Thinking/Creating with Active Materials

EL screen printing

Flexible thick film EL displays are a power efficient, low intensity light source with unique morphological possibilities.

A typical Electroluminescent display is constructed by first printing a layer of phosphor ink onto a transparent conductive ITO coated film. This is followed by a layer of dielectric and conductive ink. Between the last conductive ink layer and the ITO coated film, a capacitor is formed. When high voltage, alternating current is applied a strong electric field is created across the electrodes, resulting in the emission of light in the phosphor, which can escape threw the transparent film. The flexible EL films are a power efficient, low intensity light source, commercially used for displays, backlighting to LCD displays and illuminated advertisements.

Researchers: Karmen Franinovic and Luke Franzke

This tutorial was supported with materials from Ulano Corp.