OLED Lifetime: introduction and market status - Page 18

Update: According to Novaled, this report is not true. They are set to remain in the IP & Material business, in both OLED displays and lighting.

According to OLEDNet, Novaled is set to become a manufacturer of OLED Lighting panels (instead of being a supplier of OLED materials and technology/IP). They are moving away from displays because they lost the "competitive edge" to Korean companies.

Novaled is focusing on flexible OLEDs based on stainless steel substrate. They will introduce a 150x150mm, 25lm/W, 10,000 hours white-OLED panel in 2010. In 2011 they will add a 200x200mm, 40lm/W, 25,000 hours panel. In 2012 they will improve this to 50lm/W, 50,000 hours. By 2012, their OLEDs will be flexible, too (using roll-to-roll manufacturing process).

Samsung is aiming to improve their AMOLEDs in the near future. They claim they will double the efficiency (from 20cd/A to 40cd/A), the lifetime (from 50,000 to 100,000 hours) and the power consumption (from 62W to less than 30W). Samsung will use advanced color pattern methods to overcome the current FMM method large-size limitation. They will also move from glass encapsulation to thin-film, and apply Oxide substrate. They will also use only triplet OLED emitters instead of using both singlets and triplets.

Samsung has recently began to construct their new 5.5-Gen AMOLED plant, which will start production in July 2011. Samsung plans to invest $2.2 billion on that plant that will have 3 production lines (1300X1500mm). Having a larger wafer size results in better efficiencies for both small and large panels (such as 30" or 40" OLED TV panels). Samsung did not say whether the new methods will apply in the new plant only, or also in the current one.

Russian physicists has found a new way to make a long-living OLED. They are using nano-crystals of cadmium chalcogenides instead of the organic Chromophores in the OLEDs. Those Nanocrystals are long-lasting and when their size change, luminescence wavelength also changes, so it is easy to get required emission wavelength. They physicists say that the manufacturing process of the new devices is very similar to regular OLEDs, there's only one change in the process, when colloid solution of semiconductor nano-crystals is mixed with organic semiconductor.

Sony has developed a Top-Emission 11.7-inch 960 x 540 OLED panel using oxide semiconductor TFTs as its driver elements. Sony says that the new panel has a lifetime of over 10 years and better colors than the XEL-1. The OLED panel features a peak brightness of 600cd/m² or more, a contrast ratio of 1,000,000: 1 or more, and 100% or higher color gamut vs NTSC.

The panel improvements were achieved by reducing the property degradation of the oxide semiconductor TFT. Sony made the following three improvements. First, the company prevents the oxidation of the electrode by changing the structure of the source/drain electrode from the commonly-used Ti/Al/Ti three-layer structure to Ti/Al/Mo structure (Mo is in contact with the amorphous IGZO).

Universal Display has more news for us at SID 2010. They have already announced the new light-blue light-blue phosphorescent OLED emitter system, suitable for both display and lighting applications. Today they are presenting an all-phosphorescent white OLED to address initial commercial niche white lighting applications

UDC is showing a 15cm x 15cm OLED lighting panel using the company’s highly-efficient phosphorescent OLED technology and materials. UDC believes that this panel is the most energy-efficient performance, at this scale, reported to date. This panel emits a warm-white light with a color rendering index (CRI) of 87 and a correlated color temperature (CCT) of 3055K. It also has a luminous efficacy of 50 lumens per Watt using an optical outcoupling treatment with a modest 1.5x enhancement factor. With an operating lifetime of approximately 10,000 hours to 70% of an initial luminance of 1,000 cd/m², this panel performance has the potential to meet the requirements for a number of initial commercial niche OLED lighting applications, and is an important step toward white OLED panel performance that achieves Energy Star
targets.

A couple of days ago, Universal Display has announced a new light-blue phosphorescent OLED emitter system, suitable for both display and lighting applications. Today they are presenting the all-phosphorescent AMOLED architecture that uses the light-blue OLED as a fourth light-blue sub-pixel.

