Polymer OLEDs (PLED): introduction and market status - Page 5

OLED Technologies & Solutions (OTS) released a new corporate presentation video which introduces the company and their new inkjet-printing based OLED processing line, the PCA-48:

The PCA-48 line is a 4.5-Gen (730x920 mm) line that incorporates TFE, Ink-Jet Printing, and high vacuum transportation technologies. OTS uses Merck polymer and Small-Molecule materials and their production line supports all substrates (including a-Si using Ignis' technology). OTS that they can deliver and install a complete production line within 12 months, and a single line will be able to produce 40 million smartphone displays in a year. This is the line that AIV-BEX wants to use in their proposed AMOLED production fab.

Nanomarkets published a new edition of their OLED Material Market report, and they have some interesting forecasts and insights. Basically the company is upbeat on OLED displays for mobile devices, and the OLED TV market as well. While they are still cautiously optimistic that the long-term prospects for OLED lighting, they say that it will take many more years for this to become a major outlet for OLED materials.

Nanomarkets projects that the total market for OLED materials will grow from about $450 million in 2013 to over $4.6 billion by the end of 2020 - mostly from mobile displays and OLED TVs. Core OLED materials (emitters, hosts, dopants, HIL, HTL, etc. but excluding substrates, encapsulation, electrodes, etc.) will grow from $265 million in 2013 to over $1.6 billion by 2020.

Researchers from the Imperial College in London are researching the usage of Helicenes as emitter materials in OLED panels. Helicene based PLED emit circularly polarized light (they call these CP-OLEDs) and these may be useful for 3D OLEDs and other optical and photonics applications.

Helicenes are thermally-stable polycyclic aromatics with helically-shaped molecules. These molecules has unique structural, spectral, and optical features. The researchers found that when these molecules are used as emitter materials in OLED panels, they emit a light that is circularly polarized (not 100% though).

EMDEOLED is a German company that is developing an OLED based light bulb for residential lighting in collaboration with the University of Technology Braunschweig. Basically the idea is that using an inner-coating process, they are creating a replacement for regular bulbs in which the glass is coated from the inside. They have developed their first prototypes, shown below (unfortunately they did not disclose any technical details):

EMDEOLED's OLEDs are ITO-free, and they have actually developed two prototypes - one with PLEDs and one with SM-OLEDs. The company says that the inner coating results in a very high material yield (and so hopefully will be cheaper than flat OLEDs). The OLED bulbs are also easy to seal as the glass actually protects the OLEDs from the outside.

The Centre for Process Innovation (CPI) is a UK based R&D institute that helps companies develop and scale manufacturing processes. The CPI sent us the following video and update on its OLED/OPV prototype line (built by MBraun) that was designed to enable materials companies, device designers and end users to develop their technology within a fully automated, controlled environment.

CPI's system supports both small evaporized and soluble OLED materials. The line uses slot die technology to allow the coating of substrates in a highly repeatable and reproducible manner with a uniform film thickness of under 50 nm.

Nanomarkets released a new white paper about solution-Processed OLEDs. They estimate that in order for the OLED market to grow significantly for TV and lighting applications, companies must adopt solution-processable materials. Soluble OLEDs have been researched for years with very little outcome outside of the lab. But Nanomarkets believes that the current problems can be fixed, and are worth fixing.

Soluble OLED materials and appropriate processes are being researched by Sumitomo, DuPont, Pioneer, UDC, Solvay, Marck and others. They estimate that the first panels to be made using these materials will be Pioneer's (together with Mitsubishi) OLED lighting panels - planned for 2014. Nanomarkets thinks that if Pioneer succeeded, it may push GE back into the OLED game with their own soluble material solutions. It's interesting that Nanomarkets does not mention Panasonic's OLED TV prototype that uses Sumitomo's P-OLED materials.

At CES 2013 Panasonic unveiled a 56" 4K (3840x2160) OLED TV panel prototype that was produced using an all-printing method. Back in January we assumed Panasonic were using SMOLED materials, but now Sumitomo Chemical revealed (as part of their 2013-2015 plan presentation) that this TV prototype used the company's PLED materials.

Panasonic has been working on OLED printing technologies for quite some time and back in 2009, they teamed up with Sumitomo to jointly-develop OLED TVs, based on Sumitomo's PLED materials and technology. I thought this partnership is not active anymore, but evidently I was wrong on that one.

Heraeus is introducing new polymer OLED materials. The HIL-E grades is a combination of Hole Injection Layer and a high conductive electrode - and so provide an economic ITO alternative. These are PEDOT formulations designed for the OLED lighting industry.

The HIL-E materials feature excellent planarization properties and a refractive index that matches glass and plastic substrates. The formulations are also pH neutral. Regular and high work function grades are available. These polymer-based materials are suitable for slot-die coating, ink-jet printing and other deposition processes.

Sumitomo Chemical is showing PLED lighting panels at the FPDI 2012 conference. Some of these panels are color tunable, I think it's the first time we see those kinds of panels from Sumitomo:

Back in March 2012 we posted an update on Sumitomo's OLED program. According to the company's roadmap, by 2015 they plan to produce PLEDs on plastic substraces which will feature between 20,000 and 30,000 hours of lifetime and 60-80 lm/W. These plastic based OLEDs will also be flexible.

Sumitomo Chemical has joined the Holst Centre's shared research program on Printed Organic Lighting and Signage. The program's aim is to develop new manufacturing processes that enable low-cost flexible OLEDs. Sumitomo will help the program's investigation of multi-layer solution processes for high-efficiency OLEDs, using the company's PLED materials.

Flexible OLED lighting prototype

Sumitomo will provide other program members access to its OLED materials - especially the emitting materials. Sumitomo will be able to use the program's expertise in order to optimize its own materials for low-cost production and flexible substrates.