An interesting video clip about Universal Display, frrom C|Net. There are interviews with several people from UDC, and also some nice shots of the BenQ S88 phone.

For the Optimus-103 OLEDs have to be custom-made. We have to choose the manufacturer next week (there are some of them), define the specs and finance every production stage including the tooling. Tooling itself costs a minimum of US$70-100k. Production cycle takes at least three months. Every display costs about US$10. Multiply that by the number of active keys.

Read more here (Art.Lebedev blog) 

Idemitsu Kosan and Universal Display Corporation today announced that they have signed a non-exclusive collaboration agreement to accelerate the development of blue phosphorescent OLED materials. The collaboration will focus on blue phosphorescent OLED materials for use in displays fabricated through "dry" processing methods, such as vacuum thermal evaporation. The collaboration work will start between Universal Display and Idemitsu Kosan immediately after execution of their agreement.

To date, Idemitsu Kosan has been developing and commercializing mainly excellent fluorescent OLED materials (blue, green and red). Idemitsu Kosan is now supplying these materials to OLED display manufacturers throughout the world. Idemitsu Kosan is especially well-known for its blue fluorescent OLED material, which currently has the top market share in the world.

Universal Display is a leading developer of OLED technologies and materials, and holds basic patents on phosphorescent OLEDs. Many OLED display manufacturers are now evaluating Universal Display's PHOLED(TM) phosphorescent OLED technology and its red and green PHOLED materials, and Universal Display's red PHOLED material is currently being used in commercial production.

With Idemitsu Kosan's valuable experience and accomplishments in the development of blue fluorescent OLED materials, and Universal Display's leadership and pioneering efforts in phosphorescent OLED technology and materials, both companies are optimistic that they will be able to accelerate progress in the area of blue phosphorescent OLEDs through this collaboration.

Chatten Associates reports a new application for eMagin’s Z800 3DVisor. The Pennsylvania-based hardware developer has turned the popular gaming device into a controller for remotely driven vehicles.

We simply modified the 3DVisor to fit on a soldier's night vision helmet mount, noted John Chatten, CEO and president, Chatten Associates. Soldiers responsible for disposing of explosive ordnance use it as part of a head-aimed vision system to look for road-side bombs. Wherever the soldier looks, the sensor gimbal-mounted on the vehicle looks (courtesy of the Z800's motion detectors). For soldiers wearing the system, it's like being out there, except they don't get hurt if the bomb goes off."

Sony Ericsson showed a new concept phone - the CyberShot phone. It looks quite beautiful.

It's slim, has a 3.2 megapixel camera, and an OLED touch sensitive keypad.

There are a couple of videos demonstrating the Anlong MP4 watch...

The display is a 160 x 128 OLED.

The hyped Optimus keyboard is changed again - back with color, back with OLEDs.

I can assume that the hefty price tag (1200$) for the B&W LCD keyboard was just too much, and they realized that they need to do something. Even with OLED color keys - will someone pay over a 1000$ for a keyboard? We'll have to wait and see.

Read more here (ArtLebedev blog)

Sony, which has been positioning OLED and field emission display (FED) technologies for next-generation displays, has elected to focus on OLED and will spin out the FED R&D team as a separate company with the majority of investment coming from a "carve-out" fund.

Sony has been developing FED technology since the late 1990s. Sony allied with Candescent Technologies Corp. from 1998 to 2001. And after the termination of that partnership, Sony continued single-handed R&D. Its R&D team has completed a 20-inch prototype, according to a Sony spokesman.

Cambridge Display Technology entered into a material agreement to invest $250K in Add-Vision, one of its licensees, in the form of a convertible loan note. CDT now has a 42% voting interest and, on an "as-converted" basis, a 55% ownership interest in Add-Vision.

There are so many rumors around about a future Apple iPhone. The latest rumors claim there will be two versions - a small one geared towards music playing, and a larger smartphone sporting an OLED display. The time frame people suggest (first or second quarter 2007) means that it might be using Samsung's new AMOLED displays.