Printed Organic Light-Emitting Diodes on Fabric with Roll-to-Roll Sputtered ITO Anode and Poly(vinyl alcohol) Planarization Layer

Electronic textiles, which are a combination of fabrics and electronics, can help realize wearable electronic devices by changing the rigidity of these textiles. We demonstrate organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) by directly printing the emitting material on fabric substrates using the nozzle-printing technique. Printing the emitting material directly on a fabric substrate with a rough surface is difficult. To address this, we introduce a planarization layer by using a synthesized 3.5 wt % poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) solution. The sputtered ITO anode with the thermally annealed PVA planarization layer on a fabric substrate achieves a low sheet resistance in the range of 60–80 Ω/sq, whereas the ITO electrode without a PVA layer exhibits high sheet resistance values of 10–25 kΩ/sq. This result is because the thermally annealed PVA layer on the fabric surface has a uniform surface morphology and a water contact angle as high as 96°, thus acting as a protective layer with a waterproofing effect; in contrast, the water is completely absorbed on the rough surface without a PVA layer. The fabric-based OLEDs with a thermally annealed PVA layer exhibit a lower turn-on voltage of 3 V and higher luminance values of 5346 cd/m2 at 8 V compared with the devices without a PVA layer (7 V and 3622 cd/m2) at 18 V. These fabric-based OLEDs with a PVA planarization layer can be produced by the nozzle-printing process and can achieve selective patterning as well as direct printing of the emitting material and ITO sputtering on a fabric substrate; furthermore, they emit well even when it bent into a circle with a radius of 1 cm.