Patterning of electrodes in oled devices with shaped pillars

摘要

An OLED device using improved pillars to facilitate patterning of a conductive layer is described. Conventional use of pillars to pattern electrodes encounters shorting problems due to piling of polymer material at the base of the pillars. This piling deteriorates the profile of the pillars which adversely impacts the ability of the pillars to pattern the conductive layer to form the electrodes. The present invention avoids the shorting problem by separating the pillars into at least first and second sub-pillars. By providing a relatively narrow gap between the sub-pillars, the amount of polymers filling the area between the gap is small. This prevents at least the sidewalls of the pillars facing the gap from being deteriorated by polymer pile-up, thus ensuring that the conductive layer is discontinuous between the sub-pillars.