Universal Display announced a new $750,000 SBIR Phase II project from the US Department of Energy (DOE) to develop light extraction technology for energy-efficient, solid-state lighting. The new project is titled "Novel Light Extraction Enhancements for White Phosphorescent OLEDs".

Extraction efficiency defines the amount of generated light that can be extracted, or emitted, from the device as useful light. In current OLED panels about 20% to 30% of generated light is effectively extracted as useful light.

This is the second $750,000 OLED lighting efficiency project awarded to UDC this month, the first one was about lowering the OLED device voltage.

eMagin demonstrated their first UXGA (Ultra Extended Graphics Array, 1600x1200) OLED microdisplay. This new display uses the company's bundled fiber optic elements to effectively couple four SVGA displays into a single UXGA display.

Digitimes says that Japanese OLED makers (such as SK Displays, TM Display and Hitachi) have already begain mass production of AMOLED displays, while Taiwanese companies are postponing their schedules and will not start volume production until 2005.

There are 15 AMOLED production line planned in Taiwan, Japan and Korea for 2005 according to Digitimes. Nine of these lines belong to Japanese makers. In Taiwan, the leading player seems to be RiTDisplay. The company have been showing AMOLED samples in June 2004 but they will not start mass production in 2004 as originally planned - they postponed it to 1Q 2005 due to low yields.

Agilent Technologies has announced a new product line aimed towarsd OLED testing - the Agilent 88000 series FPD array test systems. These new systems provide full TFT array testing of LTPS LCDs and AMOLED panels.

Agilent says that the new 88000 series is ultra-precise and very fast.

Opto Tech says that their PMOLED production yields have improved to over 60%, and the company is seeing stable growth in OLED orders. While analysts think that the company's strategic alliance with Japan-based Nichia to produce and sell blue LEDs will be the driving force for the company’s fourth quarter revenues, Opto Tech themselves claims it will be the improved OLED yields that push its revenues.

AU Optronics says they have developed a breakthrough technology - a double sided AMOLED that can show two separate moving images on each side of the panel.

The new AMOLED features 143 ppi and 200 nits (cd/m2) brightness. AUO says that such displays can be used in mobile phones as a dual display.

Universal Display was awarded a new $750,000 Department of Energy (DOE) SBIR II contract to lower their white phosphorescent OLED device operating voltage. The program, titled "Low Voltage, High Efficiency White Phosphorescent OLEDs for Lighting Applications" is a continuation of a DOE SBIR Phase I program awarded in 2003.

A lower voltage is important because it leads to reduction in power consumption.

EZMax's EZMP-4100 is the world's first 2GB flash-memory MP3 player. It has a 128x64 graphic PMOLED display.

Toshiba Mobile Displays (TMDisplay) is planning to start mass producing 3.5" QVGA (320x240) AMOLED displays by the end of September 2005. The company will also produce 2" OLED displays by March 2006. In 207 or 2008 the company wants to start making 10" OLEDs.

Toshiba did not say how many displays they will produce, but they do see a market emerging for these kinds of displays in portable multimedia players, for example. The 2" displays will be used in digital cameras and camcorders, and maybe mobile phones as well.

OSD Displays is introducing a new 16x2 monochrome character PLED PMOLED display featuring 160 degree viewing angles, 100:1 contrast ratio and a low 12mA of current draw at 40 nits of uniform brightness.