A significant challenge facing human kind in the 21st Century is how to address the ever decreasing supply of depletable and renewable energy. One approach to this problem is to decrease our usage. For this reason, considerable attention has been focused on more efficient means for room lighting which currently consumes approximately 20% of the total energy used. Organic light emitting devices (OLEDs) provide a unique opportunity to provide this high efficiency solid state lighting at very low cost. In this talk, I will discuss several strategies for achieving very high efficiency white light emission at high brightness for the next generation of efficient solid state lighting sources based on small molecular weight, vapor deposited OLED structures. Key to our approach is the use of electrophosphorescence as a means for converting all electrical into optical energy. We show that the highest luminance efficiencies can be obtained by a combination of fluorescence and phosphorescence in a unique OLED structure. Furthermore, the highest brightness is achieved (without a significant loss in power efficiency) by stacking several fluorescent/phosphorescent elements in a single OLED structure (called a SOLED), with each emitting element in the stack separated by a transparent charge generation layer. Prospects for OLEDs as the next practical generation of interior illumination will be reviewed.
Biography
Education: B. A. Physics, 1972, University of California, MSc and PhD Physics in 1974 and 1979, University of Michigan. First at Bell Labs, he investigated photodetectors for optical communications. In 1985, Prof. Forrest joined the Electrical Engineering and Materials Science Departments at USC where he worked on optoelectronic integrated circuits, and organic semiconductors. In 1992, Prof. Forrest became the James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor of Electrical Engineering at Princeton University. He served as director of the National Center for Integrated Photonic Technology, and as Director of Princeton's Center for Photonics and Optoelectronic Materials (POEM). 1997-2001 he served as Chair of Princeton's Electrical Engineering Department. In 2006, he rejoined the University of Michigan as Vice President for Research, and as the William Gould Dow Collegiate Professor in Electrical Engineering, Materials Science and Engineering, and Physics. A Fellow of the IEEE and OSA and a member of the National Academy of Engineering, he received the IEEE/LEOS Distinguished Lecturer Award in 1996-97, and in 1998 he was co-recipient of the IPO National Distinguished Inventor Award as well as the Thomas Alva Edison Award for innovations in organic LEDs. In 1999, Prof. Forrest received the MRS Medal for work on organic thin films. In 2001, he was awarded the IEEE/LEOS William Streifer Scientific Achievement Award for advances made on photodetectors for optical communications systems. Prof. Forrest has authored ~385 papers in refereed journals, and has 138 patents. He is co-founder or founding participant in several companies, including Sensors Unlimited, Epitaxx, Inc., Global Photonic Energy Corp., Universal Display Corp. (NASDAQ: PANL) and ASIP, Inc.