Organic light emitting element and method of producing the same

• US 6,563,261 B1
• Filed: 04/13/2000
• Issued: 05/13/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 12/04/1996
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Inventors: Shimada, Akira, Kobayashi, Shinya, Nakayama, Takahiro
• Primary Examiner(s): Patel, Vip
• Assistant Examiner(s): Williams, Joseph
• Application Number:
  US09/548,681
• Time in Patent Office: 1,125 Days
• Field of Search: 313/504, 313/506, 313/501, 313/500, 313/498
• US Class Current: 313/504
• CPC Class Codes: H10K 50/11 characterised by the electroluminescent [EL] layers
• CPC Class Codes: H10K 50/841 Self-supporting sealing arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H10K 50/85 Arrangements for extracting light from the devices
• CPC Class Codes: H10K 50/852 comprising a resonant cavity structure, e.g. Bragg reflector pair
• CPC Class Codes: H10K 50/856 comprising reflective means
• CPC Class Codes: H10K 59/872 Containers
• CPC Class Codes: H10K 59/875 Arrangements for extracting light from the devices
• CPC Class Codes: H10K 59/876 comprising a resonant cavity structure, e.g. Bragg reflector pair
• CPC Class Codes: H10K 59/878 comprising reflective means
• CPC Class Codes: H10K 85/324 comprising aluminium, e.g. Alq3
• CPC Class Codes: H10K 85/631 Amine compounds having at least two aryl rest on at least one amine-nitrogen atom, e.g. triphenylamine

Abstract

An organic light emitting element, having a metal thin film on an upper surface of an organic thin film, is produced by mechanically cutting the metal thin film, using the cut metal thin film as a mask, and applying dry etching processing to the whole of the organic thin film and to a part of each of the thin films on the upper and lower surfaces of the organic thin film.

Claims

1. An organic light emitting element including:

an organic thin film formed on a substrate, said organic thin film being a light emitting organic thin film; and

a pair of electrodes sandwiching said organic thin film therebetween, at least one of said pair of electrodes being a transparent electrode;

wherein a peripheral side surface of said organic thin film has a sectional shape such that emitted light is reflected by said side surface, said peripheral side surface of said organic thin film being in a range of about 40%-90% of a thickness of said organic thin film in a direction perpendicular to a surface of said substrate.

2. An organic light emitting element according to claim 1, wherein an ambient substance is disposed outside of said organic thin film.

3. An organic light emitting element according to claim 2, wherein the difference between a refraction index of said organic thin film and a refraction index of said ambient substance is set such that emitted light is confined in said organic thin film by said peripheral side surface of said organic thin film.

4. An organic light emitting element according to claim 1, wherein a reflecting film is disposed outside of said peripheral side surface of said organic thin film.

5. An organic light emitting element including an organic thin film formed on a substrate, wherein a peripheral side surface of said organic thin film has a sectional shape such that emitted light is reflected by said side surface, and further including a transparent film, said organic thin film functioning as a light emitting layer, and a metal electrode, which are layered on said substrate, said transparent film and said metal electrode being arranged on opposite surfaces of said organic thin film, wherein a plurality of layer parts, each of said layer parts including said light emitting layer and said metal electrode, are separately arranged in a plane parallel to said substrate, respectively, and a distance between two parts neighboring each other in said parts is larger than ¼

of a wavelength of light emitted in said light emitting element.

6. An organic light emitting element according to claim 5, further including:

a translucent reflector made of one of a laminated dielectric film and a translucent metal film, formed at one side of an organic light emitting film, and an optical resonator being composed between said reflector and an upper electrode on said organic light emitting film in a direction perpendicular to said organic light emitting film.

7. An organic light emitting element according to claim 5, further including:

a translucent reflector made of one of a laminated dielectric film and a translucent metal film, formed at one side of an organic light emitting film, an optical resonator being composed between said reflector and an upper electrode on said organic light emitting film in a direction perpendicular to said organic light emitting film;

wherein the difference between a refraction index of said organic light emitting film and a refraction index of an ambient substance outside said organic light film is set such that emitted light is confined in said organic light emitting film by said peripheral side surface of said organic light emitting film.

8. An organic light emitting element according to claim 5, further including:

a translucent reflector, made of one of a laminated dielectric film and a translucent metal film, formed at one side of an organic light emitting film, an optical resonator being composed between said reflector and an upper electrode formed on said organic light emitting film in a direction perpendicular to said organic light emitting film;

wherein said peripheral side surface of said organic light emitting film stands perpendicular to said translucent reflector.

9. An organic light emitting element according to claim 8, wherein said peripheral side surface of said organic light emitting film is in a range of 50%-90% of the thickness of said organic light emitting film.

10. An organic light emitting element according to claim 5, further including:

a translucent reflector film made of one of a laminated dielectric film and a translucent metal film;

wherein an optical resonator is composed between said translucent reflector film and said metal electrode formed on said light emitting layer in a direction perpendicular to said organic light emitting layer, and a peripheral side surface of a layer part composed of said light emitting layer and said metal electrode stands perpendicular to the plane of said light emitting element.

11. An organic light emitting element according to claim 10, wherein said peripheral side surface of said layer part is in a range of 50%-90% of the total thickness of said layer part.

12. An organic light emitting element according to claim 5, further including:

a translucent reflector film made of one of a laminated dielectric film and a translucent metal film;

wherein an optical resonator is composed between said translucent reflector film and said metal electrode on said light emitting layer in a direction perpendicular to said organic light emitting layer, and a plurality of layer parts, each including said light emitting layer and said metal electrode, are separately arranged in a plane parallel to the plane of said multilayer structure, respectively.