Organic light-emitting diodes with highly conductive polymer electrodes as anode and their stress tolerance

The fabrication and characteristics of organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) with highly conductive polymer electrodes as an anode and the stress tolerance of the devices fabricated on polymeric substrates were studied. By inserting a wet-processed organic layer between a polymer electrode and a dry-processed hole-transport layer, the surface emission pattern from an OLED was markedly improved. For the device with a wet-processed organic layer (methoxy-substituted 1,3,5-tris[4(diphenyl amino)phenyl] benzene), the uniform surface emission resulted from the uniform applied electric field in the emissive layer and the improvement in interface adherence. The OLED with a wet-processed layer as a hole injection layer showed a maximum luminance and a maximum efficiency of 10,000 cd/m(2) and 3.5 cd/A, respectively. For the device fabricated on a polymeric substrate, the impact testing of the OLEDs with highly conductive polymer electrodes [poly(ethylenedioxythiophene): poly (styrene sulfonic acid)] as an anode revealed that the emission lasted for more than several ten thousand steps. A highly conductive polymer electrode had a sufficient tolerance to mechanical stress, as determined by comparing devices with indium tin oxide and a highly conductive polymer as anodes.