Organic Semiconductor Resources

Glove Box (Glovebox) Uses, Leaks, and Design

Scientific glove boxes create a sealed environment for work that involves hazardous materials or samples that react with air. The main chamber of such a glove box is generally filled with an inert gas, usually Nitrogen.

WRITTEN GUIDE

Spin Coating: Complete Guide to Theory and Techniques

Spin coating is a common technique for applying thin films to substrates. When a solution of a material and a solvent is spun at high speeds, the centripetal force and the surface tension of the liquid together create an even covering.

WRITTEN GUIDE

Dip Coating: Practical Guide to Theory and Troubleshooting

Dip coating is a simple and effective technique which is commonly used in manufacturing across a wide range of different industries. Within research and development, it has become an important coating method for the fabrication of thin films using a purpose-built dip coater.

WRITTEN GUIDE

Solution-Processing Techniques: A Comparison

When it comes to depositing highly-uniform wet thin films, there are many different solution-processing techniques capable of producing high-quality films at low cost.

WRITTEN GUIDE

Contact Angle: A Guide to Theory and Measurement

This guide will explain what a contact angle is and how it is measured. It will also show you how the Ossila Contact Angle Goniometer works and how to get the best measurement results.

WRITTEN GUIDE

Thermally Activated Delayed Fluorescence (TADF)

Thermally Activated Delayed Fluorescence (TADF) is a mechanism by which triplet state electrons can be harvested to generate fluorescence.

WRITTEN GUIDE

A Guide to Surface Energy

Surface free energy is a measure of the excess energy present at the surface of a material, in comparison to at its bulk. It can be used to describe wetting and adhesion between materials.

WRITTEN GUIDE

Contact Angle Measurements of Surface Wetting

Surface wetting occurs when a droplet spreads out over a surface, such that its contact angle is below 90°. When the droplet spreads out completely, this angle will be 0°, and 'complete wetting' will have occurred.

WRITTEN GUIDE

Contact Angle Measurements on Uneven Surfaces

In this guide we will use the Ossila Contact Angle software to measure a droplet on an uneven surface.

WRITTEN GUIDE

Sheet Resistance: A Guide to Theory

This guide explains the theory behind sheet resistance, an electrical property of thin films of materials, and demonstrates how the four-probe method can be used to measure it.

WRITTEN GUIDE

Four-Point Probe Measurement Guide

This guide gives an overview of how to use the Ossila Four-Point Probe System, as well as some general tips and tricks for measuring sheet resistance.

WRITTEN GUIDE

Sheet Resistance Measurements of Thin Films

Sheet resistance (or surface resistivity) is an important property of many materials, quantifying the ability for charge to travel along uniform thin films.

WRITTEN GUIDE

Slot-Die Coating: Practical Guide to Theory and Troubleshooting

Slot-die coating is an extremely versatile deposition technique in which a solution is delivered onto a substrate via a narrow slot positioned close to the surface.

WRITTEN GUIDE

Solar Cells: A Guide to Theory and Measurement

A solar cell is a device that converts light into electricity via the ‘photovoltaic effect’. They are also commonly called ‘photovoltaic cells’ after this phenomenon, and also to differentiate them from solar thermal devices.

WRITTEN GUIDE

I-V Curves: A Guide to Measurement

An I-V curve (short for 'current-voltage characteristic curve'), is a graphical representation of the relationship between the voltage applied across an electrical device and the current flowing through it.

WRITTEN GUIDE

Organic Photovoltaics: An Introduction

Organic photovoltaics (OPVs) have received widespread attention due to promising qualities, such as solution processability, tunable electronic properties, low temperature manufacture, and cheap and light materials.

WRITTEN GUIDE

Organic Photovoltaics vs. 2nd-Generation Solar Cell Technologies

Due to their high efficiency and well-established manufacture, crystalline silicon (c-Si) solar cells currently dominate the solar cell market.

WRITTEN GUIDE

Organic Photovoltaics vs 3rd-Generation Solar Cell Technologies

Whilst the majority of commercial solar cells are currently made using crystalline silicon (c-Si), thin-film alternatives have the potential to be cheaper, flexible, and more straightforward to produce.

