Grant: Collaborative Research and Development Grants

Organic Light Emitting Diodes are solid-state lighting devices that are currently found in smart phone displays, ultra thin and curved television displays and emerging lighting products like desk lamps, light-up business cards and wearable lighting as protective wear. Currently, the manufacturing cost of OLEDs is elevated which leads to expensive products with a slow penetration of the market. To reduce manufacturing costs, manufacturing time needs to be reduced. OLEDs aremanufactured by thermal evaporation of small organic molecules: the faster the evaporation rate, the faster the production. Unfortunately, several commercial molecules have low degradation temperatures, which limits deposition rate. The goal of this project is to develop families of molecules that are thermally resistant to elevated deposition rates while maintaining the desired optimal and electrical properties. The Lessard group will develop families of new molecules that OTI Lumionics will integrate into OLEDs in their industrial manufacturing facility. The feedback from OTI Luminoics will help the Lessard group to design new molecules, which will in turn be further characterized by OTI Lumionics. This partnership will lead to the development of highly stable and high performing molecules that will be integrated into commercial OLEDs. Finally, we will train highly qualified personnel as part of this training program, which will include valuable skills in specialized organic chemistry, chemical engineering and scale up, experimental design and a holistic understanding of the development and characterization of organic electronics, a field that is currently blossoming in Canada and worldwide. The application knowledge gained from this NSERC CRD research program will not only be beneficial for industry in Ontario, but for all of Canada.