Conductive oxide overhang structures for OLED devices

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12581825-B2
Application number	US-202117389934-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 30, 2021
Priority date	Apr 23, 2021
Publication date	Mar 17, 2026
Grant date	Mar 17, 2026

Abstract

Sub-pixel circuits and methods of forming sub-pixel circuits that may be utilized in an organic light-emitting diode (OLED) display are described herein. The overhang structures are permanent to the sub-pixel circuit. The overhang structures include a conductive oxide. A first configuration of the overhang structures includes a base portion and a top portion with the top portion disposed on the base portion. In a first sub-configuration, the base portion includes the conductive oxide of at least one of a TCO material or a TMO material. In a second sub-configuration, the base portion includes a metal alloy material and the conductive oxide of a metal oxide surface. A second configuration of the overhang structures includes the base portion and the top portion with a body portion disposed between the base portion and the top portion. The body portion includes the metal alloy body and the metal oxide surface.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A device, comprising:
a substrate; overhang structures disposed over the substrate, the overhang structures defining sub-pixels of the device, the overhang structures including a second portion disposed over and directly contacting a first portion, at least one of the second portion or the first portion includes a conductive oxide, the first portion comprising at least one of:
a transparent conductive oxide (TCO) material;
a transition metal oxide (TMO) material; or
a metal alloy body including a metal alloy material and a metal oxide surface including one or more oxides of the metal alloy material, and the second portion disposed over the first portion, the second portion comprising a metal material; and
a plurality of sub-pixels, each sub-pixel comprising:
an anode;
an organic light-emitting diode (OLED) material disposed over and in contact with the anode;
a cathode disposed over the OLED material, wherein a cathode material of the cathode is different from an overhang material of the second portion and the second portion of the overhang structures extends over a portion of the OLED material and the cathode; and
an encapsulation layer disposed over the cathode and past an endpoint of the cathode, wherein the encapsulation layer directly contacts a sidewall of the first portion.

2 . The device of claim 1 , wherein each sub-pixel further comprises a plug disposed over the encapsulation layer, the plug having a plug transmittance that is matched or substantially matched to an OLED transmittance of the OLED material.

3 . The device of claim 1 , further comprising a global encapsulation layer disposed over the conductive oxide overhang structures and the encapsulation layer.

4 . The device of claim 1 , wherein the device comprises a dot-type architecture or a line-type architecture.

5 . The device of claim 1 , wherein the substrate is a pre-patterned indium tin oxide (ITO) glass substrate.

6 . The device of claim 1 further comprising:
adjacent pixel-defining layer (PDL) structures disposed over the substrate and defining sub-pixels of the device.

7 . The device of claim 6 , wherein the overhang structures are disposed over an upper surface of the PDL structures.

8 . A device, comprising:
a substrate; overhang structures disposed over the substrate, the overhang structures defining sub-pixels of the device, the overhang structures including a second portion disposed over and directly contacting a first portion, the first portion disposed on PDL structures, at least one of the second portion or the first portion includes a conductive oxide, the first portion comprising at least one of:
a transparent conductive oxide (TCO) material;
a transition metal oxide (TMO) material; or
a metal alloy body including a metal alloy material and a metal oxide surface including one or more oxides of the metal alloy material, and the second portion disposed over the first portion, the second portion comprising a metal material; and
a plurality of sub-pixels, each sub-pixel comprising:
an anode;
an organic light-emitting diode (OLED) material disposed over and in contact with the anode;
a cathode disposed over the OLED material, wherein a cathode material of the cathode is different from an overhang material of the second portion and the second portion of the overhang structures extends over a portion of the OLED material and the cathode; and
an encapsulation layer disposed over the cathode and past an endpoint of the cathode, wherein the encapsulation layer directly contacts a sidewall of the first portion.

9 . The device of claim 8 , wherein adjacent overhangs of the conductive oxide overhang structures are defined by:
an overhang width from a sidewall of the first portion to an underside of the second portion; and an overhang depth from a PDL structure to the underside of the second portion.

10 . The device of claim 8 , wherein:
the TCO material comprises one or more of indium zinc oxide (IZO), indium gallium zinc oxide (IGZO), indium tin oxide (ITO), or combinations thereof; the TMO material includes comprises an oxide of a transition metal; and the metal material comprises Ti, Cu, Mo, ITO, IZO, or combinations thereof.

11 . The device of claim 8 , wherein the cathode contacts at least a portion of the first portion.

12 . A device, comprising:
a substrate; overhang structures disposed over the substrate, the overhang structures defining sub-pixels of the device, the overhang structures including a second portion disposed over and directly contacting a first portion, the first portion disposed on PDL structures, at least one of the second portion or the first portion includes a conductive oxide, the first portion comprising at least one of:
a transparent conductive oxide (TCO) material;
a transition metal oxide (TMO) material; or
a metal alloy body including a metal alloy material and a metal oxide surface including one or more oxides of the metal alloy material, and the second portion disposed over the first portion, the second portion comprising a metal material; and
a plurality of sub-pixels, each sub-pixel comprising:
an anode;
an organic light-emitting diode (OLED) material disposed over and in contact with the anode; and
a cathode disposed over the OLED material, wherein a cathode material of the cathode is different from an overhang material of the second portion and the second portion of the overhang structures extends over a portion of the OLED material and the cathode, wherein adjacent overhangs of the conductive oxide overhang structures are defined by an overhang width from a sidewall of the first portion to an underside of the second portion and an overhang depth from a PDL structure to the underside of the second portion, wherein the overhang width of each of the conductive oxide overhang structures are about 0.5 μm (micrometers) to about 1 μm and are within 15 percent of each other.

13 . A device comprising a plurality of sub-pixels, each sub-pixel of the plurality of sub-pixels defined by adjacent overhang structures, each sub-pixel having an anode, organic light-emitting diode (OLED) material disposed on the anode, and a cathode disposed over the OLED material, the overhang structures including a second portion directly contacting a first portion, at least one of the second portion or the first portion includes a conductive oxide, the first portion comprising at least one of:
a transparent conductive oxide (TCO) material; a transition metal oxide (TMO) material; or a metal alloy body including a metal alloy material and a metal oxide surface including one or more oxides of the metal alloy material, and the second portion disposed over the first portion, the second portion comprising a metal material, wherein the device is made by a process comprising: depositing the OLED material using evaporation deposition over a substrate, the OLED material disposed over and in contact with the anode, the OLED material having an OLED edge defined by defined by adjacent overhangs of the conductive oxide overhang structures; depositing the cathode using evaporation deposition, wherein a cathode material of the cathode is different from an overhang material of the second portion and the overhang structures extend over a portion of the OLED material and the cathode, the overhang structures including the conductive oxide; and depositing an encapsulation layer over the cathode and past an endpoint of the cathode, wherein the encapsulation layer directly contacts a sidewall of the first portion.

14 . The device of claim 13 , wherein each of the ove

Assignees

• Applied Materials Inc

Inventors

• Choung Ji-Young
• Chen Chung-Chia
• Lin Yu Hsin
• Lee Jungmin
• Haas Dieter
• Kim Si Kyoung

Classifications

• H10K59/873 Primary

  Encapsulations · CPC title

• H10K59/80521

  characterised by their shape · CPC title

• H10K2102/00

  Constructional details relating to the organic devices covered by this subclass · CPC title

• H10K2102/103

  comprising indium oxides, e.g. ITO · CPC title

• H10K71/16

  using physical vapour deposition [PVD], e.g. vacuum deposition or sputtering · CPC title