Power consumption - Page 41

Universal Display today announced that it has been awarded a $99,919 Small
Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I grant from the U.S.
Department of Energy (DOE) under the Department's
Solid State Lighting program.

TMDisplay (JV between Matsushita and Toshiba) says it developed an OLED panel with the world's longest lifetime and best efficiency. The 2.2-inch OLED panel has a lifetime of 60,000 hours and power consumption of 100 mW.

TMDisplay has developed the new panel in cooperation with Idemitsu Kosan, a Japanese oil refiner active in OLED materials development. They say they aim to start commercial production of the advanced OLED panels by March 2009 for cellphones and other mobile devices. It has yet to decide the size of production. Previous reports say that TMDisplay will invest 140M$ on OLED production, and that they set their monthly output of 1.5M units a month (at 2.5").

University of Utah physicists suggest it will be more difficult than thought to make highly efficient OLED, as findings hint such LEDs would convert no more than 25% of electricity into light rather than heat, contrary to earlier estimates of up to 63%.

A 2001 Nature paper by other University of Utah physicists suggested it might be possible to make OLEDs that converted 41% to 63% of incoming electricity into light. But the new study suggests 25% efficiency may be correct at least for the organic polymer studied pure MEH-PPV and possibly for others.

During this SSL Product Development Project, Universal Display and its subcontractor, Armstrong, will develop and deliver an integrated ceiling illumination system that is targeted to exceed the DOE’s 2010 performance goals. The white OLED lighting panels will be designed and fabricated by Universal Display using its high-efficiency phosphorescent OLED technology. The panels will then be integrated by Armstrong into its innovative TechZone™ open-architecture ceiling system. In addition, the team will deliver a white OLED lighting panel fabricated on a thin metallic foil substrate using Universal Display’s UniversalPHOLED and other OLED technologies, to demonstrate the commercial product potential of white OLEDs with a flexible form factor.

A tremendous opportunity exists for white OLED lighting products, based on their potential energy efficiency and environmental advantages as compared to existing products, stated Steven V. Abramson, President and Chief Executive Officer of Universal Display. Through its Solid State Lighting program, the U.S. Department of Energy has been a very strong proponent of white OLED lighting, and it has been instrumental in helping to drive the performance of this technology to where it is today. With white OLED performance rapidly approaching commercial targets, we are delighted to be collaborating with Armstrong World Industries, a leading developer and manufacturer of innovative building systems, to develop and demonstrate a novel product concept using white OLEDs. Together, our goal is to make energy-efficient, environmentally-friendly, and economical white OLED lighting a commercial reality.

Armstrong is pleased to be able to support the kind of leading edge effort in energy efficiency and environmental sustainability represented by Universal Display’s solid-state OLED lighting research program, stated Stephen J. Senkowski, Executive Vice President of Armstrong World Industries and Chief Executive Officer of its Building Products Division. The ability to couple ground-breaking developments in the field of lighting with the proven benefits of commercially accepted building systems like TechZone™ is a key goal of this DOE supported project.

Through the use of its UniversalPHOLED phosphorescent OLED technology, Universal Display recently announced a major research milestone for white OLEDs of 102 lm/W. Compared to incandescent bulbs with less than 15 lm/W and fluorescent lamps typically from 60 - 90 lm/W, this research result is a significant advance toward achievement of the full set of performance requirements for commercial products.

Power-efficient white OLEDs may reduce energy consumption dramatically and lower the amount of by-product heat, further reducing energy and environmental burdens. White OLEDs are also environmentally benign, especially compared to mercury-containing fluorescent lamps and newer compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs). Combining these important ‘green’ features with a very thin, lightweight and durable form factor, white OLEDs offer significant new lighting design opportunities, such as the one envisioned in this Armstrong ceiling system concept.

White OLEDs are already producing more light per watt than incandescent bulbs, according to engineering professor Stephen Forrest from Michigen University, but it is trapped inside the device. By fabricating a tandem system of grids and micro lenses on a white OLED, the device can achieve a brightness of over 70 lumens per watt, compared with 15 lumens for incandescent bulbs--almost as much as fluorescent tube lights (90 lumens).

"We have achieved 78 lumens using our grid and lens structures--almost as much as fluorescents," said Forrest. "And when you consider that a lot of the fluorescent tubes light is lost, since it comes out it all directions around the tube, our white OLEDs will be perceived in many applications as brighter than fluorescents."

The Japanese government will team up with several Japanese companies to develop key-technologies for producing large-size OLED panels. The aim is to cut the development cost for the Japanese companies, to be better able to compete against Samsung and LG, and the Japanese government will pitch in around 32$M.

The project will also try to make the displays more efficient and have longer lifetime.

One report says the project will run till 2013, another that it will run until 2015, and the aim is to produce 40" OLED TVs by then. We'll have to wait and see...

