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Numerical modeling and investigation of material mixing and utilization during organic vapor phase deposition

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Abstract

Organic vapor phase deposition (OVPD) is a promising technique for cost-effective manufacture of organic electronic devices. The ability to evenly mix different vapor streams prior to depositing doped emissive layers on the substrate, while maximizing utilization of the source materials is crucial for manufacturing organic light-emitting devices (OLEDs) intended for general lighting. In this work, we numerically and experimentally investigate how process conditions affect critical manufacturing metrics, including vapor mixing, material utilization, and substrate heating during organic vapor deposition. Our results show that hardware aspect ratio needed to achieve effective vapor mixing can be predetermined from vapor transport analyses. We also show that in a diffusion-limited deposition regime, the material utilization efficiency (MUE) is independent of organic vapor concentration and that the ratio of substrate to chamber cross-sectional areas drives MUE. We therefore propose guidelines for the design of OVPD reactors that can deliver > 75% MUE.

Graphical abstract

Summary illustrating relationship between OVPD conditions, design strategies and studied performance parameters

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The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are availble from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgments

The author thanks Dr. Max Shtein for helpful feedbacks on the work and Boning Qu for help in validation experiment. I also acknowledge the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) under the award Number DE-EE0008723 and the Universal Display Corporation for financial support.

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  1. Chemical Engineering, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, 48109, USA

    Ikenna H. Ozofor

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Ozofor, I.H. Numerical modeling and investigation of material mixing and utilization during organic vapor phase deposition. Journal of Materials Research 38, 2327–2338 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1557/s43578-023-00974-2

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