Aixtron is to take part in the OPAL 2008 (Organic Phosphorescent lights for Applications in the Lighting market 2008) R&D project in a consortium with Osram, Philips, BASF and Applied Materials. The project will use Aixtron's Organic Vapor Phase Deposition (OVPD) technology platform.

OPAL 2008's aim is to develop OLED production technology capable of achieving a target cost of a few Euro cent per cm² for a high performance white OLED device, with the ultimate goal of introducing the new lighting technology into the market.

Read more here

The Angel One's electronics have gotten a major update as well, with changes to every aspect of the board's design and operation. Gone is the LCD display that showed about halfway down the grip panel, now replaced with an Organic LED display located at the top of the grip. The interface to the board has changed as well, using a wheel type of switch turn the marker on and off, and change the settings on the board. The OLED display was easy to read in all lighting conditions, including through a tinted mask lens on a bright Florida afternoon.

Source - 68Caliber.com 

Cambridge display technology provided the following update in its latest 8-K filing, announcing a new licensee in Japan.

The Licensee will pay an upfront fee to CDT in three installments, 50% of the up front fee by September 30th, 2006, 40% on April 1st, 2007 and 10% on December 1st, 2008 and will also pay royalties based on its sales revenues for products which incorporate LEP technology. The Licensee will be obligated to pay CDT a minimum royalty after a period of time after commercialization by the Licensee of products which incorporate LEP technology. The License is terminable by the Licensee on 12 months' notice.

The display is a single color (Orange) 2 line OLED screen.

With the Joint Innovation Lab (JIL) BASF is opening a research laboratory for organic electronics in Ludwigshafen on September 11. BASF will conduct research at the JIL with both industrial and academic partners into new materials in the field of organic electronics.

At present the JIL researchers are concentrating on organic light emitting diodes (OLED) and organic photovoltaics. OLEDs are flat, thin light-emitting devices made from organic semiconductive materials. As lighting panels, they offer completely new options in lighting technology, such as windows as transparent light sources or credit card sized flashlights. The researchers have calculated that in their current form OLEDs are likely to consume less than half as much power as conventional fluorescent tubes. OLEDs also have a long lifetime.

In this area, BASF Future Business GmbH has launched the project "OLEDs for appliances in the lighting market" (OPAL) together with partners from industry such as OSRAM, Philips, Aixtron AG and Applied Materials. The goal of the project is to create the scientific and technological basis for initiating the production of OLED-based lighting in Germany.
Sponsorship as part of the OLED initiative of the German Ministry of Education and Research

Samsung is set for an october release of the P310 phone. This credit card sized phone has an OLED 256k color TFT portrait display with 220 x 176 pixels.

Currently Known Specs : Micro SD card slot, supports up to 4 gigs, Bluetooth 2.0 A2DP (full stereo support), AAC, WMA, MP3 support, Stream music to and from your computer via bluetooth, 2 megapixel camera with auto-focus, 30 fps video capture, SMS, MMS, full email support, Latest version of Samsung's user-interface (vastly improved). "The other exciting feature is the screen. OLED screens are vastly superior to current screens on mobile handsets, with the exception of Sharps VGA Aquos screens. There's nothing in Sony's, Nokia's, or Motorola's arsenal that comes close."

The mobile phone sketch shows a flexible OLED display. The whole "front" of the phone is actually a touch-sensitive flexible OLED display. They have a patent on the DioVision display idea.

They say the curved display makes the image become more realistic. From the Press release: "The device named OLED dioVision® mobile is as unique as its user. Virtually every image may be read into the mobile and is shown self-luminous via the OLED-film on the front side together with the sensitive control panel. But that is not all: Via the curved inside surface of the main display, which at starting automatically switches from the plano-basic position to dioVision®, an incomparable spatial effect arises giving games, still photos and video/TV-recordings an all-time depth effect.

Cambridge Display Technology and Sumation announce rapid progress in the development of longer lifetime blue light emitting polymers suitable for full color, video capable PLED displays.

The latest data show a lifetime of 20,000 hours from an initial luminance of 400 cd/m², equivalent to over 320,000 hours from 100 cd/m². This represents a three-fold improvement over the lifetime announced a year ago, and demonstrates the fruits of the collaboration by the development teams and the strong focus on this area. It is believed that there is great potential to make further dramatic improvements.

Today Sony launches the new NW-S200 series - the essential Walkman for sports enthusiasts. The ultra compact MP3 player is styled with a distinctive design to keep the size minimal and allow easy access to the controls during exercise.

The NW-S200 series has a built-in FM tuner and is available in 512MB, 1GB and 2GB capacities, which can store up to a total of 1500 songs (on the 2GB model). A single line bright organic LED screen displays all song information, which can be oriented for both right-handed and left-handed people.

DisplaySearch revealed in its latest Quarterly OLED Shipment and Forecast Report that OLED shipments grew to 16.1M and revenues hit $112.0M in Q2'06. Organic Light Emitting Diodes (OLED) displays compete with LCDs in small/medium applications such as mobile phone main displays and subdisplays, MP3s and automotive consoles. OLED shipments increased 44% Q/Q due to 48% increase in subdisplays and a 36% growth in MP3 player sales. PMOLEDs continue to dominate the market with a revenue share of over 98%. There are 23 small molecule and 2 P-OLED producers with small molecule having a 97% revenue share.

LG jumped past Samsung SDI and RiTdisplay and led in units and revenue in Q2'06 with 3.6M displays and $27.5 in revenue. Samsung SDI was #2 in both shipments and revenue, and Pioneer moved up to #3. Recovering from a very poor Q1'06, Univision was #4 in revenue, up 361%, and RiTdisplay fell to #5.

Other news include:

• Ness Display (Singapore) closed its doors after producing 190K displays, as the company ran out of funds due to the combination of poor yields on color and the continuing reduction in ASPs. Varitronix (Hong Kong) was a major investor, and it is unclear whether they intend to take over the assets.


• Teco (Taiwan) is moving their Fab from Taiwan to China and has stopped production.


• Opto Tech (Taiwan) is attempting to find a buyer or an investor and has stopped production.


• After reaching volumes of over 700K panels/quarter, Lightronix (Taiwan) was down to 30-40K.


• AMOLED producers continue to struggle with LTPS yields, causing AUO and Chi Mei to reduce their staffing levels until the problems are resolved. Samsung SDI continues to forecast AMOLED production for Q4'06.

Read more here