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Now showing 1 - 7 of 7
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    Experimental proof of Joule heating-induced switched-back regions in OLEDs
    (London : Nature Publishing Group, 2020) Kirch, Anton; Fische, Axel; Liero, Matthias; Fuhrmann, Jürgen; Glitzky, Annegret; Reineke, Sebastian
    Organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) have become a major pixel technology in the display sector, with products spanning the entire range of current panel sizes. The ability to freely scale the active area to large and random surfaces paired with flexible substrates provides additional application scenarios for OLEDs in the general lighting, automotive, and signage sectors. These applications require higher brightness and, thus, current density operation compared to the specifications needed for general displays. As extended transparent electrodes pose a significant ohmic resistance, OLEDs suffering from Joule self-heating exhibit spatial inhomogeneities in electrical potential, current density, and hence luminance. In this article, we provide experimental proof of the theoretical prediction that OLEDs will display regions of decreasing luminance with increasing driving current. With a two-dimensional OLED model, we can conclude that these regions are switched back locally in voltage as well as current due to insufficient lateral thermal coupling. Experimentally, we demonstrate this effect in lab-scale devices and derive that it becomes more severe with increasing pixel size, which implies its significance for large-area, high-brightness use cases of OLEDs. Equally, these non-linear switching effects cannot be ignored with respect to the long-term operation and stability of OLEDs; in particular, they might be important for the understanding of sudden-death scenarios. © 2020, The Author(s).
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    Drift–diffusion simulation of S-shaped current–voltage relations for organic semiconductor devices
    (Dordrecht : Springer Science + Business Media B.V., 2020) Doan, Duy Hai; Fischer, Axel; Fuhrmann, Jürgen; Glitzky, Annegret; Liero, Matthias
    We present an electrothermal drift–diffusion model for organic semiconductor devices with Gauss–Fermi statistics and positive temperature feedback for the charge carrier mobilities. We apply temperature-dependent Ohmic contact boundary conditions for the electrostatic potential and discretize the system by a finite volume based generalized Scharfetter–Gummel scheme. Using path-following techniques, we demonstrate that the model exhibits S-shaped current–voltage curves with regions of negative differential resistance, which were only recently observed experimentally. © 2020, The Author(s).
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    Electrothermal Tristability Causes Sudden Burn-In Phenomena in Organic LEDs
    (Weinheim : Wiley-VCH, 2021) Kirch, Anton; Fischer, Axel; Liero, Matthias; Fuhrmann, Jürgen; Glitzky, Annegret; Reineke, Sebastian
    Organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) have been established as a mature display pixel technology. While introducing the same technology in a large-area form factor to general lighting and signage applications, some key questions remain unanswered. Under high-brightness conditions, OLED panels were reported to exhibit nonlinear electrothermal behavior causing lateral brightness inhomogeneities and even regions of switched-back luminance. Also, the physical understanding of sudden device failure and burn-ins is still rudimentary. A safe and stable operation of lighting tiles, therefore, requires an in-depth understanding of these physical phenomena. Here, it is shown that the electrothermal treatment of thin-film devices allows grasping the underlying physics. Configurations of OLEDs with different lateral dimensions are studied as a role model and it is reported that devices exceeding a certain panel size develop three stable, self heating-induced operating branches. Switching between them causes the sudden formation of dark spots in devices without any preexisting inhomogeneities. A current-stabilized operation mode is commonly used in the lighting industry, as it ensures degradation-induced voltage adjustments. Here, it is demonstrated that a tristable operation always leads to destructive switching, independent of applying constant currents or voltages. With this new understanding of the effects at high operation brightness, it will be possible to adjust driving schemes accordingly, design more resilient system integrations, and develop additional failure mitigation strategies. © 2021 The Authors. Advanced Functional Materials published by Wiley-VCH GmbH
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    Hybrid finite-volume/finite-element schemes for p(x)-Laplace thermistor models
    (Berlin : Weierstraß-Institut für Angewandte Analysis und Stochastik, 2017) Fuhrmann, Jürgen; Glitzky, Annegret; Liero, Matthias
    We introduce an empirical PDE model for the electrothermal description of organic semiconductor devices by means of current and heat flow. The current flow equation is of p(x)-Laplace type, where the piecewise constant exponent p(x) takes the non-Ohmic behavior of the organic layers into account. Moreover, the electrical conductivity contains an Arrhenius-type temperature law. We present a hybrid finite-volume/finite-element discretization scheme for the coupled system, discuss a favorite discretization of the p(x)-Laplacian at hetero interfaces, and explain how path following methods are applied to simulate S-shaped current-voltage relations resulting from the interplay of self-heating and heat flow.
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    Drift-diffusion simulation of S-shaped current-voltage relations for organic semiconductor devices
    (Berlin : Weierstraß-Institut für Angewandte Analysis und Stochastik, 2019) Doan, Duy Hai; Fischer, Axel; Fuhrmann, Jürgen; Glitzky, Annegret; Liero, Matthias
    We present an electrothermal drift-diffusion model for organic semiconductor devices with Gauss-Fermi statistics and positive temperature feedback for the charge carrier mobilities. We apply temperature dependent Ohmic contact boundary conditions for the electrostatic potential and discretize the system by a finite volume based generalized Scharfetter-Gummel scheme. Using path-following techniques we demonstrate that the model exhibits S-shaped current-voltage curves with regions of negative differential resistance, which were only recently observed experimentally.
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    Unipolar drift-diffusion simulation of S-shaped current-voltage relations for organic semiconductor devices
    (Berlin : Weierstraß-Institut für Angewandte Analysis und Stochastik, 2019) Fuhrmann, Jürgen; Doan, Duy Hai; Glitzky, Annegret; Liero, Matthias; Nika, Grigor
    We discretize a unipolar electrothermal drift-diffusion model for organic semiconductor devices with Gauss--Fermi statistics and charge carrier mobilities having positive temperature feedback. We apply temperature dependent Ohmic contact boundary conditions for the electrostatic potential and use a finite volume based generalized Scharfetter-Gummel scheme. Applying path-following techniques we demonstrate that the model exhibits S-shaped current-voltage curves with regions of negative differential resistance, only recently observed experimentally.
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    3D electrothermal simulations of organic LEDs showing negative differential resistance
    (Berlin : Weierstraß-Institut für Angewandte Analysis und Stochastik, 2017) Liero, Matthias; Fuhrmann, Jürgen; Glitzky, Annegret; Koprucki, Thomas; Fischer, Axel; Reineke, Sebastian
    Organic semiconductor devices show a pronounced interplay between temperature-activated conductivity and self-heating which in particular causes inhomogeneities in the brightness of large-area OLEDs at high power. We consider a 3D thermistor model based on partial differential equations for the electrothermal behavior of organic devices and introduce an extension to multiple layers with nonlinear conductivity laws, which also take the diode-like behavior in recombination zones into account. We present a numerical simulation study for a red OLED using a finite-volume approximation of this model. The appearance of S-shaped current-voltage characteristics with regions of negative differential resistance in a measured device can be quantitatively reproduced. Furthermore, this simulation study reveals a propagation of spatial zones of negative differential resistance in the electron and hole transport layers toward the contact.