June 2007

The cooperative agreement between ARL and Plextronics establishes the Flexible Electronics Research Initiative (FERI). FERI will focus on the advancement of material and device technology for flexible electronics, which offers benefits particularly relevant to military applications. The resiliency of these devices, for example, could increase the lifetime and reliability of current display applications in harsh environments.

Some of the technologies and products that this research could lead to also include:

• Real-time maps and displays that continually receive electronic data and information, yet are durable and flexible enough to be rolled up and stored in soldiers' backpacks.
• Displays that are directly contoured onto a soldier's uniform, offering the ability to turn a shirt or jacket cuff into an information displaying device.

This report provides three unique viewpoints into the active matrix small/medium display industry:

• 24 suppliers are profiled by their display products and technology (LCD and OLED).


• 9 applications are covered ranging in size from 1.3" sub-displays to 10" automotive monitors.


• New materials and new technology being developed for these panels.

Small/Medium displays are undergoing rapid change as active matrix suppliers are attempting to differentiate their products to achieve higher margins. The report describes which suppliers are targeting:

• Thinner form factors using etch/polished glass and new polarizers


• Wide viewing angles applying MVA or IPS to small/medium displays for the first time


• Increasing contrast levels and luminance to support the requirements of mobile TV and portable navigation


• Integrated touch screens to lower the thickness and cost


• Lower cost LED backlights supporting higher color saturation levels and cleaner environmental solutions


• Industrial applications with wide viewing angles and LED backlights


• Using additive technology such as PenTile to increase resolution and reduce power consumption

An entire section is devoted to the emerging AMOLED suppliers and the technology that each is using. The report shows where a-Si and LTPS backplane technologies are being practiced and what products Samsung SDI, LG.Philips LCD, Sony, TPO, CMO, Epson Imaging, TMDisplay and Chi Mei are targeting.

The NanoMarkets report, Printed Electronics: A Manufacturing Technology Analysis and Capacity Forecast, provides the first complete analysis of the commercial environment and manufacturing capacity for printable electronics manufacturing. It includes an assessment of the printing equipment used in this space and of the strategies of the manufacturers and integrators supplying the technology.

The report profiles 11 leading firms currently producing PE products, describing their current and future manufacturing plans, the kinds of equipment they are using and how they are creating the first printable electronics fabs, to meet their expectations of the market. The report also includes a forecast from 2007 to 2013 of printing equipment shipments broken out by type of equipment and whether the equipment is used in an R&D or full-scale production facility.

CMEL showcased a 4.3" AMOLED display. Sample shipments are slated for September 2007, and volume production and shipments are expected to start around December 2007. A life extends to "20,000 hours when lit at 50% luminance and 10,000 hours at 100%," a booth attendant said.

The materials and glass cover are made by DuPont.

Read more here (TechOn Asia)

Chi Mei El Corp (CMEL), the OLED manufacturing arm of Chi Mei Optoelectronics Corp, said yesterday it aims to start supplying displays for a top-five mobile phone manufacturer by the end of the year.

CMEL is in talks with several potential customers, including Samsung Electronics Co and Nokia Ojy, said Douglas Park, a vice president of CMEL.

"We hope to land at least one of them by the end of this year," Park said.

To cope with rising demand, Park said CMEL planned to spend NT$800 million (US$24.2 million) to more than double its monthly output to 1.2 million units by the first quarter of 2008, from it current 500,000 units.

In February, CMEL ramped up production of active matrix OLED displays for mobile phones, digital cameras and global positioning systems.

Read more here (Taipei Times)

Displaybank reports that SK Telecom had agreed to adopt Samsung SDI's AMOLD displays for their mobile phone screens. The aim is to offer high-definition satellite digital multimedia broadcasting (DMB) and video content. Both companies agreed to develop AMOLED optimization technology for DMB and video images and GUI.

