OLED Lifetime: introduction and market status - Page 6

Kopin Corporation announced that the company developed a new double-stack OLED architecture that enables brighter microdisplays with longer lifetime.

Kopin 1" 2k x 2k OLED Lightning microdisplay

Last week Kopin announced a new 1.3" 2560x2560 OLED microdisplay, and the company now reveals that this display uses the new double-stack architecture and achieves brightness of over 1,000 nits. Kopin also says that this display was co-developed with Panasonic and Lakeside Optoelectronic.

TADF, or Thermally Activated Delayed Fluorescence, is a relatively new class of OLED emitter materials that promise efficient and long-lifetime performance without any heavy metals. TADF research started at around 2012, originally at Kyushu University in Japan and today many academic groups and several commercial companies are developing TADF materials.

The main reason companies are interested in TADF emission is that it could lead to an efficient and long-lasting blue OLED emitter - something that hasn't been yet achieved by other means (mainly - UDC's Phosphorescent OLED emitter technology). In recent years companies initiated commercial development of red, green and yellow TADF emitters as these can offer a lower cost alternative to UDC's PHOLEDs materials.

Idemitsu Kosan and Toray Industries announced that the companies have jointly developed a red OLED device that is the world's most efficient emitter at 46 cd/A. The device uses a TADF emitter combined with red fluorescent materials (which likely means this is a HyperFluorescence device).

Idemitsu and Toray has been collaborating on OLED material development since 2017. This new device uses Idemitsu's TADF material combined with Toray's new red fluorescent material. The two companies say that this new material provides the same results as currently used red phosphorescent devices, and the plan is now to "drive forward to secure adoption of their materials" in mobile and TV applications.

Researchers from Samsung's Advanced Institute of Technology (SAIT) developed a new method to increase the efficiency and lifetime of self-emissive Cadmium-free quantum dots. The researchers used Indium Phosphide QDs in a new structure that prevents oxidation and energy leaks and also absorbs current faster.

The researchers say that the new structure enhancements increases the internal quantum efficiency to almost 100 (the EQE reached 21.4%) while increasing the lifetime to a million hours (at a high brightness of 100 cd/m²). The maximum brightness is 100,000 nits. This performance is comparable to Cadmium-based QDs.

A new company has recently been launched in Poland, to commercialize a new family of TADF OLED compounds. Noctiluca, which takes its name from a bio-luminescent marine creature, was established a few months ago with aims to be the world's first company to produce a commercial-ready blue TADF emitter.

Noctiluca's story begins with an innovative organic DSSC solar cell platform that was developed at Synthex, an organic chemistry development platform company based in Torun, Poland. A few years ago the researchers turned their attention to light emitting materials (which are quite similar to the light harvesting materials used in solar panels) and intensive research culminated in a promising family of new TADF compounds - which was then spun-off as Noctiluca,

Universal Display reported its financial results for Q2 2019. Revenues were $118.2 million, the operating profit reached $48.7 million and net income was $43.4 million. UDC increased its 2019 revenue guidance to be in the range of $370 million to $390 million. The company ended Q2 with $553 million in cash and equivalents.

The Q2 results include about $15-20 million of orders that UDC estimates were pulled-in from the second half of 2019 as Chinese customers build up inventory for trade-related reasons.

Researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research (MPI-P) have developed an efficient OLED device that is comprised of a single organic material layer - replacing the normal stack of 5-7 layers in modern OLED devices.

The researchers managed to create this OLED device by using a TADF material (CzDBA, diboron based TADF) and by using a newly developed charge injection strategy. The OLED device features a low operating voltage (2.9V at 10,000 cd/m^₂, an EQE of 19% (at 500 cd/m²) and a lifetime of 1,880 hours at 50% (for 1,000 cd/m²). The color of the device is greenish-yellow.

Asus recently launched a new gaming laptop, the Zephyrus S GX502, which uses a 15.6" 4K 120Hz LCD IPS display. At Computex 2019 in Taiwan, Asus demonstrated one of these laptops with an 15.6" SDC AMOLED display.

Asus OLED laptop (left) vs LCD one (right)

Asus says it has no immediate plans to release an OLED gaming laptop as it still has concerns over the shorter lifespan of OLED displays, image retention (burn-in) and long-term color accuracy. As soon as these concerns are resolved, Asus says it will push forward with incorporating OLED panels in gaming laptops.

In June 2018 Kyulux and Wisechip unveiled a PMOLED display that uses Kyulux’s Hyperfluorescence yellow emitter. Kyulux updated today that Wisechip is now ready to start producing the HF panel and is seeking customers.

Wisechip eventually settled on a large panel - 73.00 x 41.86 mm (2.7") with a resolution of 128x64. Wisechip says that the power consumption of its HF display is almost half of its regular fluorescent yellow PMOLED.

Professor Homas Teets from the University of Houston has been awarded a $589,000 National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER Award to explore new synthetic strategies for producing photoactive organometallic compounds.

Specifically, Teets will use the award in three research areas - efficient and long-lasting blue OLEd emitters, near-infrared (NIR) emitting compounds and photocatalysts for organic synthesis capable of light-induced electron transfer. The grant will also fund educational projects aimed at children from kindergarten through high school.