December 2004

Universal display has won a US Army SBIR Phase I project (titled "Flexible Day/Nighttime Phosphorescent OLED Displays") to develop a top-emission infra-red PHOLED on metal foil for use in military applications.;

The idea is to incorporate those infra-red OLEDs into a color display with regular full-color emitting pixels so a display can work in both daytime and nighttime. And that display will be flexible and rugged.

Cambridge-based Plastic Logic will collaborate with E-Ink to produce flexible e-paper panels. Plastic Logic also signed a deal with Siemens to develop flexible screens for mobiles. Plastic Logic is understood to be working on A5-sized (14.8x21 cm) standalone screens that could act as auxiliary displays for mobiles, and would at the very least be more robust than conventional screens using glass substrates.

Plastic Logic says it will be able to offer 100dpi resolution E-Ink screens in 2005 and up to 150dpi the following year, when A4 (21x29.7cm) screens will also be available.

Ovideon released a new multimedia player, the AVIAh. It's an ultra slim, compact, flexible and extremely portable player and recorder with an integrated TV/Cable Tuner. It has a 521x218 OLED panel (2.2") that offers phenomenal moving picture performance with its 5ms response time and "striking brightness, accurate color temperature and unlimited viewing angle".

Shanghai SVA NEC LCD has developed a new 0.8" color PMOLED panel. The company already makes monochrome PMOLED panels (in red, blue and green) and this is their first color one. The company is still testing aging, and lifespan to make sure it meets international standards.

SVA NEC also revealed it is testing production of 1.8" color PMOLED panel for mobile applications.

Cambridge Display Technology today announced that its initial public offering of 2,500,000 shares of common stock was priced at $12.00 per share. CDT's common stock will be traded on the Nasdaq under the ticker OLED.

The offering is expected to close on December 21, 2004.

Merck announced today that it will acquire the Lumitec OLED R&D project of Schott AG. All 20 employees involved in the R&D project have been offered positions with Merck.

Merck expects to complete the transaction in early January 2005. The purchase includes unlimited exclusive licenses for the business-related patents and associated assets of the project. The Lumitec OLED project involves ITO coated glass substrates. The Lumitec project will be integrated into Merck's Liquid Crystal division.

Luxell announced today that in has expanded its IP portfolio in the area of Flat Panel displays. Luxell also further re-enforced its exclusive rights to its revolutionary Black Layer contrast enhancement technique by advancing its most recent filing (PCT/CA03/00904) into the national phase.

This latest disclosure relates to various methods whereby the Black Layer advantage may be realized in both top and bottom emission OLED displays.

Universal Display and Seiko Epson announced that they will work to apply UDC's PHOLED materials to Epson's high-speed ink-jet printing process.

Samsung and Sony announced an extensive cross-licensing agreement that will help them fill gaps in their patent portfolios and potentially avoid lawsuits.

The deal includes many patents - but doesn't include OLED related patents.

Seiko Epson is on schedule to commercialize OLED TV technology in 2007 according to a company executive. There are still some significant research issues to overcome though. Epson's initial goal is to double the current OLED screen lifetime (to 4,000 hours) by mid-2005 and reach the 10,000 hour mark by 2007. Later in 2007 they will reach 15,000 hours - which will be enough for watching 4 hours per day for over 10 years.

Seiko Epson estimates that the lifetime will double again in 2007. According to the company an OLED TV will cost a bit less than a PDP or LCD TV of the same screen size in 2007. OLEDs will be cheaper as they are easier to make and use less materials (no backlighting and color filters).