Towards Self-Powering Touch/Flex-Sensitive OLED Systems

In this work, we present a novel design for an organic light-emitting system integrated with a mechanical energy harvesting and energy storage polymer films (patent pending). The system is configured into multiple stacked layers to form a thin, flexible, and lightweight assembly. The thin “film-like” device can be deformed and flexed to generate energy up to 0.5 mW within 100 s with ease. This platform technology finds applications in energy harvesting displays, electronic papers, key-input-pads, novel packaging, smart-IDs, disposable lab-on-a-chip optomicrofluidic systems, and much more. Results on the energy storage characteristics of the ionic polymer-metal composite film, the performance of a polyfluorene-based organic light-emitting device, and the mechanical energy transduction of the piezoelectric polymer energy harvester are presented. The polymeric nature of this platform system further makes it suitable for roll-to-roll print manufacturing, supporting applications requiring high volume and low cost.