CONDUCTIVE SUPPORT FOR AN OLED DEVICE, AND OLED DEVICE INCORPORATING THE SAME

• US 20150311470A1
• Filed: 12/10/2013
• Published: 10/29/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 12/13/2012
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Saint-Gobain Glass France (Compagnie De Saint-Gobain)
• Original Assignee: Saint-Gobain Glass France (Compagnie De Saint-Gobain)
• Inventors: GUIMARD, Denis, LELARGE, Anne
• Application Number:
  US14/651,795
• Publication Number:
  US 20150311470A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: C03C 17/36 at least one coating being a metal
• CPC Class Codes: C03C 17/3639 Multilayers containing at least two functional metal layers
• CPC Class Codes: C03C 17/3644 the metal being silver
• CPC Class Codes: C03C 17/3655 the multilayer coating containing at least one conducting layer
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 31/022466 made of transparent conductive layers, e.g. TCO, ITO layers
• CPC Class Codes: H10K 2102/102 comprising tin oxides, e.g. fluorine-doped SnO2
• CPC Class Codes: H10K 2102/103 comprising indium oxides, e.g. ITO
• CPC Class Codes: H10K 2102/351 Thickness
• CPC Class Codes: H10K 50/816 Multilayers, e.g. transparent multilayers
• CPC Class Codes: H10K 71/00 Manufacture or treatment specially adapted for the organic devices covered by this subclass
• CPC Class Codes: H10K 71/831 Aging

Abstract

A conductive support for an OLED, includes a dielectric sublayer, with an optical thickness L1 of greater than 20 nm and less than 180 nm, including a first crystalline contact layer based on zinc oxide, a first silver layer of less than 20 nm, a dielectric separating layer, with an optical thickness L2 of greater than 80 nm and less than 280 nm, including in this order a layer of zinc oxide with a thickness e₂, directly on the first silver layer, an optional amorphous layer, based on tin zinc or indium zinc or indium zinc tin oxide with a thickness e_i of less than 15 nm, a second layer of zinc oxide, with a thickness e_c2, the sum of e_c2+e₂ being at least 30 nm, a second silver layer of less than 20 nm, a metal overblocker of less than 3 nm, a dielectric electrically conductive overlayer.

Claims

1. A conductive support for an organic light-emitting diode (OLED) device, comprising a transparent glass substrate bearing, on a first main face, a transparent electrode, which comprises the following stack of thin layers in this order:

a dielectric sublayer with a first optical thickness of greater than 20 nm and less than 180 nm, comprising

a first crystalline contact layer based on zinc oxide, and

a first metal layer, based on silver, with a thickness of less than 20 nm,

a dielectric separating layer, with a second optical thickness of greater than 80 nm and less than 280 nm, comprising, in this order

an additional crystalline layer based on zinc oxide with a thickness e₂, directly on the first metal layer based on silver,

an optional amorphous intermediate layer based on tin zinc oxide or based on indium zinc oxide or based on indium zinc tin oxide, with a thickness e_i of less than 15 nm,

a second crystalline contact layer based on zinc oxide, with a thickness e_c2, the sum of the thicknesses e_c2+e₂ being at least 30 nm,

a second metal layer, based on silver, with a thickness of less than 20 nm,

an overblocker layer, directly on the second metal layer based on silver, which comprises a metal layer based on at least one of the following metals;

Ti, V, Mn, Fe, Co, Cu, Zn, Zr, Hf, Al, Nb, Ni, Cr, Mo, Ta, W, with a thickness of less than 3 nm, and

an electrically conductive overlayer directly on the overblocker layer.

2. The conductive support (1) as claimed in claim 1, wherein at least 60% of the thickness of the dielectric separating layer is formed from the thickness e₂ and/or e₂ is greater than or equal to 35 nm and the amorphous intermediate layer is present.

3. The conductive support as claimed in claim 1, wherein the additional crystalline layer consists essentially of zinc oxide doped with aluminum and/or gallium and wherein the second crystalline contact layer consists essentially of zinc oxide doped with aluminum and/or gallium with a thickness e_c2 of less than or equal to 10 nm.

4. The conductive support as claimed in claim 1, wherein the dielectric sublayer comprises, under the first crystalline contact layer, first sublayer, chosen from at least one of the following layers:

a layer based on tin zinc oxide,

a layer based on titanium oxide, optionally containing zirconium,

a layer based on niobium oxide.

5. The conductive support as claimed in claim 1, wherein the dielectric sublayer comprises, under the first crystalline contact layer, a first sublayer of oxide, which is preferably amorphous, and the first sublayer is subjacent to a barrier layer, which is in contact with the first sublayer and is directly under the first crystalline contact layer, the barrier layer being based on silicon nitride and optionally on zirconium or based on silica or alternatively based on aluminum nitride, the barrier layer having a thickness of less than 15 nm.

6. The conductive support as claimed in claim 1, wherein a layer based on silicon nitride and optionally on zirconium is the first thin layer of the dielectric sublayer, optionally directly on the transparent substrate, and has a thickness of greater than 20 nm.

7. The conductive support as claimed in claim 1, wherein the dielectric separating layer successively comprises, in sequence, the additional crystalline layer consisting essentially of zinc oxide, the optional amorphous intermediate layer consisting essentially of tin zinc oxide which is optionally doped, with a thickness e_i of less than or equal to 8 nm, the second crystalline contact layer which consists essentially of zinc oxide which is doped, and the sum e_c2+e₂ being at least 50 nm, and a roughness R_q of the transparent electrode is less than 1.5 nm.

