The bright future of organic LEDs

Electro-luminescence is light emission from a solid through which an electric current is passed. Electro-luminescence from organic compounds was discovered in the early ´60s, but the subject did not receive much attention until the discovery and development of conductive polymers. Compared to other electro-luminescent technologies (such as inorganic compound semiconductors, porous silicon and liquid crystals), polymer/organic light-emitting diodes (PLEDs/OLEDs) are very attractive. The reasons are their very low operating voltage, high brightness and their tunability to produce the three fundamental colors (red, blue and green). Furthermore, they are lightweight and can be grown on flexible substrates. They are fairly easy and inexpensive to fabricate. Today, PLEDs/OLEDs are suitable for applications such as automotive displays. In the future, they will probably conquer a large portion of the micro display market. Their higher efficiency and lower weight will make them quite competitive with LCD displays, the currently favorite technology. The article concludes that the future of organic light-emitting diodes seems very bright indeed.