biostudies-literatureWang BDOE | Office of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy | Building Technologies Office (BTO)DOE | Office of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy | Building Technologies Office703https://www.ebi.ac.uk/biostudies/studies/S-EPMC12820031biostudies-literatureUnknown17(1)Reliability is particularly challenging for organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) used in solid-state lighting applications, because OLED lifetime is inversely proportional to luminance, and most lighting applications demand high luminance. Here we introduce a strategy to overcome this tradeoff by constructing OLEDs on a substrate with sub-mm, high aspect ratio surface texture. By creating more active OLED area per unit lighting panel area, the device current density required to generate a given panel luminance decreases. We validate this approach for fluorescent and phosphorescent OLEDs, demonstrating good thickness uniformity on corrugated substrates with area enhancement factors up to 1.4x using a standard thermal evaporator. Relative to planar controls at the same panel current density, the high aspect ratio devices achieve a 2.7-fold increase in operating lifetime and up to a 40% increase in external light extraction efficiency, indicating that this approach offers a powerful pathway to improve the efficiency and lifetime of OLED lighting.Nature communicationsHigh aspect ratio organic light-emitting diodes.PMC12820031DE-EE0009694Kim TComfort DHuang CMashack RShtein MWang BKotadiya NBKondakova MArneson CEGiebink NCfalseHigh aspect ratio organic light-emitting diodes.Reliability is particularly challenging for organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) used in solid-state lighting applications, because OLED lifetime is inversely proportional to luminance, and most lighting applications demand high luminance. Here we introduce a strategy to overcome this tradeoff by constructing OLEDs on a substrate with sub-mm, high aspect ratio surface texture. By creating more active OLED area per unit lighting panel area, the device current density required to generate a given panel luminance decreases. We validate this approach for fluorescent and phosphorescent OLEDs, demonstrating good thickness uniformity on corrugated substrates with area enhancement factors up to 1.4x using a standard thermal evaporator. Relative to planar controls at the same panel current density, the high aspect ratio devices achieve a 2.7-fold increase in operating lifetime and up to a 40% increase in external light extraction efficiency, indicating that this approach offers a powerful pathway to improve the efficiency and lifetime of OLED lighting.2025-01-01T00:00:00Z2025 Dec2026-06-14T05:05:11.921Z2026-06-14T03:08:50.284ZS-EPMC128200314139052310.1038/s41467-025-67312-4