Solution based OLEDs - Page 19

UDC and Seiko Epson signed a settlement and license agreement over OLED patents and inkjet printing patent. There is not a lot of information available yet, besides the Following Form 8K:

UDC entered into a Settlement and License Agreement with Seiko Epson Corporation ("Epson"). Under the terms of the agreement, the Registrant licensed one of its ink jet printing patents and certain related patent filings to Epson. Epson's license rights include the right to grant sublicenses to third parties, subject to specified limitations in the agreement. In consideration of the license, the parties resolved outstanding issues concerning the licensed patent rights and Epson agreed to pay a fixed amount to the Registrant. If, within a specified period of time, the parties enter into a broader license agreement covering other aspects of the Registrant's OLED patent portfolio, this amount is creditable against license fees and royalties payable under that broader license agreement.

CDT has entered new geographical territory with the sale of inkjet printing equipment to the Genius Institute of Technology in Brazil. The Institute will use the equipment to develop its expertise in inkjet printing for polymer organic light emitting diode (PLED) technology.

The Litrex 70 printer is capable of printing on substrates up to 200 mm square at up to 120 pixels per inch, and is ideal for research and development of PLED materials and devices.

Cambridge Display Technology and Litrex Corporation are paving the way for the production of a new generation of high resolution polymer organic light emitting displays (PLED, or P-OLED) through the development of an inkjet printing solution capable of producing PLED displays at up to 200 pixels per inch (ppi).

Cambridge Display Technology announces the sale of a sophisticated Eclipse display test system to Merck OLED Materials GmbH, based in Frankfurt, Germany. The equipment will be used to enhance productivity in the development and evaluation of materials for organic light emitting diode displays. The Eclipse system to be supplied to Merck consists of 192 digital source-measure channels and associated hardware and software, some of which has been customized for Merck's particular requirements.

UDC and Mitsubishi Chemical Announce Agreement to Collaborate on Ink Jet Printable OLED Materials Development. The Collaboration is Directed Towards Developing Materials for use in Phosphorescent OLED Displays Fabricated Through Solution or "Wet" Processing Methods.

"Collaborating with a world-class chemical company like Mitsubishi Chemical allows us to share ideas and help each other reach the next level of innovation for OLED materials based on our PHOLED™ phosphorescent OLED technology and Mitsubishi Chemical's expertise in OLED chemicals and ink formulation," said Steven V. Abramson, President and Chief Operating Officer of Universal Display. "Mitsubishi Chemical's commitment to printable phosphorescent OLEDs, which we call P2OLEDs™, indicates that ink jet printable PHOLED technology has real commercial potential. By working in concert on the development of next-generation P2OLED materials with Mitsubishi Chemical, we hope to accelerate this process."

Ron Mertens from OLED-Info.com recently had the opportunity to interview Janice Mahon, Universal Display's VP of technology commercialization.

Janice, could you give a small introduction about UDC, and about your PHOLED products?

Universal Display Corporation (NASDAQ: PANL) is a world leader in the development of innovative OLED technology for use in flat panel displays, lighting and other opto-electronics applications. Founded in 1994, Universal Display provides state-of-the-art OLED technology and services to OLED manufacturers to enhance their products' features and competitive advantage. We have developed proprietary OLED technologies and materials that should provide dramatically enhanced display performance at lower costs than today's liquid crystal displays.

imaging Technology international (iTi) announces the opening of its Inkjet Development Laboratory (IDL) for rental to customers. The IDL enables developers to test inkjet materials and processes on iTi's complete line of development tools at a fraction of the cost of purchasing such equipment.
The IDL is ideal for companies exploring inkjet's potential for nanoparticle fluids, printable electronics, organic electronics, OLED and PLED flat panel displays, touch panels, biomedical and other applications that benefit from the digital control and precise fluid metering offered by inkjet technology.

In addition to its development of OLED displays, Epson has researched the characteristics of OLED as an electronic device. Specifically, Epson has succeeded in creating a print head that uses OLED as a light source (OLED print head), opening the way for utilization of OLED as a new printing technology for printers.

At present, electro-photographic printing technologies for copiers and printers use either laser or LED light sources. Epson merged the many years of expertise it had accumulated in printing and display technology, and partnered with Sumitomo Chemical Co., Ltd. to jointly develop a super bright OLED that can be used in printing. Printing tests using a prototype of an OLED-based print head have produced printouts quality comparable to or better than those produced by conventional laser printers.

Universal Display says there is no row between it and UK organic LED company Cambridge Display Technology following a patent UDC revealed recently. The patent is primarily about the ability to ink-jet print OLEDs using small molecular materials, instead of polymeric materials, for light emission, Janice Mahon, v-p of technology commercialisation at US-based UDC told Electronics Weekly. CDT’s patents largely cover polymeric emissive materials and it is unlikely the patent will cause a conflict.

However, while UDC’s technology in this new patent is fundamentally small-molecule and not polymer, UDC’s patent portfolio broadly covers phosphorescent OLED technology, said UDC’s Mahon. It is too early to tell what structures will be commercialised. We have a very important phosphorescent portfolio just as CDT has a very important polymer portfolio, said Mahon. Mahon added: The competition is LCD, it is not polymer versus small molecule.

CDT announced today that it has acquired an important portfolio of patent rights from Maxdem Inc. The portfolio includes five US patent applications and their foreign equivalents relating to new light emitting polymer compositions and applications. The deal also includes a license to a large number of patents / applications relating to polyphenylene polymers and other polymer compositions and purification methods. These are expected to be useful in future materials improvements.

Included in the acquisition from Maxdem is a patent application for the invention of phosphorescent compositions containing a critical class of polymer materials in combination with metals / metal ions. CDT believes this provides a fundamental position in the use of conjugated polymers to achieve high efficiency phosphorescent emission in solution processable devices, whether for ink jet printing or any other means of solution processing.

Update: In March 2011, we posted a follow-up interview with Andy, updating us on Plextronics' business and technology.

OLED-Info.com recently had the opportunity to interview Andy Hannah, the CEO and President of Plextronics. Plextronics was founded in 2002, as a spin-out from Carnegie Mellon University, and is developing critical technology that enables broad market commercialization of organic electronic devices. Such devices include plastic chips, polymer solar cells and organic lights and sensors.

Q: You have developed an optimized hole injection layer for PLED devices. Can you explain that?

The hole injection layer or HIL functions as a gatekeeper that balances the flow of electricity into the OLED, improving the efficiency of generated light, and smoothing out any rough electrodes that would otherwise cause rapid device failure. Plextronics has developed Plexcore HIL, a non-acidic, solvent-based ink that when printed using spin-cast or inkjet techniques form carefully tuned thin-films that function as the HIL.