The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Aug. 18, 1998
Filed:
Dec. 28, 1995
Christopher J Summers, Dunwoody, GA (US);
Brent K Wagner, Marietta, GA (US);
Georgia Tech Research Corporation, Atlanta, GA (US);
Abstract
A low voltage tunnel thin film electroluminescent device (10) that comprises a conductive layer (13) that acts as a source of electrons, a first thin barrier layer (14) deposited on the conductive layer, a luminescent layer (16) deposited on the barrier layer a second thin barrier layer (14) deposited on said luminescent layer, and an electrode (18) deposited on the second barrier layer. Electrons from the source layer tunnel through the thin tunnel barrier layer into the luminescent layer which is doped with luminescent centers. The electrons that tunnel through the thin tunnel barrier layer into the luminescent layer have kinetic energy that is within a narrow energy distribution. The material comprising the first barrier layer is preferably chosen to have a positive conduction band off-set (22) with respect to the conductive layer and the material comprising the luminescent layer is chosen to have a negative conduction band off-set (24) with respect to said first barrier layer, wherein the negative conduction band off-set is greater than the positive conduction band off-set. Further, the different material layers are preferably lattice-matched and epitaxially grown in order to make the device more efficient.