Flexible organic-inorganic hybrid layer encapsulation for organic opto-electronic devices

In this work we produce and study the flexible organic-inorganic hybrid moisture barrier layers for the protection of air sensitive organic opto-electronic devices. The inorganic amorphous silicon nitride layer (SiN_x:H) and the organic PMMA [poly (methyl methacrylate)] layer are deposited alternatingly by using hot wire chemical vapor deposition (HW-CVD) and spin-coating techniques, respectively. The effect of organic-inorganic hybrid interfaces is analyzed for increasing number of interfaces. We produce highly transparent (∼80% in the visible region) hybrid structures. The morphological properties are analyzed providing a good basis for understanding the variation of the water vapor transmission rate (WVTR) values. A minimum WVTR of 4.5 × 10^-5 g/m² day is reported at the ambient atmospheric conditions for 7 organic/inorganic interfaces. The hybrid barriers show superb mechanical flexibility which confirms their high potential for flexible applications.