Polymer (organic) light emitting diode. This advanced technology is based on the use of organic polymers which emit light when stimulated electrically. P-OLED sometimes refers to polymer light emitting device or polymer light emitting display. P-OLEDs are used principally in electronic displays and are expected to be used in future lighting systems.
P-OLEDs are a form of OLED (see below). Developed after SMOLEDs, P-OLEDs have the major advantage of being solution processable, and can therefore be produced using printing techniques such as ink jet printing or roll printing.
LEP stands for light emitting polymer, and refers to the emissive materials used in the construction of a P-OLED device.
Organic light emitting diode. Devices which use organic materials to produce light through electrical stimulation. The term OLED includes P-OLED, SMOLED and dendrimer technologies.
Small molecule organic light emitting diode. The original technology developed to exploit the light emitting property of some organic chemicals. Has been the basis of most commercial products to date, but has also had the disadvantage of requiring complex and expensive production methods such as vacuum deposition.
A class of molecule featuring a high degree of branching and which can be designed to offer specific performance characteristics.
Total Matrix Addressing. An award winning driver technology, developed by CDT in 2006, offering the prospect of larger displays being driven without the need for active matrix (TFT) driver systems.
Organic electroluminescence. The phenomenon of light emission as a result of electrical stimulation of an OLED.
Hole Injection Layer / Hole Transport Layer is a layer that conducts ‘holes’ from the anode, and injects them into the interlayer/primer layer.
A simple form of display driving which directly drives pixels in a matrix array. It is lower cost than active matrix, but limited by power consumption issues to small sizes.
A form of display driving based on thin film transistor driving technology that is scalable with respect to both resolution and panel size.
Photovoltaics. OLEDs are capable of working in reverse – i.e. generating electrical power by the action of light on specially designed photovoltaic cells.
Organic semiconductors
Plastic electronics or organic electronics – also known as Printed Electronics - is a branch of electronics which uses carbon-based molecules (in CDT’s case polymers) in place of e.g. silicon. Conductive polymers are light, flexible and lower cost than inorganic semiconductors, and are used for example in electronic paper.
Organic thin film transistor