Indium tin oxide (ITO) films are widely used for a transparent electrode of organic light emitting devices (OLEDs) because of its excellent conductivity and transparency. Two types of ITO substrates with different surface roughness were selected to use as anode of OLEDs. In addition, two types of etching process of ITO substrate, particularly the etching time, were also carried out. It was found that the surface roughness and/or the etching process of ITO substrate strongly influenced on an edge of ITO surface, further affected the operating characteristics and reliability of devices. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.