Environmental barrier material for organic light emitting device and method of making

DETAILED DESCRIPTION The present invention is an environmental barrier for an OLED.
The environmental barrier has a foundation and a cover.
Either the foundation, the cover or both may have a top of three layers of (a) a first polymer layer, (b) a ceramic layer, and (c) a second polymer layer.
The foundation and/or the cover may have a at least one set of intermediate barrier each having (a) an intermediate polymer layer with (b) an intermediate ceramic layer thereon.
In constructing the flexible environmental barrier, the foundation is made on a substrate.
An OLED is constructed upon the top, opposite the substrate.
The cover of at least a top then placed over the OLED to encapsulate the OLED.
The placement or encapsulation may be by gluing or laminating the cover to the foundation over the OLED or preferably by vacuum deposition of the cover layers onto the OLED.
It is most preferred that the substrate, foundation and cover be flexible.
For use as a display, it is preferred that either the ceramic layer(s) in the foundation, cover or both is substantially transparent to the light emitted by the OLED.
Each layer of the foundation and the cover is preferably vacuum deposited.
Vacuum deposition includes monolayer spreading under vacuum, plasma deposition, flash evaporation, sputtering, chemical vapor deposition, evaporation and combinations thereof.
It is further preferred that all layers are deposited and cured between rolls or rollers to avoid the defects that may be caused by abrasion over a roll or roller.
The subject matter of the present invention is particularly pointed out and distinctly claimed in the concluding portion of this specification.
However, both the organization and method of operation, together with further advantages and objects thereof, may best be understood by reference to the following description taken in connection with accompanying drawings wherein like reference characters refer to like elements.