Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) claims it can make OLEDs 30 percent more efficient by doping them with magnetic nanoparticles. As a bonus, the introduction of magnetism into the OLED material enables brightness to be controlled without the addition of electrical contacts.

"What we did was to enhance the lighting efficiency of an OLED by doping the organic polymers with a very low concentration of magnetic nanoparticles," said ORNL senior researcher Jian Shen. "Doping also allows us to control the OLED-s intensity with a magnetic field, whereas conventional OLED intensity is tuned by an electric field, which needs [electrical] contacts."

Cambridge Display Technology has announced that it has been successful in its application for a 2006 Fast Track grant to develop electronic design automation software (EDA) for use in organic TFT-based (OTFT) electronic applications. This not only marks the entry of CDT into the OTFT space but will also be important in the development of displays using OTFTs, in particular flexible displays based on plastic substrates.

The project will extend the use of EDA software to organic semiconductor (OSC) materials, and accelerate the development of low-cost fabrication techniques for organic displays on both flexible and rigid substrates. It will enable the faster development of advanced structures, devices and circuits and expand the application space for organic electronics.

Universal Display Corporation today announced that it has been awarded two new Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I grants totalling $200,000 from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to develop WOLED™ white OLED technology for future solid-state lighting applications.

In the first grant, Universal Display will work to develop white PHOLEDs with a stacked architecture. The stacked architecture will be based on the SOLED™ stacked OLED technology that was previously pioneered by Universal Display and its academic partner, Princeton University. In a SOLED, multiple OLEDs are stacked or built on top of one other, increasing the light emission from the device. As a result, white SOLEDs may offer power and stability advantages over standard structures.

The second grant also focuses on demonstrating white PHOLED performance advances. When the size of an OLED device is increased, or several OLED devices are connected together to make a panel, their performance is often reduced. In this specific program, Universal Display will address the technical issues that relate to demonstrating similar performance on a 6 x 6 WOLED lighting panel that has been previously demonstrated on a smaller scale. UDC recently announced a white PHOLED with a power efficiency of 45 lm/W at a luminance of 1,000 cd/m2.

The Company’s two new grants represent further evidence of that potential and are targeted toward the DOE’s efficiency goal for white OLEDs, 150 lm/W at a brightness level of 1,000 cd/m2, by the year 2025.

FLIR Systems has chosen eMagin OLED microdisplays for its innovative ThermaCAM P640 thermal video camera. Ideal for top-level thermography, the P640 can resolve greater detail with smaller targets, yielding more informative and higher quality thermal images.

The device features a new 640x480-pixel sensor that quadruples the typical high-end thermal sensor's 320x240-pixel resolution and is 16X the standard 160x120 thermal imager. The camera also supports interchangeable lenses and features an 8:1 continuous digital zoom with full pan technology. Users can choose between auto or manual focus, or use both in combination. Its aiming system is based on built-in Laser LocatIR(TM).

The achievement of a green PIN PHOLED(TM) phosphorescent OLED device in bottom-emission geometry with a CIE of (0.36, 0.61) of above 200,000 hours were attained by combining Universal Display's high-efficiency phosphorescent OLED materials with low-voltage Novaled PIN-OLED(TM) technology and doped transport materials.

"We expect that very low driving voltages below 2.6 V which we already achieved for Ir(ppy)3 can also be obtained for other phosphorescent green emitters" adds Jan Birnstock, VP Technology Transfer.

Cambridge Display Technology entered into a patent license agreement with a major Japanese chemical company. The scope of the License encompasses certain light emitting polymer ("LEP") devices.

The Licensee will pay an upfront fee to CDT within sixty days of the effective date of the agreement (which fee has already been received) 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 commercialisation by the Licensee of products which incorporate LEP technology. The License is terminable by the Licensee on 12 months' notice.