Konica Minolta and Universal Display Corporation Strengthen Collaboration in OLED Development
Next Phase to Focus on Konica Minolta's Commercialization of All-Phosphorescent OLED Backlights and Other Lighting Products
Konica Minolta And UDC announced the strengthening of their collaboration to incorporate Universal Display's proprietary PHOLED(TM) phosphorescent OLED technology into Konica Minolta's white OLED devices. On June 30, 2006, Konica Minolta announced that it had successfully developed a white OLED with a power efficiency of 64 lumens per watt, which is four times the efficiency of standard incandescent bulbs. For this development, Universal Display's red and green PHOLED technology and materials have been used in conjunction with Konica Minolta's proprietary OLED technologies, such as its own blue phosphorescent materials and multi-layer design technologies.
Konica Minolta is currently accelerating its efforts to enable commercial manufacturing of white OLED devices for backlights in displays and for other lighting applications. These OLED devices are anticipated to use all phosphorescent materials.
Konica Minolta: OLED breakthrough
The company said it had developed a lighting device using organic light-emitting diode (OLED) technology, a potential new driver of earnings growth.
A Konica Minolta spokesman said it planned to launch the product in the next business year from April 2007, and aimed to generate 20 billion yen ($175 million) in sales from the new business in the year through March 2011.
OLED has primarily been seen as a promising technology for next-generation flat panel displays because OLED screens can produce bright, colourful images visible from a wide viewing angle without consuming a lot of power. But Konica Minolta said it would use the technology to create a device that could be used to illuminate offices and homes. Its new device emits white light at 64 lumens per watt, roughly on par with conventional fluorescent lights.
The new device can last 10,000 hours before its brightness level is cut in half, similar to fluorescent lighting, the spokesman said.
OLEDs are typically built on glass but can also be made on flexible substrates. This could allow for the development of bendable lighting.
