INTEGRATION OF ORGANIC LEDS AND AMORPHOUS SI TFTS ONTO FLEXIBLE AND LIGHTWEIGHT METAL FOIL SUBSTRATES

We report the integration of organic light emitting devices (OLED's) a nd amorphous Si (a-Si) thin-film transistors (TFT's) on both glass, an d unbreakable and lightweight thin stainless steel foil substrates. Th e doped-polymer OLED's were built following fabrication of driver TFT' s in a stacked structure. Due to the opacity of the steel substrate, t op-emitting OLED structures were developed. It is shown that the a-Si TFT's provide adequate current levels to drive the OLED's at video bri ghtness (similar to 100 cd/m(2)). This work demonstrates that lightwei ght and rugged TFT backplanes with integrated OLED's are essential ele ments for robust and highly portable active-matrix emissive flat panel displays.