WRITTEN GUIDE

OPV and OLED Fabrication Guide

Ossila’s pre-patterned ITO substrates are used for a wide variety of teaching and research devices (both organic and inorganic) where a high-quality ITO surface is required.

WRITTEN GUIDE

Large-Scale Deposition of Organic Solar Cells

Whilst organic photovoltaic (OPV) efficiencies have exceeded 14% in research, the majority of proposed systems are small-scale devices manufactured using spin coating which wastes large amounts of materials, and is a batch processing technique.

WRITTEN GUIDE

Green Solvents for Organic Photovoltaics

Whilst efficiencies of lab-scale organic photovoltaic (OPV) cells have continued to rise in recent years, the majority of systems use aromatic halogenated solvents to dissolve the active layer.

WRITTEN GUIDE

Perovskites and Perovskite Solar Cells - An Introduction

The rapid improvement of perovskite solar cells has made them the rising star of the photovoltaics world and of huge interest to the academic community.

WRITTEN GUIDE

Perovskite Fabrication

This guide describes our recommended fabrication routine for perovskite solar cells using Ossila I101 Perovskite Precursor Ink which is designed to be used with a bottom ITO/PEDOT:PSS anode and a top PC70BM/Ca/Al cathode.

WRITTEN GUIDE

FTO Substrates: Adapting Unpatterened Substrates for Photovoltaic Devices

As part of our photovoltaic substrate system, Ossila offers patterned Indium Tin Oxide (ITO) substrates which are designed to work with our evaporation masks to create multi pixel devices.

WRITTEN GUIDE

Solution Based OFETs

This guide describes the fabrication of evaporation-free OFETs using the Ossila pre-patterned ITO OFET substrates (product codes S161 & S162).

WRITTEN GUIDE

OLED Testing Guide

This guide gives you an overview of what to consider when characterising an OLED, as well as tips for their measurement.

WRITTEN GUIDE

Xtralien Scientific Python (Legacy)

The Xtralien Scientific Python distribution is a development environment aimed at scientists and includes all the relevant tools and libraries that a scientist will need to get started.

WRITTEN GUIDE

Getting Started with the X100 Source Measure Unit (Legacy)

The X100 (now discontinued, see X200 Source Measure Unit instead) is a powerful and versatile device. The tutorials and demos on this page are intended to help get you started with the X100 and make device characterisation as easy as possible.

WRITTEN GUIDE

What is an OLED?

The acronym ‘OLED’ stands for Organic Light-Emitting Diode - a technology that uses LEDs in which the light is produced by organic molecules. These organic LEDs are used to create what are considered to be the world’s best display panels.

SYSTEM OVERVIEW

Photovoltaic Substrate Overview

Ossila's photovoltaic substrates have been developed to maximise performance and fabrication efficiency for a range of modern photovoltaic device types where ITO series resistance becomes critical.

SYSTEM OVERVIEW

OLED Substrate (Pixelated Anode) System Overview

The schematics below show the layout of the substrates along with the available deposition shadow masks. The pixelated anode substrates come with six ITO fingers which define the pixels plus an additional cathode bus-bar.

SYSTEM OVERVIEW

Low Density OFET Fabrication System Overview and Schematic

The below diagram shows an exploded view of how the evaporation stack fits together. At the base of the system is the lower support which prevents the thin and flexible shadow masks from warping.

SYSTEM OVERVIEW

High Density OFET Fabrication System Overview and Schematic

The below diagram shows an exploded view of how the evaporation stack fits together. At the base of the system is the lower support which prevents the thin and flexible shadow masks from warping.

SYSTEM OVERVIEW

Solution Processed OFET Substrate System Overview

The exploded diagram below illustrates the layers typically used with the evaporation-free OFET substrates. The substrates contain pre-patterned ITO source-drain contacts onto which the semiconductor is deposited before a gate insulator is spun on top and finally the gate material finishes the device.

SYSTEM OVERVIEW

Long Channel OFET Fabrication System Overview

The Long Channel Organic Field-Effect Transistor (OFET) source/drain evaporation stack is designed to make fabrication as simple as possible so you can focus on material testing rather than fabrication.

