electrodes in rows and an inner periphery of each of the first openings.

16. A method of manufacturing an organic EL display panel, comprising:

an interlayer insulating layer forming step of forming an interlayer insulating layer on a substrate;

a first electrode forming step of forming first electrodes on the interlayer insulating layer so as to correspond one-to-one to element formation regions arranged in rows and columns above the substrate;

a bank forming step of forming banks so as to extend in columns to partition the element formation regions arranged in rows;

an organic light-emitting layer forming step of forming organic light-emitting layers above the first electrodes in one-to-one correspondence, by applying inks that each contain an organic light-emitting material and drying the applied inks; and

a second electrode forming step of forming second electrodes above the organic light-emitting layers in one-to-one correspondence so as to be opposite in polarity to the first electrodes, wherein

in the first electrode forming step, a metal film is formed so as to face the interlayer insulating layer, etching processing is performed on the metal film to pattern the first electrodes and cut part of the interlayer insulating layer corresponding in position to an interval between each two adjacent electrodes in rows to form a first opening,

in the organic light-emitting layer forming step, the organic light-emitting layers are formed so as to each contain an organic light-emitting material having a light-emitting color differing between each two adjacent element formation regions arranged in rows, and

in the bank forming step, the banks are each formed by filling a buried part in the interval and the first opening and forming a main part integrally with the buried part, and a first recess is formed by recessing a top of the main part along with respective shapes of the interval and the first opening.

17. The method of manufacturing the organic EL display panel of claim 16, wherein

after the bank forming step is performed, lyophilic processing is performed on the first recess so as to have a higher lyophilicity than a surface of the main part.

18. The method of manufacturing the organic EL display panel of claim 17, wherein

the lyophilic processing is performed by performing halftone exposure processing or ultraviolet irradiation processing.

19. The method of manufacturing the organic EL display panel of claim 16, further comprising

between the first electrode forming step and the bank forming step, a functional layer forming step of forming one or more functional layers so as to face each of the first electrodes, wherein

in the functional layer forming step, a charge injection transport layer is provided as each of the functional layers so as to directly contact the first electrodes and cover the interval between each two adjacent first electrodes in rows and an inner periphery of each of the first openings.