Deformable organic light-emitting diode (OLED) based optoelectronic devices hold promise for various wearable applications including biomedical systems and displays, but current OLED technologies ...require high voltage and lack the power needed for wearable photodynamic therapy (PDT) applications and wearable displays. This paper presents a parallel-stacked OLED (PAOLED) with high power, more than 100 mW/cm
, at low voltage (<8 V). The current dispersion ratio can be tuned by optimizing the structure of the individual OLEDs stacked to create the PAOLED, allowing control of the PAOLED's wavelength shapes, current efficiency, and power. In this study, a fabricated PAOLED operated reliably for 100 h at a high power of 35 mW/cm
. Confirming its potential application to PDT, the measured singlet oxygen generation ratio of the PAOLED was found to be 3.8 times higher than the reference OLED. The high-power PAOLED achieved a 24% reduction in melanoma cancer cell viability after a short (0.5 h) irradiation. In addition, a white light PAOLED with color tuning was realized through OLED color combination, and a high brightness of over 30 000 cd/m
was realized, below 8.5 V. In conclusion, the PAOLED was demonstrated to be suitable for a variety of low-voltage, high-power wearable optoelectronic applications.
Free-form optoelectronic devices can provide hyper-connectivity over space and time. However, most conformable optoelectronic devices can only be fabricated on flat polymeric materials using ...low-temperature processes, limiting their application and forms. This paper presents free-form optoelectronic devices that are not dependent on the shape or material. For medical applications, the transferable OLED (10 μm) is formed in a sandwich structure with an ultra-thin transferable barrier (4.8 μm). The results showed that the fabricated sandwich-structure transferable OLED (STOLED) exhibit the same high-efficiency performance on cylindrical-shaped materials and on materials such as textile and paper. Because the neutral axis is freely adjustable using the sandwich structure, the textile-based OLED achieved both folding reliability and washing reliability, as well as a long operating life (>150 h). When keratinocytes were irradiated with red STOLED light, cell proliferation and cell migration increased by 26 and 32%, respectively. In the skin equivalent model, the epidermis thickness was increased by 39%; additionally, in organ culture, not only was the skin area increased by 14%, but also, re-epithelialization was highly induced. Based on the results, the STOLED is expected to be applicable in various wearable and disposable photomedical devices.
High-throughput transparent and flexible electronics are essential technologies for next-generation displays, semiconductors, and wearable bio-medical applications. However, to manufacture a ...high-quality transparent and flexible electrode, conventional annealing processes generally require 5 min or more at a high temperature condition of 300 °C or higher. This high thermal budget condition is not only difficult to apply to general polymer-based flexible substrates, but also results in low-throughput. Here, we report a high-quality transparent electrode produced with an extremely low thermal budget using Xe-flash lamp rapid photonic curing. Photonic curing is an extremely short time (~ μs) process, making it possible to induce an annealing effect of over 800 °C. The photonic curing effect was optimized by selecting the appropriate power density, the irradiation energy of the Xe-flash lamp, and Ag layer thickness. Rapid photonic curing produced an ITO-Ag-ITO electrode with a low sheet resistance of 6.5 ohm/sq, with a high luminous transmittance of 92.34%. The low thermal budget characteristics of the rapid photonic curing technology make it suitable for high-quality transparent electronics and high-throughput processes such as roll-to-roll.
