The present invention relates to structures and components for protecting organic light emitting diodes from environmental elements such as moisture and oxygen. According to a first aspect of the invention, top-emitting, high-resolution, OLED structures are provided which include a metal foil substrate; a planarization layer disposed over the metal foil substrate; an OLED stack (which includes lower and upper electrodes as well as an organic region disposed between the electrodes) disposed over the planarization layer; and a multilayer barrier region disposed over the OLED stack. A second aspect of the invention is directed to flexible, top emitting OLED structures which include the following: thin substrate region (i.e., a substrate having a thickness that is less than 200 microns); an OLED stack disposed over the flexible substrate region; a transparent upper barrier region that cooperates with the flexible substrate region to encapsulate the OLED stack, thereby protecting it from outside species such as water or oxygen; and a polymeric reinforcement layer which has a Young's Modulus ranging from about 0.3 to 7 GPa, which is disposed (i) below the substrate region, (ii) above the upper barrier region (in which case it is transparent), or (iii) both below the substrate region and above the upper barrier region.