Thin film passivation of organic light emitting diodes by inductively coupled plasma chemical vapor deposition

The characteristics of an SiN x passivation layer grown by a specially designed inductively coupled plasma chemical vapor deposition (ICP-CVD) system with straight antennas for the top-emitting organic light emitting diodes (TOLEDs) are investigated. Using a high-density plasma on the order of ∼ 1011 electrons/cm3 formed by nine straight antennas connected in parallel, a high-density SiN x passivation layer was deposited on a transparent Mg-Ag cathode at a substrate temperature of 40 deg. C. Even at a low substrate temperature, single SiN x passivation layer prepared by ICP-CVD showed a low water vapor transmission rate of 5 x 10-2 g/m2/day and a transparency of ∼ 85% respectively. In addition, current-voltage-luminescence results of the TOLED passivated by the SiN x layer indicated that the electrical and optical properties of the TOLED were not affected by the high-density plasma during the SiN x deposition process