8. The conductive support as claimed in claim 1, comprising said optional amorphous intermediate layer, wherein one or more other amorphous layers each of thickness e_Li less than 15 nm divide the additional crystalline layer into several buffer layers, each other amorphous layer being based on the same oxide as that of the optional amorphous intermediate layer.

9. The conductive support as claimed in claim 1, wherein the dielectric separating layer is a crystalline monolayer and consists essentially of zinc oxide, e₂ being at least 50 nm, and a roughness R_q of the transparent electrode is less than 1.5 nm.

10. The conductive support as claimed in claim 1, wherein the electrically conductive overlayer comprises, as the last layer, a layer based on at least one of the following metal oxides, optionally doped:

indium tin oxide, indium zinc oxide, molybdenum oxide, tungsten oxide, vanadium oxide.

11. The conductive support as claimed in claim 1, wherein the overblocker layer, which comprises a metal layer, is based on at least one of the following metals:

Ti, Nb, Ni, Cr, Ta, and/or based on an alloy with at least two of said metals.

12. The conductive support as claimed in claim 1, wherein the stack comprises, one of the following stacks:

first amorphous sublayer SnZnO/barrier layer/first contact layer AZO or (A)GZO/Ag/additional crystalline layer AZO or (A)GZO (/amorphous intermediate layer SnZnO/) second contact layer AZO or (A)GZO/Ag/overblocker/overlayer, or

or first amorphous sublayer of titanium oxide/barrier layer/first contact layer AZO or (A)GZO/Ag/additional crystalline layer AZO or (A)GZO (/amorphous intermediate layer SnZnO)/second contact layer AZO or (A)GZO/Ag/overblocker/overlayer, or

or first sublayer of niobium oxide (/barrier layer)/first contact layer AZO or (A)GZO/Ag/additional crystalline layer AZO or (A)GZO (/amorphous intermediate layer SnZnO)/second contact layer AZO or (A)GZO/Ag/overblocker/overlayer, or

or first sublayer Si(Zr)N/(amorphous layer SnZnO less than 10 nm)/first contact layer AZO or (A)GZO/Ag/additional crystalline layer AZO or (A)GZO/amorphous intermediate layer SnZnO/second contact layer AZO or (A)GZO/Ag/overblocker/overlayer, preferably ITO,

and wherein a roughness R_q of the transparent electrode is less than 1 nm.

13. The conductive support as claimed in claim 1, wherein the stack comprises one of the following stacks:

first amorphous sublayer SnZnO or of titanium oxide/barrier layer/first contact layer AZO or GZO/Ag/crystalline separating layer AZO or GZO/Ag/titanium overblocker/overlayer,

first sublayer Si(Zr)N/(amorphous layer SnZnO less than 10 nm)/Ag/crystalline separating layer AZO or GZO/Ag/titanium overblocker/overlayer.

14. The conductive support as claimed in claim 1, wherein the stack has a difference in absolute value of R□

_4p-R□

_elm of less than 0.7×

R□

_elm, with R□

_elm being the resistance per square measured via an electromagnetic contactless method and R□

_4p being the resistance per square measured via the 4-point method.

16. An organic light-emitting diode (OLED) device comprising the conductive support as claimed in claim 1.

15. A process for manufacturing a conductive support for an organic light-emitting diode (OLED) device, comprising a transparent glass substrate bearing, on a first main face, a transparent electrode, the process comprising:

depositing over the first main face a dielectric sublayer with a first optical thickness of greater than 20 nm and less than 180 nm, comprising

a first crystalline contact layer based on zinc oxide, and

a first metal layer, based on silver, with a thickness of less than 20 nm,

depositing a dielectric separating layer, with a second optical thickness of greater than 80 nm and less than 280 nm, comprising, in this order

an additional crystalline layer based on zinc oxide, with a thickness e₂, directly on the first metal layer based on silver,

an optional amorphous intermediate layer based on tin zinc oxide or based on indium zinc oxide or based on indium zinc tin oxide, with a thickness e_i of less than 15 nm,

a second crystalline contact layer based on zinc oxide, with a thickness e_c2, the sum of the thicknesses e_c2+e₂ being at least 30 nm,

depositing a second metal layer, based on silver, with a thickness of less than 20 nm, depositing an overblocker layer, directly on the second metal layer based on silver, which comprises a metal layer based on at least one of the following metals;

Ti, V, Mn, Fe, Co, Cu, Zn, Zr, Hf, Al, Nb, Ni, Cr, Mo, Ta, W, with a thickness of less than 3 nm, and depositing an electrically conductive overlayer directly on the overblocker layer, wherein the additional layer deposited on the first silver metal layer based on silver is made of zinc oxide and is prepared by cathodic sputtering using a ceramic target of zinc oxide, with, during the deposition, an oxygen content of greater than or equal to 0% and less than 10% and a content of noble gas(es) of at least 90%,

wherein when the second crystalline contact layer is above the optional amorphous intermediate layer, the second crystalline contact layer is made of zinc oxide and is prepared by cathodic sputtering using a ceramic target of zinc oxide, with, during the deposition, an oxygen content of greater than or equal to 0% and less than 10% and a content of noble gas(es) of at least 90%,

wherein the first contact layer is prepared by cathodic sputtering using a ceramic target of zinc oxide, with, during the deposition, an oxygen content of greater than or equal to 0% and less than 10% and a content of noble gas(es) of at least 90%.

17. A process for manufacturing the OLED device as claimed in claim 15, further comprising, before depositing a organic light-emitting system, heating the transparent electrode to a temperature above 180°

C., for a time of between 5 minutes and 120 minutes.