IM3OLED Project to Develop Multi-Scale OLED Modeling tool

The EU-funded IM3OLED (Integrated Multidisciplinary & Multiscale Modeling for Organic Light-Emitting Diodes) project – coordinated by Holst Centre and the Russian National Research Nuclear University MEPhI – has officially been launched. An international collaboration with the Russian Federation, the project aims to develop a software tool for multiscale OLED modeling. Such a tool would help the OLED industry escape today’s “trial-and-error” development and accelerate towards the goal of 150 lumens per watt devices.

Overall OLED efficiency depends on many factors: the properties of the light emitting molecules, deposition on to the substrate, integration into a device, extracting the light from the active layer and the device, heat management and more. Complicating things further, many of these factors are interlinked. For example, how the device heats up in operation may affect the molecules’ ability to generate light and the way light travels through the device. This makes it extremely difficult to predict how innovations in one area will affect performance in others, leading to a trial-and-error approach in R&D.

IM3OLED aims to help the OLED industry speed up development by creating new modeling software that allows a more systematic R&D process. This software toolset will predictively model OLEDs in 3D and at all length scales – from molecular to large-area devices. It will include molecular calculations, electrical and optical simulation, 1D-3D light extraction and scaling / integration effects. Importantly, the tool will incorporate a dynamic feedback loop, enabling developers to accurately predict how changes in one area of OLED development affect other areas. This will allow multiple OLED properties to be optimized simultaneously.

“IM3OLED will develop, evaluate and validate a predictive multi-scale and multi-disciplinary modeling tool. Making such a tool available will accelerate progress of OLEDs for lighting applications and allow the European OLED industry to strengthen its leading position in this environmentally important, global market,” said project coordinator Stephan Harkema.
Euro-Russian network of industrial and academic partners

IM3OLED brings together industrial and academic partners from across Europe and the Russian Federation and is coordinated by TNO/Holst Centre and by National Research Nuclear University MEPhI. Industrial partners include OLED manufacturer Philips Electronics and specialist in simulation software SMEs Fluxim of Switzerland and Kintech of Russia.

Academic partners include leading computational physics and atomic / molecular modeling groups from the Zurich University of Applied Science (ZHAW) and Russian Academy of Sciences’ Photochemistry Center (PCC RAS).

Funded through the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7NMP Grant no 295368), the EU portion of the IM3OLED project will run for 30 months until late 2013.