Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - PI-SCALE (Bringing flexible organic electronics to pilot innovation scale)

Teaser

Europe’s technology leaders in the development of flexible organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) for lighting and signage applications have joined together in a consortium to develop an open access pilot line that will accelerate the commercial adoption of this promising new...

Summary

Europe’s technology leaders in the development of flexible organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) for lighting and signage applications have joined together in a consortium to develop an open access pilot line that will accelerate the commercial adoption of this promising new technology.The project titled ‘PI-SCALE’ is creating a European-wide pilot line which will enable companies of all sizes to quickly and cost effectively test and scale up their flexible OLED lighting and signage concepts and bring them to a level where they are ready to be transferred to a mass production facility. The intention is that by increasing the availability of, and knowledge about, flexible OLED technology for companies that are interested in using it in their products, the pilot line will accelerate the uptake of this new technology and help to build a sustainable industry in Europe around flexible OLEDs. The project is supported by the European Commission through the Photonics Public Private Partnership with a contribution of €14 million. Flexible OLEDs have the potential to be integrated into formed parts or seamlessly bonded onto curved surfaces, and the commercialisation of this technology will open up a host of exciting design opportunities to create new value adding lighting products in many different application areas, such as architecture, automotive, aerospace, packaging, sports, retail, and consumer electronics. The technology allows for ultra-thin (<0.2 mm), highly bendable, very lightweight, and even transparent, energy efficient lighting solutions that can be made or cut to any shape or size. PI-SCALE will offer world class capability and services in the pilot production of customised flexible OLED product prototypes. The first prototypes to be made on the pilot line are focused in the areas of automotive, designer luminaires and aeronautics applications. Coordinated by Holst Centre, PI-SCALE brings together fourteen expert partners from five European countries and includes AUDI AG, Centre for Process Innovation (CPI), VTT, Fraunhofer FEP, M-Solv, FlexEnable, DuPont Teijin Films, Brabant Development Agency (BOM), REHAU, emdedesign, Pilkington, Coatema Coating Machinery and AMIRES. The PI-SCALE consortium combines and utilises existing capability from each of the partners to create a self-standing, open access European flexible OLED pilot line. The pilot line will be available during and after the lifetime of the project to companies on an open access basis, and the specialist infrastructure includes all the steps required to turn OLED lighting concepts into advanced product prototypes. Specialist flexible substrates, moisture barrier and electrode films, and sheet-to-sheet and roll-to-roll OLED devices are all included, as well as all the system-level integration steps to incorporate the flexible OLED films and the other flexible electronics needed into a product form. The pilot line is positioned to bridge the gap between R&D and mass production, offering small-to-medium scale pre-production runs of customised flexible OLED devices with a volume of up to 5000 m2 of OLEDs/year. By working with the pilot line, companies should be able to make important decisions about their final product design, test their concepts in up-scaled manufacturing processes, and have large numbers of product prototypes for testing (TRL7). They will also gain the required flexible OLED technology knowhow and supply chain links to transfer the product they have developed using the pilot line to a mass production facility.

Work performed

Pilot line processes and technology offerings:
• Rolls of moisture barrier film suitable for OLEDs and PV available from pilot line
• Rolls of moisture barrier film + anode suitable for OLEDs and PV under development
• Moisture barrier film + anode samples on glass carriers (up to 150 mm x 150 mm) suitable for sheet-to-sheet OLEDs available from pilot line
• Customised sheet-to-sheet made flexible OLEDs available from pilot line
• System-level integration and function and reliability testing under development:
o Standard connector solutions for sheet-to-sheet and roll-to-roll OLEDs have been established. It is expected that the bonding process, especially for R2R OLEDs, will
reach pilot line maturity in M30.
o Systematic analysis of reliability tests (temperature cycle, 85oC/85%RH test) for flexible connectors are ongoing. The connectors are bonded on R2R monitoring OLEDs.
o First injection moulding trials were successfully carried out using sheet-to-sheet monitoring OLEDs
o An adjustable demonstrator casing was designed and made for the flexible OLEDs and used for exhibiting OLEDs at the PI-SCALE project’s external events
o The development of the roll-to-roll system-level function and reliability testing measurement setup is ongoing.
• Roll-to-roll made flexible OLEDs under development
o Regular R2R monitoring batch runs (30 cm wide web, 15 meters length). Reliable R2R OLED processing is expected to reach pilot line maturity in M30

• Outreach and dissemination
A website, project brochures, banner stands, OLED demonstrators and press releases have all been made and are regularly used. PI-SCALE is regularly presenting at conferences and exhibitions, for example:
o OLED World Summit (San Diego)
o Electronica (München)
o FLEXEurope (Grenoble)
o Photonics 21 annual meeting (Brussels)
o IDW (Japan)
o LOPEC (Munchen)
o SID (Los Angeles)
o Interpack (Dusseldorf)
o LedExpo (‘s Hertogenbosch)
o Flex (Monterey)
PI-SCALE organised a “hands-on” workshop and B2B event during the GLOW festival in Eindhoven in November 2016 and another workshop is being organized for ISAL (International Symposium on Automotive Lighting) in Darmstadt in September 2017.

• New customers for the pilot line
As well as working for the 4 launching customers in the project, the pilot line has successfully served 4 new external customers in the automotive industry and the materials industry. It is further engaging with more than 100 potential new customers in many different industries, such as automotive, aerospace, packaging, lighting.

Final results

Progress beyond state-of-the-art:
• To our knowledge the highest performing single layer SiN R2R moisture barrier Worldwide - WVTR < 2.10-6 g/m2/day at 20oC/50% rel. hum., 0.03 pinholes/cm2 after 1000h
at 60oC/90% rel. hum. has been made
• Largest flexible R2R OLED device made Worldwide: 30 cm x 1.8 m
• Unique flexible OLEDs with customised designs and colours made

Expected results by the end of the project:
• Establish a self-sustaining flexible OLED pilot line able to offer flexible OLED prototyping services with:
o Customised logos and pictures
o Customised shape & colour
o Optical transparency (up to 60%)
o Long dimensions >1m
o Active and passive matrix segmented OLEDs
o System-level integration
• Have served 4 launching customers with customised product prototypes
• Have served at least 26 new customers ranging from SMEs to LEs by the end of 2018.

Potential Impacts:
Help to establish a sustainable industry around flexible OLEDs by increasing access to, and awareness of, this technology, and bridge the gap between R&D and mass production.

Website & more info

More info: http://pi-scale.eu/.