Semiconducting, conjugated polymers have been the subject of intense investigation for light emitting displays since the early 1990s. While significant progress has been achieved in the areas of red, yellow and green light emitting displays (LEDs), the search for an efficient, long-lived blue emitting polymer is still ongoing. In this Phase I SBIR effort we propose a synthetic strategy to prepare blue emitting polymers with the attributes needed for efficient, long lived displays. The proposed polymers will have charge transport groups built into the polymer structure, to ensure balanced hole and electron injection. During Phase I, monomers and polymers will be synthesized and physical and optoelectronic properties will be optimized. Polymer LEDs will be fabricated using the polymers synthesized during Phase I. Physical, optoelectronic and LED data will be used to identify the most suitable class of blue-emitting materials for display applications.Anticipated Benefits/Commercial Applications: Portable display devices are of vital importance in both the military and civilian arenas. Military personnel utilize many pieces of equipment that incorporate display components, including computers, global positioning systems (GPS), hand-held flat panel displays, helmet mounted displays and weapons. Portable display devices need to be light and have low power consumption in order to minimize battery consumption and hence weight carried. There is great synergy between the military and commercial markets, because civilian consumers are also increasingly turning to portable communication devices such as pagers, cellular telephones, personal digital assistants, digital books and hand-held computers. All of these units need highly readable, low power consuming information displays. Emissive polymer displays offer the key advantages of high brightness, low weight, thin profile and low power consumption, combined with the potential for low cost, high volume fabrication. The advantages offered by this general technology area eclipse those of any other technology being developed for such applications. The first consumer product that this technology will be targeted towards is hand-held devices that require alphanumeric displays, where weight and portability are key issues.
