Printing smart designs of light emitting devices with maintained textile properties

Abstract

To maintain typical textile properties, smart designs of light emitting devices are printed directly onto textile substrates. A first approach shows improved designs for alternating current powder electroluminescence (ACPEL) devices. A configuration with the following build-up, starting from the textile substrate, was applied using the screen printing technique: silver (10 μm)/barium titanate (10 μm)/zinc-oxide (10 μm) and poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene)poly(styrenesulfonate) (10 μm). Textile properties such as flexibility, drapability and air permeability are preserved by implementing a pixel-like design of the printed layers. Another route is the application of organic light emitting devices (OLEDs) fabricated out of following layers, also starting from the textile substrate: polyurethane or acrylate (10-20 μm) as smoothing layer/silver (200 nm)/poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene)poly(styrenesulfonate) (35 nm)/super yellow (80 nm)/calcium/aluminum (12/17 nm). Their very thin nm-range layer thickness, preserving the flexibility and drapability of the substrate, and their low working voltage, makes these devices the possible future in light-emitting wearables.