The companies include -

• Sony
• Toshiba
• Matsushita
• Sharp
• Idemitsu Kosan
• Sumitomo chemical
• Dainippon Screen Mfg
• Shimadzu
• Hitachi

Interesting to see Sharp in there, after having stated that "OLEDs will not threat LCD for at least a decade".

I recently had the chance to interview Mr. Corey Hewitt and Dr. James Buntaine from Kodak OLED Systems. Kodak is where OLEDs were first discovered, and they are still in the fore-front of the technology. This is going to be a long article - these guys have given me a lot of background info, even before answering my questions. But first let's introduce Corey and James:

Mr. Corey Hewitt, Operations Manager & Vice President, Kodak OLED Systems
Mr. Hewitt's responsibilities include worldwide operations, finance, marketing and business development. Corey has traveled and worked closely on a worldwide basis with Dr. Buntaine in determining the future strategy for OLED technology and how it relates to Eastman Kodak Company. Corey received his Business Administration/Finance degree from the University at Buffalo and subsequently completed his Masters of Business Administration from the Rochester Institute of Technology. Corey has joined Kodak in 1999, and held several positions before becoming the Operations Manager and VP of Kodak OLED Systems.

The companies behind the OLLA project (Philips, OSRAM, Siemens, Novaled and Franhofer IPMS) agreed to fund another OLED lighting project - the OLED100.eu, a follow-up project.

The new project will start on September 2008, for 3 years. The budget is $30 million, $20 million out of which will come from the EU.

OSRAM Opto Semiconductors is spearheading the effort to develop cost-effective volume production methods for organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs) under the CombOLED project, a European funded research and development project that was conceived to combine new device structures, advantageous manufacturing approaches and less complex materials with the aim to achieve cost effective OLED lighting solutions.

The objective of the CombOLED project, which is being funded by the EU and coordinated by OSRAM, is to create the necessary conditions for introducing the new light sources into lighting applications, said Bernhard Stapp, Head of Solid State Lighting at OSRAM Opto Semiconductors. This includes methods for cost-effective printing of new component architectures for large-format transparent light sources. As an innovation driver in the LED market and a pioneer in the mass production of semiconductor components, OSRAM Opto Semiconductors is bringing valuable know-how to the EU project.

At their yearly share holder meeting, UDC reviewed their company's and the OLED industry's progress. UDC also highlights continued adoption of its energy-efficient PHOLED technology in commercial displays and advances in its flexible OLED, white OLED lighting, and printable, phosphorescent P(2)OLED(TM) technologies.

Universal Display’s Chief Executive Officer, Steven V. Abramson, began the meeting by reviewing progress in the commercialization of the Company’s OLED technologies over the past year. Mr. Abramson followed this by highlighting advances in next generation technologies for display and lighting applications, and providing a vision of the future for the Company and the OLED industry.

The last year has seen a number of steps forward for both Universal Display and the OLED industry, Mr. Abramson stated. Our high efficiency, phosphorescent OLED technology is essential for the production of low-power consumption displays. Through commercial agreements with industry leaders, we have seen increasing numbers of active-matrix OLED displays that use our technology, in products that include KDDI, Nokia, Sony Ericsson and Toshiba cell phones, as well as iRiver and Teclast multi-media players. As the market for smaller-area OLED displays solidifies, the next wave of product applications like laptops, computer monitors and TVs is taking shape. A number of announcements have also been made about an increasing demand for AMOLED displays and plans to expand production capacity to meet this demand. As the market continues to grow, we believe that we are well-positioned to participate in that growth.

Mr. Abramson also highlighted progress in the Company’s core OLED technologies. In addition to reviewing the Company’s 102 lm/W breakthrough in white OLEDs that was reported two days earlier, Mr. Abramson discussed key advances in PHOLED, P²OLED and flexible OLED technologies. He also reported a new blue PHOLED material system, at CIE(0.16, 0.25) with over 15,000 hours of operating lifetime (to 50% initial luminance) at 500 nits, which is nearly double the lifetime reported a year ago.

In addition, Mr. Abramson highlighted a number of exciting prototypes on exhibit at the meeting that demonstrate the Company’s core technologies. These included a flexible OLED display built in collaboration with LG Display and partially supported by the U.S. Department of Defense. Also on display were inkjet-printed samples built using the Company’s solution-processible P²OLED technology and materials, and examples of commercial products with OLED displays from CMEL, Pioneer and Samsung SDI. Other technical advances, including those in the Company’s infra-red OLED and organic vapor-jet printing technologies, were also described.

Mr. Abramson concluded, Today, OLED technology is commercial, offering its benefits to manufacturers and consumers alike. The near future will bring bigger and brighter displays, OLED TVs will become even more common, and our next-generation technologies will continue to be refined and advanced. Our phosphorescent OLED technology offers a real ‘green’ solution for display and lighting applications with its energy efficiency and environmental appeal. We believe that our UniversalPHOLED and other OLED technologies will be at the very core of this progress.