Solution based OLEDs - Page 17

Researchers working in the European ROLLED project have developed a flexible OLED element that can be mass produced using roll-to-roll printing technology. The OLED elements can be used to add value to product packages. The new method is considerably cheaper than the traditional manufacturing method. The project was coordinated by VTT,and project participants included INM, CSEM, Ciba, Hansaprint, UPM and PolylC.

ROLLED project flexible element prototype

The OLED element developed under the ROLLED project is made from organic materials and is encapsulated in a moisture barrier film. The element is 200-250 micrometers thick, the equivalent to three or four sheets of paper.

After receiving investments totaling billions of dollars over the past decade, the OLED industry is finally poised to take off. According to NanoMarkets, an industry analyst firm based here, the markets for OLED materials will reach $2.7 billion by 2015.

Alps Electric Co developed a P-OLED panel using printing technology. The panel uses a film substrate on which a getter, in addition to the emission layer and the electrodes, is formed by printing. The getter is used to absorb water, etc.

The emission colors are yellow and white. Both types have a luminance of 100cd/m2. The luminance half-life of the yellow emission type is longer than 1,000 hours and that of the white type is longer than 300 hours. The drive voltage of both types is 7-25V.

The latest polymer OLED panel was developed in collaboration with Add-Vision Inc, according to Alps.

In June 2008, I had the chance of interviewing Dr. Geoff Williams, Topless's project manager. Geoff has a PhD from University of Durham, and later worked in Philips Displays and he now works in Thorn lighting.

CDT, Sumitomo and Novaled plan to co-develop hybrid OLED devices combining both new polymer emitting layers and doped electron transport layers. It is expected that these hybrid devices will offer further improvements in power efficiency without additional manufacturing complexity. The parties have reached an agreement on how IP generated during the JDA will be handled. Further, Novaled will grant a license to CDT enabling CDT to add necessary Novaled device IP to its existing and future licenses. Each company will remain responsible to market its own materials resulting from this co-development.

CDT continues to focus its effort on supporting the PLED supply chain and is pleased to be involved in yet another joint development project which has the potential of bringing new materials and improved device performance to our licensees, says David Fyfe, CEO of CDT.

Universal Display Corporation will today report advances in the development of P2OLED™, printable, phosphorescent OLED, material systems for use with ink-jet printing processes at the Society for Information Display’s (SID) 2008.

Presenting on a joint paper with Seiko Epson Corporation, Dr. Sean Xia, Senior Research Scientist at Universal Display, will describe advances in red, green and blue P2OLED material systems. Dr. Xia will also discuss the companies’ demonstration of ink-jet printed P2OLED technology and their continuing work to achieve commercial entry performance goals. Ink-jet printing has the potential to be a cost-effective approach for the production of large-area OLED displays.

The collaborative paper is the result of a joint development program during which the two companies successfully demonstrated the compatibility of Universal Display’s P2OLED technology and materials with Epson’s proprietary ink-jet printing process technology.

Through continued development using spin-coating techniques, the team has doubled the projected operating lifetime of its red P2OLED system since late last year to 100,000 hours (from an initial luminance of 500 cd/m2) with CIE coordinates of (0.67, 0.33) and a luminous efficiency of 12 candelas per Ampere (cd/A). The team also improved the projected lifetime of its green P2OLED system with CIE(0.33, 0.62) and a luminous efficiency of 34 cd/A to 63,000 hours (from an initial luminance of 1,000 cd/m2).

The team also made progress in the development of two blue P2OLED systems. A light blue P2OLED system with CIE(0.18, 0.39) and a luminous efficiency of 19 cd/A now has a projected lifetime of 6,000 hours from an initial luminance of 500 cd/m2, also twice that reported late last year. A new blue P2OLED system has more saturated color, with CIE(0.15, 0.22), a luminous efficiency of 6 cd/A and a projected lifetime of 1,000 hours (from an initial luminance of 500 cd/m2).

Universal Display’s PHOLED technology and materials, which offer up to four times higher energy efficiency than traditional OLED systems, are today being incorporated in products manufactured using conventional vacuum thermal evaporation (VTE) equipment. Universal Display’s P2OLED materials and technology are based on this same PHOLED technology, but are designed for use with solution-based manufacturing processes such as ink-jet printing.

Sumitomo now says they have been "misquoted" - they will not be able to make large OLED TVs in 2009. They are still working on the tech (with several partners), and a source at CDT (who was acquired by Sumitomo a year ago) says the displays might indeed be ink-jet "printed"

DuPont and Dainippon Screen Manufacturing Co. today announced their intention to form a strategic alliance to develop integrated manufacturing equipment for printed organic light emitting diode (OLED) displays. The companies have also signed an agreement relating to their intention to bring together the elements needed--materials, technology and equipment--to mass produce OLED displays, delivering higher performance at a lower cost.

"The flat panel display market is about $100 billion annually and growing. DuPont is applying its science to make possible more vivid displays that are lower cost than current LCD displays," said David B. Miller, group vice president, DuPont Electronic & Communication Technologies. "We are excited to combine our strengths with Dainippon Screen's unique printing technology to bring to market the core technology that will enable improved high definition televisions and other flat panel displays."

Lighting utilizing OLED could benefit from printing as a manufacturing technique because it can add to its cost effectiveness, says a new report from NanoMarkets, an industry analysis firm.

OLEDs have advantages over other lighting technologies because they combine high brightness with an ability to be fabricated on a thin, flexible display. These are properties that open up opportunities for OLED lighting in architectural lighting, vehicular lighting, and other areas says NanoMarkets. With the improvements in functional printing and the arrival of small molecules inks, it is likely that a higher proportion of OLEDs will be printed because of greater cost effectiveness, states the report. NanoMarkets projects that OLED and other printed lighting markets could possibly reach almost $2.5 billion in the next seven years.

About the report: As new opportunities rapidly emerge in energy efficient solid-state lighting, new manufacturing approaches are also assuming more importance and these include printing. Electroluminescent (EL) lighting has been printed for years, but this report goes beyond EL and includes discussions of other forms of printed lighting, including systems based on carbon nanotube emissions and especially on OLEDs. The report, Printable Electronics Market Outlook: Printed Lighting, reviews the market potential for all of the main applications for printed lighting from simple backlighting applications to sophisticated architectural lighting. It also provides data on the performance criteria for printed lighting and profiles some of the leading firms and government projects exploring printed lighting technology, discusses recent events in this field. Finally, it provides an eight-year market forecast of the revenues that NanoMarkets expects from printed lighting with break outs by both technology and applications segment.

Mitsubishi Chemical is considering making OLED panels by an ink-jet printing process in order to lower production costs.

The ink-jet process is believed to be more efficient than the existing evaporation coating.