1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to light emitting devices, and more particularly to a light emitting device having reduced reflection of ambient light.
2. Description of the Prior Art
An organic light emitting diode (OLED) (also known as an organic electroluminescent device) is an LED that uses an organic layer as the active layer. In recent years, OLED has been gradually applied in flat panel displays and has many advantages, such as operating at low voltage, with high brightness, light weight and slim profile, full viewing angle, and highly effective contrast ratio.
However, an organic electroluminescent device easily reflects ambient light. This causes inadequate contrast ratio and poor device properties. A frequently used method of increasing the luminance contrast ratio, is adhesion of a polarizer on the light emitting face. However, this method reduces the luminance to only about 30%. In order to achieve the required luminance, the operational voltage must be greatly increased, which, however, shortens the device life.
In U.S. Pat. No. 6,429,451 (Hung et al.), a reflection-reducing layer made of an n-type semiconducting material is disposed between the light-reflective cathode and the electron transporting layer in an organic light emitting device. Thus, ambient light reflection from the cathode is reduced, thus increasing the contrast ratio. Suitable n-type semiconducting material can be ZnO or ZnS.
The present invention is directed to a novel electroluminescent device having a simplified anti-reflective structure. According to the present invention, the anti-reflection member includes one of the electrodes of the electroluminescent pixel. In one embodiment of the present invention, the electroluminescent device includes an anti-reflective member including a reflective layer and a first electrode; a second electrode; and a light emitting layer disposed between the first electrode and the second electrode. The first electrode is a single layer partially reflecting ambient light in a first phase and partially passing ambient light through to the reflective layer. The reflective layer reflects ambient light pass through by the first electrode. Ambient light is reflected by the first electrode to obtain a first reflected light and reflected by the reflective layer to obtain a second reflected light. The first reflected light and the second reflected light have a phase difference, thus reducing reflection of ambient light.
The present invention will become more fully understood from the detailed description given hereinbelow and the accompanying drawings, given by way of illustration only and thus not intended to be limitative of the present invention.
The present invention is directed to an electroluminscent device having an optical member for minimizing reflection of ambient light. For purpose of illustrating the principles of the present invention and not limitation, the present invention is described by reference to embodiments directed to organic light emitting diodes.
The feature of the present invention resides in that there is a single layer in the anti-reflective member 20 that simultaneously serves as an electrode Specifically, the anti-reflective member 20 includes a reflective layer 21, a transparent conductive layer 22, and a first electrode 23, all of which can be formed by sputtering or e-gun evaporation.
Utilizing optical interference principles, the layers 21, 22 and 23 are configured to minimize reflection of ambient light. For example, the reflective layer 21 can have a reflectivity higher than 80% and a thickness about between 400 Å and 5000 Å. A suitable reflective layer 21 can be any material having a substantially high reflectivity, such as a metal, for example, Al, Ag, Au, Cr, Mo, or a combination thereof. The transparent conductive layer 22 can have a transmittance higher than 80% and a thickness of about 300 Å to 3000 Å. A suitable material for the transparent conductive layer 22 can be indium tin oxide (ITO), indium zinc oxide (IZO), Al:SiO2, or Cr:SiO2. The first electrode 23 is a single layer that not only serves as an electrode, but also has semi-transparent and semi-reflective properties or transflective properties). In order to have a transflective effect, the first electrode 23 is preferably thinner than layer 22, for example, having a thickness of 50 Å to 1000 Å. The anti-reflective member 20 of the present invention has an optical interference property. When ambient light enters the electroluminescent device of the present invention, a portion of ambient light can be reflected by the first electrode 23 to obtain a first reflected light L1, and a portion of ambient light can pass the underlying transparent conductive layer 22 and then be reflected by the reflective layer 21 to obtain a second reflected light L2. The material and thickness of each layer in the anti-reflective member 20 can be selected based on the optical interference principle of causing a phase difference between the first reflected light L1 and the second reflected light L2. In this way, reflection of ambient light is reduced and luminance contrast ratio is increased. For example, the first reflected light L1 and the second reflected light L2 can be adjusted to have 180 degrees of phase difference. The present invention greatly reduces ambient light reflection. Therefore, there is no need to increase the operational voltage of the device, but the luminance contrast ratio can still be increased. Thus, the life of the electroluminescent device can be lengthened.
Compared to the conventional electroluminescent device shown in
The light emitting layer 40 of the present invention can be an inorganic or organic material. When the light emitting layer 40 is an organic material, the electroluminescent device of the present invention is an organic light emitting device (OLED). The first electrode 23 can serve as an anode or cathode, but is not limited to this. When the first electrode 23 is an anode and the second electrode 50 is a cathode, the first electrode 23 preferably has a work function higher than 4.6 eV, for example, between 4.7 eV and 5.0 eV. A suitable first electrode (anode) 23 can be metal such as Al, Cr, Mo, Pt, Ni or Au, or conductive ceramic such as TiN or CrN. A suitable second electrode (cathode) 50 can be LiF/Al or Ca/Al.
When the first electrode 23 is a cathode and the second electrode 50 is an anode, the first electrode 23 preferably has a work function of 2 eV to 3 eV, for example, 2.6 eV to 2.7 eV. A suitable first electrode 23 can be metal such as Ca, Mg, Li, or Al/Li alloy.
The electroluminescent device 1 shown in
In conclusion, the anti-reflective member of the present invention includes a reflective layer and a first electrode, and the first electrode has anti-reflective and electrode functions. The present invention makes the reflected ambient light by the reflective layer and the reflected ambient light by the first electrode have a phase difference based on the optical interference principle. Thus, the reflection of ambient light is reduced and the luminance contrast ratio of the device is increased. Moreover, the present invention only requires production of a single layer of the first electrode with dual functions (anti-reflective and electrode functions). Therefore, one production course is omitted, thus reducing overall production cost.
The foregoing description of the preferred embodiments of this invention has been presented for purposes of illustration and description. Obvious modifications or variations are possible in light of the above teaching. The embodiments chosen and described provide an excellent illustration of the principles of this invention and its practical application to thereby enable those skilled in the art to utilize the invention in various embodiments and with various modifications as are suited to the particular use contemplated. All such modifications and variations are within the scope of the present invention as determined by the appended claims when interpreted in accordance with the breadth to which they are fairly, legally, and equitably entitled.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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92113438 | May 2003 | TW | national |