Technical / Research - Page 128

NanoHorizons, a developer of applied nanoscale materials and solutions, announced today that it has received a notice of allowance from the US Patent Office for its innovative nanoscale photovoltaic cell design. NanoHorizons' design enables dramatic improvements in solar cell efficiency and breakthrough reductions in fabrication costs. Brighter, more efficient OLEDs are also made possible.

The new technology will be available via NanoHorizons' new Technology Licensing Program.
NanoHorizons' design utilizes a single nanoscale-engineered structure to perform both absorption and collection: An array of efficient vertically- aligned collector "nano-spikes" (made of nanofibers, nanowires, nanotubes, or nanoparticle chains) rise throughout a layer of light-absorptive material. By integrating vertical nano-spike collectors into the absorption material itself, energy collection now occurs at 90 degrees to the absorption process.

Mobile phones could soon be getting a new look if a double-sided organic display developed by AU Optronics of Taiwan proves popular. The new active-matrix organic display (AMOLED) generates 1.5 inch-sized full-color images on both its front and rear surfaces and is controlled by a single IC driver chip.

In the new AMOLED structure, the sub-pixel area is divided into two regions designed for top-emission and bottom-emission. A transparent layer of indium tin oxide (ITO) is used as the anode in the bottom-emitting sub-pixels, while a reflective Ti/Al/Ti/ITO sandwich-type structure is used as the anode for top-emitting sub-pixels. Each side of the display has a resolution of 128x120 pixels, 16-bit color and a brightness of up to 150 nits and is capable of showing independent images.

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The new technology licence agreement provides Luxell with a world-wide exclusive licence for commercialization of NRC's electroluminescent flat panel display contrast enhancement technology, which is considered background intellectual property (IP) to Luxell's extensive Black Layer(TM) display contrast enhancement IP portfolio.

The combined IP portfolio provides Luxell the continued right to pursue global commercial licensing of its Black Layer(TM) contrast enhancement technologies, which recently have been optimized for application to the emerging Organic Light Emitting Diode (OLED) technologies. This newly signed agreement supercedes a similar agreement previously executed by the parties in 2001, and will be in effect for up to four years.

In recent years, AU Optronics' progress in OLED development is quite evident, attracting attentions at each turn. On show this time is the company's 2" full color AMOLED. With ultra high 10,000:1 contrast ratio and less than 1 ms response time, it displays immaculate quality motion pictures. Its exceptional capabilities make it ideal for handset filming or broadcasting multimedia MTV, which are increasing in market demand. This particular 2" AMOLED model is scheduled for mass production targeted for the higher-end markets. Another eye-catching handset model is a brand new 2.4" AMOLED mobile phone panel with QVGA resolution that is also attractive.

Toppoly has today announced its success in the development of 7-inch AMOLED display panel which is the largest sized AMOLED panel in Taiwan. The 7-inch AMOLED marks a breakthrough in Taiwan’s AMOLED industry as it is developed based on the advanced pixel compensation circuit, together with Toppoly’s proprietary high efficient white OLED and COA (Color Filter on Array) technologies.

The 7-inch AMOLED is an ideal display for high performance car TV and GPS system, supporting WVGA (800xRGBx480) with resolution up to 135ppi and 262K full color, and featured with Toppoly’s proprietary technologies of LTPS and OLED. The combination of in-house COA together with high efficient white OLED technology could be a better solution than traditional RGB side-by-side OLED in view of higher resolution and larger panel display. And most importantly, instead of using traditional 2T1C pixel design, Toppoly adopts its proprietary advanced pixel compensation circuit to solve the issue of luminance non-uniformity and thus the display quality is improved significantly. This prototype integrates scan and part of source driver ICs onto the panel, it adopts COG (Chip-On-Glass) module design that not only simplifies the designing of end products, but also increases the end product’s reliability with less power consumption.

This new panel only uses white OLED devices and implements colors by turning on and off each device and color filter, simplifying the process and reducing production cost compared to conventional OLED panels. It adopts the patented three wave-length white OLED device technology. The luminous efficiency of the new panel is improved up to 16cd/A compared to 12cd/A of other products. Efficiency can be enhanced up to 30cd/A when phosphorescent materials are used. The white OLED panel can reduce required backlight units in LCD panels as well as the thickness of LCDs down to 1mm.

Vitex Systems today announced it has received a major order from a leading Korean OLED display manufacturer. The order is for Vitex's Guardian(TM) thin-film encapsulation system, which is slated for shipment this August.

According to Dr. Malcolm J. Thompson, CEO of Vitex, this order is the culmination of an extensive two-year R&D effort with this customer. "This order takes our relationship one step further as we work with this customer to integrate thin-film encapsulation in-situ with OLED device fabrication-truly disrupting the industry's current manufacturing norm. We are extremely pleased to have reached this pinnacle of success with this major OLED player as it continues to underscore the growing global confidence surrounding Vitex in delivering the industry's most effective solution for the manufacture of oled displays.

Cambridge Display Technology and Sumitomo Chemical have announced the signing of a memorandum of understanding to form a new joint venture company to develop and supply advanced polymer OLED materials and formulated inks for use in commercial P-OLED display and lighting applications.

The new company, to be based in Tokyo, Japan, will be owned equally by the two parent companies, and will have the largest concentration of PLED material development expertise and intellectual property (IP) in the OLED industry.

Universal Display Corporation today announced the development of the world's first high-resolution, active-matrix, transparent OLED (AM-TOLED) display using the Company's PHOLED phosphorescent OLED and TOLED® transparent oled technologies along with amorphous silicon (a-Si) backplane technology developed by Professor Jin Jang at Kyung Hee University in Seoul, Korea.

The development of this high-resolution transparent OLED display is a step toward putting thin, low power, full-motion video displays that provide transparency when turned off into a variety of applications where preserving partial visibility or bi-directionality is important. These include architectural vision glass, entertainment, medical and industrial products, helmet shields for military, Homeland Security, fire and rescue applications, and other applications as yet unimagined.

Dai Nippon Printing Co. Ltd. has developed a new OLED manufacturing method that allows three times higher yields by utilizing a photocatalyst unlike the conventional method of coating with a liquid solvent, and plans to start production in 2007 or 2008.

The prototype OLED uses 2.4-inch high molecular light emission materials. Although it comes in the passive matrix structure, it is possible to apply it to the active matrix type. Dai Nippon Printing is planning to focus on the small size panel market in the initial stage of entry.