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

The characteristics of an SiNx 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 SiNx passivation layer was deposited on a transparent Mg–Ag cathode at a substrate temperature of 40 °C. Even at a low substrate temperature, single SiNx passivation layer prepared by ICP-CVD showed a low water vapor transmission rate of 5 × 10− 2 g/m2/day and a transparency of ∼ 85% respectively. In addition, current–voltage–luminescence results of the TOLED passivated by the SiNx layer indicated that the electrical and optical properties of the TOLED were not affected by the high-density plasma during the SiNx deposition process.