Power consumption - Page 21

Cynora is a German startup established in 2003 that developed copper-based OLED emitter systems. In October 2012 the company unveiled a mostly-solution-based flexible OLED prototype, developed in collaboration with InnovationLab. Last month Germany’s BMBF launched the cyCESH project which aims to develop soluble (printable) materials for low-cost high efficiency OLED lighting devices. Cynora is the leader of the consortium in this €6 million project, together with Novaled and the University of Regensburg.

Cynora's technology is interesting and the company's CEO Dr. Tobias Grab and the company's Business Development manager, Dr. Mathias Mydlak, were kind enough to provide the information for this article explaining the company's technology.

The US Department of Energy (DoE) announced the eligble topics for the FY 2014 SBIR and STTR funding. There are two topics involving OLED lighting efficiency. The first is the development of OLED materials and structures that will lead to the production and commercialization of a highly efficient, stable white OLED device. The DOE specifically mentions the development of highly efficient, blue emitter materials and hosts.

The second topic is the development of methods of manufacturing either OLED pixels or panels or devices. The DoE is also interested in system level integration solutions that would accelerate OLED devices into niche markets. If you want to apply, you will have to send the application by October 15. The DoE will formally announce the opportunities on August 12.

Cynora, Novaled and the University of Regensburg will co-develop new soluble (printable) materials for low-cost high efficiency OLED lighting devices. This new project, called cyCESH is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) with €6.1 million.

Professor Yersin's group a the University of Regensburg will handle material development while Cynora will handle subsequent synthesis and optimization. Novaled will be in handle the application of solution-based-processed, doped transport layers. These three partners form a complete comprehensive partnership for OLED applications.

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.

The German government launched a new 34 million Euro (about $44 million) two years project called OLYMP ("Organic Light-emitting sYstems based on energy and cost-efficient Materials and Processes") that aims to improve OLED lighting efficiency and lifetime. 

The project partners are Osram (the project coordinator), Merck, BJB, LEDON, KG and Trilux. It follows a complete approach that covers all value-creation levels.

Update: we discussed this research with Professor Lee Jun Yeob, who's in charge of that research at DKU, and he explained his research further.

Researchers from Dankook University's Center for Photofunctional Energy Materials (DKU CPEM) developed what they claim is the world's most efficient blue OLED emitter (30.1% luminous efficiency). That's the highest efficiency OLEDs can reach in theory. The blue OLED is made from indolopyridines.

The team at DKU has been working on blue OLEDs since 2008. In 2009 they achieved an efficiency of 18.4%, and in 2011 they announced blue OLEDs with 25.4% efficiency. Now they announce this new breakthrough. Of course it remains to be seen whether this new material can be commercialized and what are its other features (mainly the lifetime).

eMagin unveiled the world's brightest full-color OLED microdisplays, the color OLED-XLS series. Those displays offer 1000 nits of luminance, that is four times brighter than "current industry standard".

XGA096 OLED-XL

eMagin are currently offering OLED-XLS displays in sample quantities over their entire product line (VGA, SVGA, XGA, SXGA and WUXGA). They will continue to produce the "older" OLED-XL displays.

We heard speculation about Motorola's upcoming "X" phone for a while now. Today Motorola's CEO Dennis Woodside confirmed that the company is developing a new flagship phone that will be called "Moto X". The Moto X will sport an OLED display and advanced sensors. Motorola wants to launch it in October 2013, and this will be the first phone designed after Google bough Motorola.

One of the key features of this new phone will be the low power consumption. It will include two processors, and I assume that it will use a Super AMOLED Advanced display - which use red and reen phosphorescent emitters to cut the power consumption by 25% compared to normal Super AMOLED displays (except for the one used in the GS4). Motorola already uses these panels (or regular Super AMOLED ones) in several of their mobile phones, including the relatively new RAZR i, RAZR HD and RAZR M.

IDTechEx released a new OLED lighting report (OLED vs LED lighting 2013-2023) in which they analyze the OLED lighting market, and compare it to the LED market. The company says that in the "most likely" scenario, the OLED market will grow to $1.3 billion in 2023.

According to IDTechEx, there are two main issues with OLEDs. First of all the performance: LEDs last much longer (typically 50,000 hours compared to 5,000-15,000 in current OLED panels) and they are more efficient (90-100 lm/W compared to OLED lighting which is currently at 20-50 lm/W). Personally I think this gap will close in time. LG Chem for example are expected to release new panels in July 2013 which will feature 80 lm/W and 20,000 hours (LT70).

Samsung's flagship Galaxy S4 phone uses a new OLED panel which adopts a green PHOLED emitter - which cuts the power consumption by about 25%. During the latest SID conference, Samsung demonstrated this very nicely: