A few days ago we reported about new research from Dankook University (DKU) that developed the world's most efficient blue OLED emitter. Today I talked with Professor Lee Jun Yeob, who's in charge of that research at DKU, and he explained his research further.
It turns out that in that particular research, they developed a new host material for blue OLEDs, and not a new emitter. The 30.1% efficiency they quote is external quantum efficiency. The blue emitter itself is a phosphorescent OLED - a common emitter known as FIrpic (Iridium based). Universal Display were not involved in this work.
Professor Yeob says that their new host gave much longer lifetime compared to other host materials, but the lifetime level is still poor as FIrpic is very unstable, in fact just 100 hours at 1,000 cd/m2. The researchers are looking for a better blue phosphorescent emitter to obtain long lifetime with the new host material.
I asked Professor Yeob how close is this new host material towards commercialization. He says that it may take at least 3 or 4 years as they still need to develop suitable new hole transport materials, electron transport materials, and phosphorescent emitters
You can always count on DKU!