OLED Lifetime: introduction and market status - Page 17

Dupont has unveiled two new OLED display prototypes made by a coating process (using solution processable materials). The first (shown below) is a 4.3" 480x272 (128 ppi) and the second is a 5.8" display offering 294x196 (83 ppi).

Dupont says that the solution-processable displays offer better uniformity than commercial LCD displays. The cost advantage for solution-processable OLEDs grow as as the panel size increases.

Universal Display has quietly released a new PHOLED material performance chart. Their Green-Yellow material now has 1.4 million lifetime hours (LT50), and their Red color offers 900,000 hours. Blue is still very challenging, and their light blue offers only 20,000 hours (LT50). Here's the complete chart:

The company also released some PHOLED material efficiency. Using only red PHOLED (with green and blue fluorescent materials) will result in a display that is about 15% more efficient compared to an LCD (this is the combination Samsung used in their 4.5-Gen AMOLED fab). Adding green color will result in a a display that is 30% more efficient compared to an LCD (this is the combination Samsung is using in their new 5.5-Gen fab). Adding blue will give a 50% more efficient display. UDC says that further enhancements (not specified) can result in a display that is 67% more efficient than an LCD. All these results are based on a 4" display operating at 300 cd/m² showing a video that has 40% pixels on.

Universal Display announced new warm-white OLED lighting panels that uses all-phosphorescent materials to achieve 58 lm/W and 30,000 lifetime (D70). This new panel is based on UDC's new light blue material system. This new panels offers a three times improvement in lifetime compared to just one year ago.

The company is actually showing two new panels, both 15x15cm in size. The first has a color temperature of 2,580K, 58 lm/W, 30,000 hours of lifetime (D70) at 1,000cd/m² and a CRI of 83. The second panel offers a color temperature of 2,950K and CRI of 82 - to achieve 62 lm/W. The second panel has 18,000 hours of lifetime (D70) at 1,000cd/m². Shown above is UDC's new OLED lighting design (called the Earthouse) which highlights the ability for energy-efficient white OLEDs to emit different white colors. It uses an energy-efficient 3,000K white OLED on the left and a 5,000K white OLED on the right.

Universal Display reports advances in its UniversalP2OLED solution-processable material's performance: lifetime, efficiency and operation voltage. Solution-processable OLEDs can be used in ink-jet printing and other manufacturing techniques that can result in cost-effective production of large-size OLED panels. UDC says that commercial viability is now "in sight".

• The green P2OLED system, which offers a luminous efficiency of 68 candelas per Ampere (cd/A), has now achieved 175,000 hours of operating lifetime. This is a 34% increase over the last reported value (130,000 hours).
• The red P2OLED system, with a luminous efficiency of 18 cd/A, now offers an operating lifetime of 125,000 hours (a 100% increase over the last reported value of 62,000)
• The light blue P2OLED system now offers a luminous efficiency of 29 cd/A and 8,000 hours of operating lifetime (a 60% increase in efficiency and lifetime).

Kaneka announced that it will start accepting orders for OLED lighting panels on March 22nd, 2011 in Japan (and later in April in Europe). Kaneka will offer OLED square panels in five colors (warm white, red, orange, blue and green). The panels will be dimmable (in the range from 1,000cd/m² to 5,000cd/m²).

Kaneka's OLED panels will cost around ¥2 million (approx $24,000) per square meter - and the company believes that the price will drop to ¥200,000 ($2,400) next year and to ¥50,000 ($600) or less by 2020. Production capacity in 2011 will be 10,000m² - and this will grow to 100,000m² in 2015. Kaneka panels will not be very efficient - around 20lm/W and will offer around 10,000 hours lifetime. But the company plans to improve this to about 60lm/W and 25,000 by 2014.

Fujitec is showing cylindrical (tubular) OLED lighting panels and OLED lighting processing equipment. The OLED panels are either blue, red or green, 70mm diameter and 80mm in length. The luminance is 100cd/m² for red or blue and 1000cd/m² for green - which also features 24lm/W efficacy level. The lifetime is just 100 hours currently.

According to the company by middle 2011 they will be able to produce white-color panels (45mm diameter, 70mm in length) featuring 20lm/W at 1000 hours lifetime. The aim of their current project is to reach a white OLED at 30mm diameter and 200mm length, 30lm/W and 10,000 hours of lifetime.

Universal Display announced today "significant advances" in the performance of its UniversalP2OLED solution-processible, phosphorescent OLED material systems. UDC reported that the solution-based system now approach the performance of vacuum-evaporated PHOLEDs.

The new green system feature 66 candelas per Ampere (cd/A) and 130,000 hours lifetime at 1000 nits luminance. That's about two times improvement from a year ago. The new red system offers 15 cd/A and 62,000 hours, and the light blue offers 18 cd/A and 5,000 hours. UDC has also demonstrated ink-jet printing with comparable performance to devices made by spin-coating.

The US Department of Energy (DOE) has awarded three new OLED lighting small-business grants to Universal Display. The largest project is in Phase II already, and is focused on the development of ultra-high-efficiency phosphorescent OLEDs for lighting applications". UDC will produce a white OLED that features 120lm/W efficiency by improving out-coupling of light from the OLED structure through high-index substrates and low-voltage operation.

The second will focus on thermal management issues and optical improvements. UDC will make 15cm square panels with various designs, to see the thermal impacts of each. Lower temperature operation will help to extend the lifetime of the OLEDs.

Remember NKK's programmable OLED pushbutton switch? Introducing in July 2008, it includes a 65K color OLED module capable of full-motion video. Today NKK announced that they have released a new version that doubles the lifetime of the OLED display (to 30,000 hours) and reduced the power consumption by 30%.

OLEDNet reports the Konica-Minolta plans to start mass production of flexible OLED lighting panels in 2010. Konica-Minolta is cooperating with GE on manufacturing technology. According to the report, Konica Minolta is using polymer materials and printing technologies. The materials are made by Sumitomo. The lifetime of Konica-Minolta’s products is estimated to be 3,000 hours or more with the brightness of 1,000 cd/m2.

We think that this is a bit optimistic... according to KM's own plans, the first plant is scheduled for March 2011. Just last month they re-iterated their plans to start making the flexible OLEDs in 2011, and we do not think this will qualify as 'mass production'. We also know that KM is using UDC's Small-Molecule Phosphorescent materials, but maybe they are also working with Sumitomo on Polymer based OLEDs.