Substrate for an organic light-emitting device, use and process for manufacturing this substrate, and organic light-emitting device

• US 8,339,031 B2
• Filed: 09/05/2007
• Issued: 12/25/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 09/07/2006
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Saint-Gobain Glass France (Compagnie De Saint-Gobain)
• Original Assignee: Saint-Gobain Glass France (Compagnie De Saint-Gobain)
• Inventors: Tchakarov, Svetoslav, Gerardin, Hadia, Reutler, Pascal, Jousse, Didier, Mattmann, Eric, Nael, Pascal
• Primary Examiner(s): Santiago, Mariceli
• Application Number:
  US12/440,301
• Publication Number:
  US 20100072884A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,938 Days
• Field of Search: 313500-512, 427/58, 427/99.5, 4271261-1266
• US Class Current: 313/503
• CPC Class Codes: B32B 17/10036 comprising two outer glass sheets
• CPC Class Codes: B32B 17/10174 Coatings of a metallic or dielectric material on a constituent layer of glass or polymer
• CPC Class Codes: B32B 17/1055 characterized by the resin layer, i.e. interlayer
• CPC Class Codes: B32B 17/10788 containing ethylene vinylacetate
• CPC Class Codes: C03C 17/3417 all coatings being oxide coatings
• CPC Class Codes: C03C 17/3626 one layer at least containing a nitride, oxynitride, boronitride or carbonitride
• CPC Class Codes: C03C 17/3644 the metal being silver
• CPC Class Codes: C03C 17/3652 the coating stack containing at least one sacrificial layer to protect the metal from oxidation
• CPC Class Codes: C03C 17/3671 specially adapted for use as electrodes
• CPC Class Codes: C03C 2217/944 Layers comprising zinc oxide
• CPC Class Codes: C03C 2217/948 Layers comprising indium tin oxide [ITO]
• CPC Class Codes: H05B 33/28 of translucent electrodes
• CPC Class Codes: H10K 2102/101 comprising transparent conductive oxides [TCO]
• CPC Class Codes: H10K 2102/103 comprising indium oxides, e.g. ITO
• CPC Class Codes: H10K 50/805 Electrodes
• CPC Class Codes: H10K 50/816 Multilayers, e.g. transparent multilayers
• CPC Class Codes: H10K 59/86 Series electrical configurations of multiple OLEDs

Abstract

A substrate for an organic light-emitting device, especially a transparent glass substrate, which includes, on a first main face, a bottom electrode film, the electrode film being formed from a thin-film multilayer coating comprising, in succession, at least: a contact layer based on a metal oxide and/or a metal nitride; a metallic functional layer having an intrinsic electrical conductivity property; an overlayer based on the metal oxide and/or a metal nitride, especially for matching the work function of said electrode film, said substrate including a base layer, said base layer covering said main face.

Claims

1. A substrate for an organic light-emitting device, comprising, on a first main face, a bottom electrode film, the electrode film being formed from a thin-film multilayer coating comprising, in succession:

a contact layer comprising at least one of zinc oxide and tin zinc oxide and no indium

a metallic functional layer having an intrinsic electrical conductivity property and a thickness of from 3 to 20 nm, wherein the metal functional layer comprises silver; and

an overlayer comprising at least one of the following, optionally doped, metal oxides;

molybdenum oxide, indium oxide, a mixed indium tin oxide, a mixed indium zinc oxide, and a mixed zinc tin oxide,

wherein the substrate comprises a base layer, said base layer covering said main face and not comprising indium.

2. The substrate according to claim 1, wherein the base layer has a thickness of between 10 and 150 nm.

3. The substrate according to claim 1, wherein the substrate comprises an etch stop layer between the base layer and the contact layer.

4. The substrate according to claim 1, wherein a combination of layers comprising the contact layer, the functional layer, the overlayer, and all the layers located between the contact layer and the overlayer, are etched in the same etch pattern.

5. The substrate according to claim 1, wherein the substrate has, a light transmission T_L equal to or greater than 50% and, an absorption of 1-R_L-T_L equal to or less than 15%, wherein R_L is light reflectance.

6. The substrate according to claim 1, wherein the substrate has, on the overlayer, an RMS roughness equal to or less than 3 nm.

