Seoul National University College of Engineering announced that a research team led by Prof. Yongtaek Hong from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering has developed a high-performance transparent organic light-emitting diode (OLED) incorporating highly conductive transparent metal mesh top electrodes fabricated using a selective metal deposition technique. The research was published in the journal Materials Horizons and was selected as the outside front cover image for the issue.

Transparent OLEDs have attracted significant attention for next-generation applications, including advanced displays, augmented reality (AR), automotive displays and smart windows, because of their capability for bidirectional light emission. However, despite achieving high optical transparency and excellent electrical performance, conventional transparent electrodes often face limitations when directly integrated into OLED devices because their fabrication processes can chemically or physically damage the underlying organic layers.

To address this challenge, the research team developed a metal-patterning technology based on a high-resolution transfer-printing process using a metal-vapor-desorption layer (MVDL). This approach enables the fabrication of highly conductive transparent metal mesh patterns with micrometer-scale resolution without requiring chemical washing or lift-off processes. As a result, high-quality vapor-deposited metal patterns can be directly formed on organic stacks while minimizing damage to the underlying organic device layers.