SBIR Phase I: Enhanced Light Generation in Printed Displays

这个小企业创新研究（SBIR）第一阶段项目的广泛影响将源于含碳（有机）材料加工技术的进步。碳在地球上无处不在，它给由碳制成的材料带来了各种战略和技术优势。化学和材料科学的进步增加了有机材料在半导体工业中的应用。这使得有机材料能够取代稀有金属，这些稀有金属可能对矿山造成生态破坏，或者必须从世界上政治敏感地区采购。随着有机发光二极管（OLED）的商业化，价值1000亿美元的显示行业正在引领这场革命。关键的弱点使得oled的制造成本极高，尤其是大型显示器。其结果是整个行业都在努力从传统的半导体制造技术转向印刷技术。印刷OLED显示器的价格要便宜得多，但能效要低50%。因此，它们不适合依赖电池供电的设备。这将它们的商业潜力限制在整个显示器市场的不到25%。拟议的项目将利用有机材料特性的最新发现来开发印刷oled的新加工技术。现有的OLED制造技术以最大限度地提高功率效率的方式定位器件的发光组件。这在目前的印刷显示器中是不可能的。我们将开发沉积OLED材料薄膜的新方法，以制造定向发射器。根据实验结果，我们将了解溶液沉积薄膜中分子取向的基本机制。我们将使用这种机制来证明我们的加工技术与显示打印供应链兼容，并促进我们的技术未来集成到OLED打印机中。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project will stem from the advancement of material processing techniques for carbon-containing (organic) materials. Carbon is ubiquitous on Earth and conveys to materials made from it a variety of strategic and technical advantages. Advances in chemistry and materials science are increasing the utility of organic materials in the semiconductor industry. This is enabling organic materials to replace rare metals which can be ecologically damaging to mine or must be sourced from politically sensitive parts of the world. The $100 Billion display industry is leading this revolution with the commercialization of the organic light emitting diode (OLED). Critical weaknesses make the manufacturing of OLEDs extremely expensive, especially for large displays. The result is an industry-wide effort to move away from conventional semiconductor manufacturing techniques and to printing. Printed OLED displays are substantially less expensive but are 50% less power efficient. As a result, they are not suitable for devices reliant on battery power. This limits their commercial potential to less than 25% of the total display market.The proposed project will leverage recent discoveries in the properties of organic materials to develop a new processing technique for printed OLEDs. Incumbent OLED manufacturing technology orients the light emitting component of the device in a way which maximizes power efficiency. This is not currently possible in printed displays. We will develop new methods of depositing thin films of OLED materials to create oriented emitters. Based on the results of experiments, we will gain knowledge of the fundamental mechanism which enables molecular orientation in solution deposited thin films. We will use this mechanism to demonstrate that our processing technique is compatible with the display printing supply chain and facilitate future integration of our technology into OLED printers.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.