Conductive oxide overhang structures for oled devices

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2022344417-A1
Application number	US-202117389934-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Jul 30, 2021
Priority date	Apr 23, 2021
Publication date	Oct 27, 2022
Grant date	—

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; adjacent pixel-defining layer (PDL) structures disposed over the substrate and defining sub-pixels of the device; overhang structures including a conductive oxide, the overhang structures disposed over an upper surface of the PDL structures; 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 the conductive oxide overhang structures disposed over the upper surface of the PDL structures extend over a portion of the OLED material and the cathode.

2 . The device of claim 1 , wherein each of the overhang structures comprise:
a base portion disposed on the PDL structures, the base 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
a top portion disposed over the base portion, the top portion comprising a metal material.

3 . The device of claim 2 , further comprising a body portion disposed between the base portion and the top portion, the body portion having the metal alloy body and the metal oxide surface.

4 . The device of claim 3 , wherein the metal alloy body includes a metal alloy material and the metal oxide surface includes one or more oxides of the metal alloy material.

5 . The device of claim 4 , wherein the metal alloy material comprises copper (Cu titanium (Ti), aluminum (Al), molybdenum (Mo), silver (Ag), tin (Sn) or combinations thereof.

6 . The device of claim 2 , wherein adjacent overhangs of the conductive oxide overhang structures are defined by:
an overhang width from a sidewall of the base portion to an underside of the top portion; and an overhang depth a PDL structure to the underside of the top portion.

7 . The device of claim 6 , wherein the overhang width of each of the conductive oxide overhang structures are about 0.5 μm (micrometers) to about 1 μm are within 15 percent of each other.

8 . The device of claim 2 , 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.

9 . The device of claim 2 , wherein the cathode contacts at least a portion of the base portion.

10 . The device of claim 1 , further comprising an encapsulation layer disposed over the cathode.

11 . The device of claim 10 , 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.

12 . The device of claim 10 , further comprising a global encapsulation layer disposed over the conductive oxide overhang structures and the encapsulation layer.

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

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

15 . A device comprising a plurality of sub-pixels, each sub-pixel of the plurality of sub-pixels defined by adjacent pixel-defining layer (PDL) structures with overhang structures disposed over the PDL 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 conductive oxide, 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; and depositing the cathode using evaporation deposition, wherein the overhang structures disposed over the PDL structure extend over a portion of the OLED material and the cathode, the overhang structures including the conductive oxide.

16 . The device of claim 15 , wherein each of the overhang structures comprise:
a base portion disposed on the PDL structures, the base 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
a top portion disposed over the base portion, the top portion comprising a metal material.

17 . The device of claim 16 , further comprising a body portion disposed between the base portion and the top portion, the body portion having the metal alloy body and the metal oxide surface.

18 . A method, comprising:
disposing an overhang layer stack over adjacent pixel defining layer (PDL) structures, each sub-pixel of a plurality of sub-pixels is defined by the adjacent PDL structures, the overhang layer stack comprising at least a base layer and top layer disposed over the base layer, the base layer comprising:
at least one of a transparent conductive oxide (TCO) material;
a transition metal oxide (TMO) material; or
a metal alloy material;
disposing a resist layer over the overhang layer stack and patterning the resist layer to form pixel openings in the resist layer; etching the overhang layer stack exposed by the pixel openings to form overhang structures having a top portion corresponding to the top layer and at least a base portion corresponding the base layer; and depositing an organic light-emitting diode (OLED) material and a cathode using evaporation deposition such that the cathode contacts at least a portion of the base portion.

19 . The method of claim 18 , wherein the overhang layer stack further comprises a body layer disposed between the base layer and the top layer, the body layer comprising the metal alloy material.

20 . The method of claim 18 , wherein the metal alloy material of the base portion is oxidized to form a metal oxide surface prior to the depositing of the OLED material

Assignees

• Applied Materials Inc

Inventors

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

Classifications

• H01L51/5237

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H01L51/0008

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H01L27/3246 Primary

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H01L2251/308

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H10K59/80522

  combined with auxiliary electrodes · CPC title