Traditional printing techniques combine in OLED display manufacture

Developed by VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, this method is claimed to provide manufacturers with the opportunity to create patterned and flexible light-emitting surfaces on advertising displays, signs or lighting fixtures.

VTT add that the method also enables transparent smart surfaces to be attached to window panels or packaging.

OLED technology (Organic Light-Emitting Diode) is commonly used in mobile phone displays and television sets, but until now has only been found in glass surfaces, implemented using traditional microelectronics manufacturing methods.

Using VTT’s method, OLED elements can now be printed not only onto glass or steel surfaces but also onto flexible plastic films, enabling significantly larger light surfaces and expanding the usage possibilities of the technology.

It is claimed that this type of light-emitting plastic film and processing in ambient atmosphere has not been created on this scale before.

Manufactured using the gravure and screen printing methods, OLED light surfaces are around 0.2 mm thick, and include electrodes and polymer layers measuring up to a few hundred nanometres, in which the light emission occurs. This phenomenon – electroluminescence - entails an organic semiconductor emitting light in an electric field.