Recently, a research team of scientists at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities produced an OLED display by 3D printing for the first time and published it in “Science Advances” in the magazine. The discovery could result in low-cost OLED displays in the future that could be widely produced using 3D printers by anyone at home, instead of by technicians inexpensive microfabrication facilities.

It is understood that to achieve 3D printing and production of OLED displays, the researchers customized a 3D printer and tried two different printing modes. The scientist used extrusion printing to make the electrodes, encapsulation, insulation and interconnects, while active layers were spray-painted at room temperature. The prototype had a 1.5-inch with a pixel of 64×64 OLED display, and every pixel works fine. Any practical uses would require much higher resolutions (a 1080p display requires over 2 million pixels), and the scientists also want to improve brightness
In addition, the researchers also performed 2,000 bending tests on the OLED display, and the display still works normally, which means that it is expected to be used in flexible OLED displays in wearable devices.
Source : Materials provided by University of Minnesota