The introduction of a light blue sub-pixel can significantly extend the operational lifetime of an OLED display and reduce the display's power consumption by as much as 33%, as compared to an RGB OLED display using a fluorescent blue sub-pixel.

Novaled is showing a new white top-emitting OLED, that has over 50,000h lifetime and 30lm/W power efficiency (at an initial luminance of 1,000 cd/m2). The OLED is produced on a metal substrate. Novaled has developed a high performance white top emitting OLED using the Novaled PIN OLED® technology with its proprietary doping and host materials in association with a blue fluorescent emitting material from SFC Korea.

The device has an ITO-free top contact and corporates a Novaled-specific light extraction material layer to enhance the efficiency. At the same time this outcoupling material reduces the color shift over a wide viewing angle so that it can hardly be detected by the naked eye.

Dupont announced new record lifetime performance in printed OLEDs for displays. They say that this is sufficient for OLED TVs. The new Gen 3 solution-processable OLEDs offer 29,000 hours for red, 110,000 for green and 34,000 for blue (at typical TV brightness levels). This is enough for 8 hours  per day over 15 years...

Back in 2009, Dupont reported even better lifetime for OLEDs. But these new materials can be used in a printing process, which should make it cheaper and easier to produce OLED TV displays. DuPont has produced some test devices with the new materials and will show them at SID.

Earlier today we reported that  The University of Rochester received a $1.2 million from the U.S. Department of Energy to develop host materials for white phosphorescent OLEDs. This funding is part of the DOE's Recovery Act Rewards, and now we have found the complete list, which contains several OLED Lighting projects:

• Cambrios got $1.2 million (out of $1.8 for the total project) for "Solution-Processable Transparent Conductive Hole Injection Electrode OLED SSL". This project seeks to develop a cost-effective replacement for indium tin oxide for use as an electrode in OLED lighting devices. Indium is both rare and very expensive. 
• The University of Rocherser got $1.2 million (out of $1.3 million) for "Development and Utilization of Host Materials for White Phosphorescent OLEDs". This project seeks to produce white OLEDs with > 100 lm/W efficiency after light extraction enhancement and > 10,000 hour operating time, by making a new class of emissive materials.
• PPG Industries got $1.6 million (out of $2.1 million) for "Low-Cost Integrated Substrate for OLED Lighting". PPG Industries plans to develop a new low-cost integrated substrate product that is suitable for OLED lighting manufacture and is compatible with PPG’s existing flat-glass and transparent-glass coating technologies and high-volume glass manufacturing methods.
• GE Global Research got $4 million (out of $8 million) for "Roll-to-Roll Solution-Processable Small-Molecule OLEDs". This project seeks to upgrade GE’s prepilot OLED roll-to-roll manufacturing line through improved high-performance phosphorescent small-molecule OLED materials, advanced OLED device architectures, plastic ultra-high barrier films, and an advanced encapsulation scheme.
• UDC got $4 million (out of $8.3 million) for "Creation of a U.S. Phosphorescent OLED Lighting Panel Manufacturing Facility". This project seeks to design and set up two pilot phosphorescent OLED (PHOLED) manufacturing lines. The team will implement UDC's PHOLED technology and provide prototype lighting panels to U.S. luminaire manufacturers to incorporate into products, to facilitate testing of design, and to gauge customer acceptance.

Interestingly, two of these project (the GE and UDC ones) involves actual OLED Lighting panels pilot production lines - which could lead to actual OLED products being commercially available.

The University of Rochester says they have received a $1.2 million to develop host materials for white phosphorescent OLEDs. The funding comes from the U.S. Department of Energy. This project seeks to produce white OLEDs with > 100 lm/W efficiency after light extraction enhancement and over 10,000 hour operating time, by making a new class of emissive materials.

Here's more information on the DOE's Recovery Act Rewards (which contains 4 other OLED projects).