As the demand for flexible organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) grows beyond that for rigid OLEDs, various elements of OLEDs, such as thin-film transistors, electrodes, thin-film encapsulations ...(TFEs), and touch screen panels, have been developed to overcome OLEDs’ physical and chemical limitations through material and structural design. In particular, TFEs, which protect OLEDs from the external environment, including reactive gases, heat, sunlight, dust, and particles, have technical difficulties to be solved. This review covers various encapsulation technologies that have been developed with the advent of atomic layer deposition (ALD) technology for highly reliable OLEDs, in which solutions to existing technical difficulties in flexible encapsulations are proposed. However, as the conventional encapsulation technologies did not show technological differentiation because researchers have focused only on improving their barrier performance by increasing their thickness and the number of pairs, OLEDs are inevitably vulnerable to environmental degradation induced by ultraviolet (UV) light, heat, and barrier film corrosion. Therefore, research on multi-functional encapsulation technology customized for display applications has been conducted. Many research groups have created functional TFEs by applying nanolaminates, optical Bragg mirrors, and interfacial engineering between layers. As transparent, wearable, and stretchable OLEDs will be actively commercialized beyond flexible OLEDs in the future, customized encapsulation considering the characteristics of the display will be a key technology that guarantees the reliability of the display and accelerates the realization of advanced displays.
Abstract
Wearable electronic devices are being developed because of their wide potential applications and user convenience. Among them, wearable organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs) play an ...important role in visualizing the data signal processed in wearable electronics to humans. In this study, textile-based OLEDs were fabricated and their practical utility was demonstrated. The textile-based OLEDs exhibited a stable operating lifetime under ambient conditions, enough mechanical durability to endure the deformation by the movement of humans, and washability for maintaining its optoelectronic properties even in water condition such as rain, sweat, or washing. In this study, the main technology used to realize this textile-based OLED was multi-functional near-room-temperature encapsulation. The outstanding impermeability of TiO
2
film deposited at near-room-temperature was demonstrated. The internal residual stress in the encapsulation layer was controlled, and the device was capped by highly cross-linked hydrophobic polymer film, providing a highly impermeable, mechanically flexible, and waterproof encapsulation.
Abstract
A clothing-type wearable display can be utilized in fashion, bio-healthcare, and safety industries as well as smart textiles for the internet of things (IoTs) and wearable devices. In ...response to this trend, we demonstrate a textile display that can endure the active movements of a human body. It can be applied to any kind of textile, and is durable against conditions such as rain, sweat, and washing. As a key technology for realizing the multi-directional wrinkle-able textile display, we fabricated a stress-lowering textile platform with an ultrathin planarization layer replicated from the flat surface of glass. An elastomeric strain buffer for reducing mechanical stress is also inserted into the textile platform. Here, organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) with red, green and blue color, thin film transistors (TFTs) fabricated at a low temperature below 150 °C, and a washable encapsulation layer blocking both gas and liquid were demonstrated on the textile platform.
Abstract
Long wavelengths that can deeply penetrate into human skin are required to maximize therapeutic effects. Hence, various studies on near-infrared organic light-emitting diodes (NIR OLEDs) ...have been conducted, and they have been applied in numerous fields. This paper presents a microcavity tandem NIR OLED with narrow full-width half-maximum (FWHM) (34 nm), high radiant emittance (> 5 mW/cm
2
) and external quantum efficiency (EQE) (19.17%). Only a few papers have reported on biomedical applications using the entire wavelength range of the visible and NIR regions. In particular, no biomedical application studies have been reported in the full wavelength region using OLEDs. Therefore, it is worth researching the therapeutic effects of using OLED, a next-generation light source, and analyzing trends for cell proliferation effects. Cell proliferation effects were observed in certain wavelength regions when B, G, R, and NIR OLEDs were used to irradiate human fibroblasts. The results of an in-vitro experiment indicated that the overall tendency of wavelengths is similar to that of the cytochrome c oxidase absorption spectrum of human fibroblasts. This is the first paper to report trends in the cell proliferation effects in all wavelength regions using OLEDs.