7. The substrate according to claim 1, wherein the contact layer is doped.

8. The substrate according to claim 1, wherein the overlayer matches a work function of the electrode film.

9. The substrate according to claim 8, wherein the overlayer has a thickness of from 3 to 50 nm.

10. The substrate according to claim 1, wherein metallic the functional layer is directly on at least one subjacent blocking film, directly beneath at least one superjacent blocking film, or the metallic functional layer is directly on at least one subjacent blocking film and is directly beneath at least one superjacent blocking film.

11. The substrate according to claim 1, wherein at least one blocking film comprises at least one of a metallic layer, a metal nitride layer and a metal oxide layer, where the metal comprises at least one of:

Ti, V, Mn, Fe, Co, Cu, Zn, Zr, Hf, Al, Nb, Ni, Cr, Mo, Ta, W, and an alloy thereof.

12. The substrate according to claim 1, wherein the substrate comprises, between the base layer and the contact layer, a noncrystalline smoothing layer comprising a mixed oxide, said smoothing layer being positioned immediately beneath said contact layer and comprising a material other than a material of the contact layer.

13. The substrate according to claim 12, wherein the smoothing layer is a mixed oxide layer comprising one or more oxides of:

Sn, Si, Ti, Zr, Hf, Zn, Ga, and In.

14. The substrate according to claim 12, wherein the smoothing layer is a mixed oxide layer of mixed zinc and tin oxides, mixed indium and zinc oxides, or mixed indium and tin oxides.

15. The substrate according to claim 12, wherein the smoothing layer has a thickness of from 0.1 to 30 nm.

16. The substrate according to claim 1, comprising one or more functional layers deposited n times on the base layer and an optional etch stop layer, where n is an integer equal to or greater than 1, wherein the substrate comprises a structure having a sequence of contact layer/functional metallic layer/overlayer.

17. The substrate according to claim 1, comprising a bottom bus electrode structure above the bottom electrode film, said bus electrode structure being in electrical contact with the bottom electrode film.

18. The substrate according to claim 1, comprising an OLED system above the bottom electrode film.

19. The substrate according to claim 1, comprising a top electrode film above said OLED system.

20. The substrate according to claim 1, comprising a top bus electrode structure above the top electrode film, said bus electrode structure being in electrical contact with said top electrode film.

21. The substrate according to claim 1, the substrate coated with the base layer and with the bottom electrode film comprises a toughenable substrate coated with a thin-film multilayer coating.

22. The substrate according to claim 1, comprising, on a second main face, at least one functional film selected from the group consisting of:

an antireflection multilayer, an antifogging layer, antifouling layer, an ultraviolet filter, a titanium oxide layer, a phosphor layer, a mirror layer and a light extraction scattering zone.

23. The substrate according to claim 1, comprising a bottom bus electrode structure, an OLED layer above the bottom electrode film, a top electrode film above said OLED system and a top bus electrode structure.

24. An organic light-emitting device comprising the substrate according to claim 1.

25. A glazing unit comprising the organic light-emitting device according to claim 24.

26. The organic light-emitting device according to claim 24, comprising a plurality of adjacent organic light-emitting systems, each emitting white light or, by a series of three systems, red light, green light and blue light, the systems being connected in series.

27. A luminous surface comprising the organic light-emitting device according to claim 24.

28. A process for fabricating the substrate according to claim 1, comprising depositing at least the base layer and the electrode film on the substrate.

29. The process according to claim 28, further comprising etching the electrode film, wherein the etching is an acid etching operation carried out in one step with an acid solution selected from the group consisting of pure nitric acid HNO₃, nitric acid mixed with hydrochloric acid HCl, pure hydrochloric acid and hydrochloric acid mixed with iron trichloride FeCl₃.

30. The process according to claim 28, further comprising etching the electrode film, wherein the etching is carried out in the presence of at least one metal current supply strip of a monolayer of:

Mo, Al, Cr, or an alloy thereof, or in the presence of at least one metal current supply strip of a mutilayer.

31. The process according to claim 30, wherein the monolayer comprises a MoCr alloy or a MoCr/Al/MoCr alloy.

32. The substrate according to claim 9, wherein the at least one metal oxide is doped.

33. The substrate according to claim 1, wherein the contact layer has a thickness of from 3 to 20 nm.

34. The substrate according to claim 1, wherein the base layer comprises silicon oxide, silicon oxycarbide, silicon nitride, silicon oxynitride, silicon oxycarbonitride, or a combination thereof.

35. The substrate according to claim 1, further comprising a tin oxide etch stop layer between the base layer and the contact layer.

36. The substrate according to claim 35, wherein the etch stop layer has a thickness of between 20 and 60 nm.