Organic light-emitting diode display device and method of fabricating the same

An organic light-emitting diode (OLED) display device, comprising:

• a substrate including a display area and a pad area;
• a gate line and a data line in the display area;
• a pad line and a pad electrode in the pad area;
• a patterned anode in the display area;
• and
• an encapsulation layer on the substrate for covering the display area,
• wherein the pad area is exposed without being covered by the encapsulation layer to couple a flexible printed circuit board,
• wherein the pad electrode is a three-layered structure,
• wherein an uppermost layer and a lowermost layer of the three-layered structure are of the same material,
• wherein an intermediate layer of the three-layered structure is comprised of a low resistive material compared with materials of the uppermost and lowermost layers,
• wherein the uppermost layer is in contact with both sides of the lowermost layer to seal the intermediate layer, and
• wherein the pad line is comprised of a conductive material to transfer a scan signal and a data signal to the gate line and the data line, respectively, and is disposed below the lowermost layer and contacted with the lowermost layer.

A method of fabricating an organic light-emitting diode (OLED) display device, the method comprising:

• forming a thin film transistor on a display area of a substrate;
• forming a pad electrode having a three-layered structure on a pad area of the substrate;
• forming an open hole exposing a portion of an uppermost layer of the pad electrode by selectively etching a passivation layer on the pad area;
• and
• patterning an anode on the passivation layer over the thin film transistor by etching,
• wherein the uppermost layer exposed via the open hole is not etched during the patterning of the anode.