Neonatal jaundice is a very common disease in newborns and can lead to brain damage or death in severe cases. Phototherapy with light‐emitting diode (LED) arrays is widely used as the easiest and ...fastest way to relieve jaundice in newborns, but it has distinct disadvantages such as loss of water in the patient, damage to the retina, and separation from parents. In this paper, a novel light source‐based phototherapy for neonatal jaundice is proposed using a textile‐based wearable organic light‐emitting diode (OLED) platform that can move flexibly and conform to the curvature of the human body. The soft and flexible textile‐based blue OLED platform is designed to have a peak wavelength of 470 nm, suitable for jaundice treatment, and shows performance (>20 µW cm−2 nm−1) suitable for intensive jaundice treatment even at low voltage (<4.0 V). The textile‐based OLEDs fabricated in this study exhibit an operating reliability of over 100 h and low‐temperature operation (<35 °C). The results of an in vitro jaundice treatment test using a large‐area blue OLED confirm that the bilirubin level decreases to 12 mg dL−1 with 3 h of OLED irradiation.
Kyung Cheol Choi et al. develops a novel light source‐based photomedical approach for neonatal jaundice treatment, using a textile‐based wearable organic light‐emitting diode (OLED) platform that can move flexibly and conform to the curvature of the human body. The effectiveness of the blue OLED jaundice treatment is verified by in vitro test, and effective and uniform treatment performance is confirmed.
Photobiomodulation (PBM) is a safe and noninvasive method that can provide various clinical effects. However, conventional PBM devices using point light sources, such as light‐emitting diodes and ...lasers have various disadvantages, such as low flexibility, relatively heavy weight, and nonuniform effects. This paper presents a novel wearable PBM patch using a flexible red‐wavelength organic light‐emitting diode (OLED) surface light source, which can be attached to the human body as a personalized PBM platform. The palm‐sized wearable PBM patch can be very light (0.82 g) and thin (676 µm). It also has a reasonable operation life (>300 h), flexibility (20 mm bending radius), and low‐temperature operation (<40 °C), and it can provide wide and safe application irrespective of location and time. Fibroblasts, a major type of dermal cells, play a key role in the wound healing process. The results show that OLEDs may have excellent in vitro wound healing effects because they effectively stimulate fibroblast proliferation (over 58% of control) and enhance fibroblast migration (over 46% of control) under various conditions. For maximum effect, peak wavelength control is necessary to optimize cell proliferation and enhance in vivo wound healing effects.
Based on a flexible red‐wavelength OLED, a wearable photobiomodulation patch for wound healing is demonstrated. The patch excellently promotes in vitro wound healing. It also has a reasonable operation reliability, flexibility, and offers low‐temperature operation, so it can provide wide application irrespective of location and time attached to the human body.
Optoelectronics devices utilizing organic light‐emitting diodes (OLEDs) are emerging as new platforms for healthcare applications. In particular, wearable optoelectronics such as visual stimulus ...systems offer a distinctive advantage to intervene in and improve sleep disorders. In this study, two improvements are proposed for transparent OLEDs (TrOLEDs) that will be critical for visual applications. First, zinc sulfide with high surface energy and a high refractive index is explored as a seed and capping layer. An ultra‐thin silver cathode of 8 nm is demonstrated to be feasible in TrOLEDs, and luminous transmittance of 91% is achieved. Second, in general, achieving the operational stability of TrOLEDs with high transmittance is challenging due to the vulnerability of thin electrodes. By introducing a doping process to the electron transport layer, a lifetime comparable to that of control OLEDs with thick cathodes (>90%) is secured. Last, a preclinical model using blue light is proposed to modulate sleep patterns. Melanopsin is stimulated at the highest level of sleep desire, reducing non‐rapid eye movement sleep duration in mice by up to 14%. Based on these results, the proposed TrOLEDs are promising candidates for modulating sleep disorders such as insomnia and narcolepsy–cataplexy with the convenience of wearable form factors.
This work demonstrates the feasibility of the 8 nm silver cathode in transparent organic light‐emitting diodes (OLEDs) and luminous transmittance of over 91% is achieved. The operational lifetime is also improved to 90% of the control OLEDs with thick cathodes. Further, the non‐rapid eye movement sleep duration is reduced by up to 14% in the nocturnal mice model through blue light stimulation.
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