VIDEO

Making OLED and OPV solar cells: Quickstart Guide

Organic photovoltaic cells (OPVs) or organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs) can be easily manufactured using Ossila’s pre-patterned ITO substrates and a few simple spin coating and evaporating steps.

VIDEO

OLED Testing Guide

This guide gives an overview of what to consider when characterising an OLED, as well as tips for their measurement.

VIDEO

OLED Lifetime Measurement Guide

This video guide gives an overview of how to measure the lifetime of OLED devices.

VIDEO

How to make an OFET in just 60 seconds using Ossila test chips

This video shows how to make an OFET in just 60 seconds in order to perform OFET mobility measurements or to act as a chemFET (also called a chemical field effect transistor or OFET sensor).

VIDEO

How to connect electrical legs to glass-ITO substrates

This video demonstrates how to connect electrical legs to substrates for measurement using zero insertion force (ZIF) sockets.

VIDEO

How to filter PEDOT:PSS with a rubber-free syringe and PVDF filter

This video demonstrates how to filter PEDOT:PSS with an Ossila rubber-free syringe and a PES filter in preparation for spin coating onto a substrate.

VIDEO

How to load the low density OFET evaporation stack

This video demonstrates how to load up the low density OFET stack ready to thermally evaporate the source-drain contacts compatible with most common OFET architectures.

VIDEO

How to encapsulate PV and LED devices with a UV curable epoxy

This video shows how to use a UV curable epoxy and a glass coverslip to encapsulate PV and LED devices.

VIDEO

Demonstration of spin coating flexible substrates with parafilm

If you have ever wondered how to spin coat thin and flexible substrates this video shows how simple it can be and the benefit of using a vacuum free chuck such as on the Ossila spin coater.

VIDEO

How to clean substrates for photovoltaic or OLED fabrication

This video provides a walk through guide on how to clean substrates for photovoltaic and OLED fabrication.

VIDEO

Demonstration of dynamic dispense for spin coating

This video demonstrates the dynamic dispense of an ink onto a spinning substrate. By using a dynamic dispense it's possible to get even coverage using much lower volumes of solution than using a static dispense so long as the wetting properties are suitable.

VIDEO

How to use the Ossila OLED / OPV testboard

This video shows how to set up the connections to the Ossila USB testboard to light up a sequence of pixels on an OLED substrate. A program was written to select and test this particular sequence of pixels.

LITERATURE REVIEW

A PhD Student Condenses: The Impact of OPV Processing Conditions

While a large part of research into the bulk heterojunction morphology of organic solar cells focuses on component choice,1 the morphology is also tuned by a host of processing conditions.

LITERATURE REVIEW

A PhD Student Condenses: ITIC & its Derivatives as OPV Acceptors

Of the significant efforts in research devoted to NFAs, the proposal of the fused-ring system ‘ITIC’ in 2015 has generated the most success.

LITERATURE REVIEW

A PhD Student Condenses: Fine-Tuning A-D-A Small-Molecule Acceptors

Typically, polymer-based organic semiconductors (OSCs) are associated with OPVs. However, small molecules are also showing significant promise in terms of NFAs,2–4 and have similarly tunable properties (such as band-gap width).

LITERATURE REVIEW

A PhD Student Condenses: Factors Influencing OPV Stability

Typically, organic photovoltaics (OPVs) are manufactured in the form of a bulk heterojunction (BHJ) cell, where the active layer consists of a blend of donor and acceptor materials with various interfacial layers and electrodes.

LITERATURE REVIEW

A PhD Student Condenses: Introduction to Ternary Organic Solar Cells

The majority of organic photovoltaics (OPVs) in research are based upon a binary active-layer mixture (of donor and acceptor materials) in the form of a bulk heterojunction (BHJ).

ARTICLE

A PhD Student Condenses: Coding for New Researchers

What programming should I use? How could I learn? How could I process large amounts of data? This article aims to clear up some of those questions for anyone in a similar position, and to encourage readers to start exploring the area for themselves.

DOWNLOADS

Software and Drivers

The latest software and drivers including our cyclic voltammetry software for the Ossila Potentiostat and more.