Read more here (DisplayBank) 

eMagin assigned to Kodak all rights, title and interest to a patent entitled "Serially-connected Organic Light Emitting Diode Stack Having Conductors Sandwiching Each Light Emitting Layer" (the "Patent"). In consideration to the Company for the transfer of the rights to the Patent, Kodak agreed that:

(1) Each of the Company's quarterly royalty payments owed to Kodak under the certain Nonexclusive Field of Use License Agreement Relating to OLED Technology for Miniature, High Resolution Displays, dated March 29, 1999 between the Company and Kodak, as amended(the "License Agreement") for the second half (from July 1 through December 31) of calendar year 2007 shall be reduced by fifty percent (50%); and

(2) Each of the Company's quarterly royalty payments owed to Kodak under
Section 4.2 of the License Agreement for the calendar year 2008 shall be reduced by fifty percent (50%).

ON Semiconductor has introduced the NCP5810 - a 2 watt (W) dual output dc-dc converter that offers both positive and negative output. The device's output voltage accuracy, high switching frequency, and small package size makes it particularly suitable for powering a display driver in Active Matrix Organic Light Emitting Diodes (Active Matrix OLED or AMOLED) panel, an emerging display technology for portable applications.

Featuring high overall efficiency up to 85 percent at 1.75 megahertz (MHz) oscillator frequency, the NCP5810 dual output dc-dc converter delivers best-in-class performance. In order to complement the slim form factor of AMOLED display, the converter switches at the high 1.75 MHz frequency, allowing the use of small inductors and ceramic capacitors. Its ultra-thin package with 0.55 mm thickness allows the NCP5810 to fit into the thinnest portable design form factor. In addition, it preserves battery power in shut-down mode with true cut-off function that limits the leakage display current to typically 1 microamp (uA). Additionally, the NCP5810 features cycle-by-cycle peak current limit and thermal shut down protection.

Available in the ultra-thin 3.0 mm x 3.0 mm x 0.55 mm LLGA-12 package, the NCP5810 is budgetary priced at $1.20 USD per unit in 3,000 unit quantities.

Guo, an associate professor of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science at the University of Michigan, has come up with semitransparent metal electrodes, fabricated by nanoimprint lithography (NIL), that, with further optimization, could replace today's use of conventional ITO electrodes in OLEDs. The core findings of this research is that a nanowire metal grid can provide sufficient optical transparency and electrical conductivity for it to be used as a transparent electrode for organic optoelectronic applications. These metal electrodes contain no expensive metallic elements and do not suffer from atomic diffusion but are nevertheless very efficient.

Guo and his team based their new electrodes on a densely perforated thin film of metal supported on a glass layer. The perforations make the metal layer almost transparent, which means it can be the top electrode in an OLED. Moreover, they can fine-tune the fabrication process to make the perforations smaller or larger and to change their spacing. This allows them to adjust the transparency at different wavelengths of light allowing different colors to predominate. Most importantly though, NIL can be used to make an electrode with an enormous area, far bigger than a cellphone display, and so open up OLED technology to a much wider range of applications, including windows and giant screen TVs.

Read more here (Nanowerk)

Vitex Systems today announced its proprietary moisture and oxygen barrier solution demonstrated impressive reliability results when used for high-temperature applications. The company's revolutionary Barix(TM) thin-film barrier was continuously tested at 100 degrees C, 120 degrees C and as high as 140 degrees C for more than 500 hours without losing its barrier integrity. Moreover, results indicated that the barrier can maintain its integrity for more than 1,000 hours in this severe environment.

Vitex's Barix thin-film barrier uses an organic and inorganic multi-layer structure. To demonstrate product compatibility, it was used to create the world's first high-resolution AMOLED, which leverages an amorphous silicon backplane on a flexible metal foil. This flexible display -- jointly developed by Universal Display Corp. and LG. Philips LCD -- was showcased at last month's Society for Information Display (SID) conference in Long Beach, Calif. Similar encapsulation was shown by Samsung SDI on the world's first, and thinnest, full-color top emission AMOLED on a metal foil during last year's show.