Organic opto-electronic devices

• US 6,316,786 B1
• Filed: 08/04/1999
• Issued: 11/13/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 08/29/1998
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: InnoLux Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Vestweber, Horst, Riel, Heike E., Mueller, Peter, Riess, Walter
• Primary Examiner(s): Lee, Eddie C.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Wilson, Allan R.
• Application Number:
  US09/368,153
• Time in Patent Office: 832 Days
• Field of Search: 257/40, 257/685, 257/686, 257/778, 428/690
• US Class Current: 257/40
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 2224/81141 Guiding structures both on and outside the body
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 2924/00 Indexing scheme for arrangements or methods for connecting or disconnecting semiconductor or solid-state bodies as covered by H01L24/00
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 2924/12044 OLED
• CPC Class Codes: H10K 19/901 Assemblies of multiple devices comprising at least one organic element specially adapted for rectifying, amplifying, oscillating or switching
• CPC Class Codes: H10K 2102/351 Thickness
• CPC Class Codes: H10K 50/11 characterised by the electroluminescent [EL] layers
• CPC Class Codes: H10K 50/805 Electrodes
• CPC Class Codes: H10K 50/8428 Vertical spacers, e.g. arranged between the sealing arrangement and the OLED
• CPC Class Codes: H10K 59/00 Integrated devices, or assemblies of multiple devices, comprising at least one organic light-emitting element covered by group H10K50/00
• CPC Class Codes: H10K 59/35 comprising red-green-blue [RGB] subpixels
• CPC Class Codes: H10K 59/805 Electrodes
• CPC Class Codes: H10K 59/8723 Vertical spacers, e.g. arranged between the sealing arrangement and the OLED
• CPC Class Codes: H10K 71/50 Forming devices by joining two substrates together, e.g. lamination techniques
• CPC Class Codes: H10K 85/324 comprising aluminium, e.g. Alq3

Abstract

The present invention pertains to new flip-chip organic opto-electronic structures and methods for making the same. The new organic opto-electronic device includes at least two separate parts. Each part comprises an electrode and at least one of these electrodes carries an organic stack. After completion of these separate parts both are brought together to form the complete opto-electronic device. It is a crucial aspect of the new flip-chip approach that spacers are integrated on one or both sides of the parts and that an interface formation process is employed.

Claims

1. An organic opto-electronic device comprising:

a first flip-chip part with a first electrode of thickness D1 formed on a first substrate;

a second flip-chip part with a second electrode formed on a second substrate and carrying an organic stack, the thickness of the second electrode and the organic stack being D2; and

non-conductive spacers of thickness D, with D=k(D1+D2) and 0.5≦

k<

1;

wherein the first flip-chip part and the second flip-chip part are flipped together such that the organic stack is sandwiched between the first electrode and the second electrode, a minimum distance D is kept between the two substrates by the spacers, and a stabilized interface is formed between the first flip-chip part and the second flip-chip part.

2. The organic opto-electronic device of claim 1, wherein the parameter k is not less than 0.9 and not greater than 0.98.

3. The organic opto-electronic device of claim 1, wherein the first and second substrates comprise different materials.

4. The organic opto-electronic device of claim 1, wherein the spacers are integrated on one of the two substrates.

5. The organic opto-electronic device of claim 1, wherein part of the spacers are integrated on the first substrate and corresponding parts are integrated on the second substrate.

6. The organic opto-electronic device of claim 1, wherein the first substrate is semitransparent or transparent.

7. The organic opto-electronic device of claim 1, wherein the second substrate is semitransparent or transparent.

8. The organic opto-electronic device of claim 1, wherein the first electrode comprises a metal.

9. The organic opto-electronic device of claim 8, wherein the metal is a low-workfunction elemental metal or a low-workfunction alloy.

10. The organic opto-electronic device of claim 8, wherein the metal is a metal selected from a group consisting of Mg, Ca, Li, Al, Mg/Ag, Al/Li, and any combination thereof.

11. The organic opto-electronic device of claim 1, wherein the first electrode comprises more than one layer.

12. The organic opto-electronic device of claim 1, wherein the organic stack comprises an electroluminescent layer in which light is generated if a voltage is applied between the first electrode and the second electrode.

13. The organic opto-electronic device of claim 12, wherein the first electrode comprises a metal-compound electrode.

14. The organic opto-electronic device of claim 12, wherein the first electrode comprises a non-degenerate, wide-bandgap semiconductor.

15. The organic opto-electronic device of claim 12, wherein the organic stack comprises from the second substrate up the second electrode, a first charge transport layer, and the electroluminsecent layer.

16. The organic opto-electronic device of claim 12, wherein the organic stack further comprises a second charge transport layer on the electroluminsecent layer.

17. The organic opto-electronic device of claim 12, wherein the first electrode or the second electrode comprises ITO or high workfunction metals.

18. The organic opto-electronic device of claim 1, wherein the spacers comprises silicon nitride, or SiN_x, or SiO_x, or SiO₂, or Siliconoxynitride (SiON), or organic compounds, or aluminiumoxide, or aluminiumnitride, or titaniumoxide.

19. The organic opto-electronic device of claim 1, wherein the spacers are formed separately from the two substrates and placed between these two substrates when flipping them together.

20. The organic opto-electronic device of claim 19, wherein a mesh of thickness D serves as spacers.

21. The organic opto-electronic device of claim 1, wherein the first substrate comprises at least one of the group of an active and a passive device.

22. The organic opto-electronic device of claim 1, comprising several organic light emitting devices each having an organic stack and a corresponding first electrode.

23. The organic opto-electronic device of claim 1, wherein the stabilized interface is an interface within the organic stack which is uniform, or homogeneous, or interlinked.

24. A display having an organic light emitting device and means for driving the organic light emitting device, the organic light emitting device comprising a first flip-chip part with a first electrode of thickness D1 formed on a first substance, and a second flip-chip part with a second electrode formed on a second substrate and carrying an organic stack, the thickness of the second electrode and the organic stack being D2 and the organic stack including an electroluminescent layer (EL) in which light is generated if a voltage is applied between the first electrode and the second electrode, the organic light emitting device further including non-conductive spacers of thickness D, with D=k(D1+D2) and 0.5≦

k<

1, the first flip-chip part and the second flip-chip part being flipped together such that the organic stack is sandwiched between the first electrode and the second electrode, a minimum distance D being kept between the two substrates by the spacers, a stabilized interface being formed between the first flip-chip part and the second flip-chip part, and the driving means comprising means for applying the voltage between the first electrode and the second electrode.