Effective top-side thin film encapsulation for organic light-emitting devices (OLEDs) was achieved by deposition of a multi-layer water diffusion barrier stack to protect the device against moisture permeation. The barrier stack was formed by alternative depositions of co-oxide and fluorocarbon (CF(x)) films. The co-oxide layer was fabricated by magnetron co-sputtering of silicon dioxide (SiO(2)) and aluminum oxide (Al(2)O(3)). While the CF(x) layer was formed by plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition. The water vapor transmission rate of the optimized diffusion barrier stack can be down to 10(-6)g/m(2)/day. The OLEDs encapsulated with the multilayer stack have been shown to have operation lifetime of over 18,000 h which is nearly the same as devices with conventional glass-cover encapsulation. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.