Flexible organic light‐emitting‐diode‐based photonic skin for attachable phototherapeutics

Abstract

Phototherapeutics is both safely noninvasive and can be employed to treat a variety of sites and diseases. Current rigid and bulky conventional light sources, such as LED or laser-based phototherapy devices, are difficult to transport and use for regular irradiation treatments. To solve this problem, flexible organic light-emitting diode (OLED) light sources are the best candidates, and if applied very thinly as a skin-like platform, the ultimate attachable phototherapeutics can be realized. We demonstrated a very thin flexible OLEDbased photonic skin with a total thickness of 6 μm for application in attachable phototherapeutics. It was optimized by controlling the peak wavelengths (600-700 nm) and irradiation interval of the flexible OLED thus improving the regeneration effect of the artificial skin by up to 70%. In addition, when the flexible OLED-based photonic skin was attached to a dressing film before being applied to the skin, it delivered the same electro-optical properties, while protecting against external contamination. The OLED skin on the dressing film had an operating lifetime of more than 100 h. These results confirmed the applicability of flexible OLED-based photonic skin to various light treatment areas, such as surgical wounds that require periodic irradiation.

Advances in Perovskite Light-Emitting Diodes Possessing Improved Lifetime

“…In general, the utilization of ultraviolet (UV)-cured epoxy and cover glass along with a desiccant inside devices is the most common approach for the encapsulation of bottom-emitting PeLEDs (Figure 1c). On the other side, although the top-emitting PeLED (Figure 1d) or transparent PeLED (Figure 1e) has been negligibly reported until now, the thin-film encapsulation technique is believed to be widely used for these types of PeLEDs in the near future according to the development of top-emitting or transparent OLEDs and Cd-based QD-LEDs [104][105][106]. In addition, thin-film encapsulations are also broadly adopted in flexible PeLEDs.…”

Conformable on-skin devices for thermo-electro-tactile stimulation: materials, design, and fabrication

“…260 Current rigid and bulky conventional light sources are however difficult to transport and use for regular irradiation treatments. 277 Skin-mountable conformable devices -comprising µLEDs, flexible OLEDs, quantum dots displays and other thin technologies -can overcome these limitations, paving the way for developing lightweight, portable, comfortable devices capable of providing on-demand, continuous treatment. 43,260,277,278 Materials Advances Accepted Manuscript (Figure 8c).…”

“…43,260,277,278 Materials Advances Accepted Manuscript (Figure 8c). 277 strain without a decrease in performance. 44 In particular, the authors proposed a laserprogrammable buckling process in order to create ordered buckles on the OLEDs, which permitted controllable stretch-release cycles and enhanced stretchability and mechanical robustness of the device.…”

“…Optical images of the (ii) device as prepared, (iii) mounted on skin, and (iv) working upon wrinkling. Reproduced from ref 277. with permission from John Wiley & Sons.…”

Optical performance characterization of curved OLED light sources

“…When a rigid glass substrate is used, the OLED panel cannot be bent. However, in the case of thin substrate plastic foil, the OLED can be bent or rolled; that is, it is flexible 5–17 …”