Technical / Research - Page 38

The EU launched a new project called GLADIATOR (Graphene Layers: Production, Characterization and Integration) that aims to improve the quality and size of CVD graphene sheets and reduce the production cost. They will demonstrate this new graphene by producing large area flexible OLEDs.

GLADIATOR directly targets the transparent electrodes market and will demonstrate that ITO can be matched on performance (over 90% transparency and a resistance of less than 10 W/sq) and cost (under 30 €/m²).

Ason Technology was established in 2006 in Japan to develop OLED lighting technologies. The company finally unveiled their first OLED lighting panel during the FPD International 2013 exhibition last month.

Ason's panel use Multi-Photo-Emission (MPE), which is a stacked emitter architecture, which is also used by Lumiotec. Usually MPE panels use about 3 layers, but Ason managed to stack 10 or more emitting layers which enables them to reach a very high brightness and CRI. Ason also developed their own diffusion reflection layer so that the emitted color does not change even when viewed from different angles.

Researchers from the Fraunhofer IAP insitute, together with MBraun, developed a new production facility that can be used to print OLED panels and OPV cells. They say that the new system can be used to produce large sample panels. The Fraunhofer showed the "bus stop of the future" that includes both large OPVs and OLED displays:

The Fraunhofer released very little technical details. I think this process actually produces very large OLED (or OPV) pixels , so you can think of these as OLED lighting panels and not really displays. The researchers said that the system includes a robot that controls different printers - and this all is like a "huge" ink-jet printer.

Researchers from South Korea's Gyeongsang National University and Chung Ang University developed a new plastic (polymer) semiconductor backplane technology. The new backplane features a carrier mobility of 12 cm²/Vs - which is good enough for AMOLED displays, and the best mobility of any polymer based backplane according to the researchers.

Flexible AMOLED prototype, AUO

The researchers say that this new backplane can be used in flexible, bendable and stretchable displays. It should be cost effective, too, as it is based on poylmers and not silicon or oxide TFTs.

Researchers from TU Dresden and Fraunhofer COMEDD are developing OLED lighting based bio-reactors that will be used to cultivate micro-algea that will help absorb CO₂ using photosynthesis.

Those micro algae (or phototropic microorganisms) can transform carbon dioxide (CO₂) into useful products such as proteins, dyes and other substances. OLED lighting may prove to enable a more effective process by providing the necessary lighting energy.

Now that flexible display are starting to appear, there are still many obstacles towards bendable devices. One area in which several companies are advancing is flexible batteries. Earlier this month we reported about LG Chem curved and cable batteries, and today we learned that Japan's SEL is also developing similar technology.

SEL are showing a prototype Li-Ion rechargeable battery at the FPD International 2013 event in Japan. SEL explains that they have been developing this technology for a long time but they finally show it now as demand for flexible and wearable devices is starting. The battery on display is 50x40 mm in size and 1.6 mm thick. The capacity is 300 mAh and it can be bent bent to a curvature radius of 40mm. Even after 10,000 bending, the properties do not deteriorate.

Last month Ignis Innovation announced that they began producing some 55" OLED TV evaluation samples for display makers to test their MaxLife compensation technology. The company now tells us that the first sample panel arrived at their offices, and they will start fulfilling orders (to display makers and OEMs) in about two weeks.

The company did some initial measurements, and they say that this panel offers the world's lowest power consumption (20% lower than LG and Samsung's current OLED TVs), longest lifetime (a significant boost over existing OLED panels). The panels are highly uniform (much better than the OLED TVs no the market).

BASF has been working on a blue phosphorescent OLED emitter for quite some time - in fact the company says they have started developing an iridium-based blue PHOLED as early in 2003. Now Karl Hahn, a senior VP at BASF, says that the company will be ready to launch a commercial blue phosphorescent emitter by the end of 2014 aimed towards OLED lighting panels.

During the same presentation, Karl Hahn said that BASF plans to open a new OLED display focused laboratory in Korea during 2014.

Mitsubishi Chemical and Pioneer have been jointly developing OLED lighting technologies for a long time, including printed OLED panels. The companies are currently producing OLED lighting panels in which the bottom layer is coated and the emissive layer and the top layers are deposited by evaporation in vacuum (VTE).

Now the two companies presented a prototype panel in which both the bottom layer and the emissive layer were coated (the top layer was still deposited using VTE). The companies say this new process will reduce the cost of the panel to 10% compared to current OLEDs due to improved material utilization. They also say that the new panels will feature much longer lifetimes.

OLED Encapsulation is a very hot topic, especially for flexible OLEDs. Samsung and LG are already producing flexible OLEDs, but the search for better encapsulation technologies is still on. ALD, or Atomic Layer Deposition is one candidate for future deposition of OLED encapsulation. ALD is based on Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD) that uses two vapors (gaseous) precursors which react on the substrate which creates a solid thin film. ALD works in relatively low temperatures which means it is suitable for all substrates including plastics.

One of the leaders in ALD is Finland's Beneq. Beneq developed an inorganic barrier film called nClear which is deposited using ALD. Beneq says that nClear provides "world class" barrier performance and can be deposited at temperatures well below 100 degrees Celsius. Beneq offers the TFS-600 (Gen-2.5, 500x400 mm) which is used for industrial-scale OLED encapsulation. Beneq's director of Technical sales, Mikko Soderlund, was kind enough to answer a few questions we had on the company's technology and business. Mikko is leading the application development and commercialization of ALD-based thin-film encapsulation technology for OLEDs. He has a PhD in Photonics from Helsinki University of Technology (2009).