Technical / Research - Page 60

DuPont announced that it has signed a OLED production technology licensing agreement with a leading Asian AMOLED maker. This technology will be used to make large size OLED TV panels. We don't have any financial details on this agreement, but a leading asian AMOLED maker probably means Samsung, LG or Sony. In fact Bloomberg claims that the company is probably Samsung (which makes sense).

DuPont 4.3-inch printed OLED prototype

DuPont's nozzle-printing (or "spray-printing") technology uses a continuous stream of ink (unlike the droplets used in regular inkjet printing) to deposit OLED materials. This is a very fast process - DuPont says it can print a 50" TV in under 2 minutes, but the display isn't optimized in the sub-pixel level and is so less efficient than in other patterning technologies. But the faster throughput can lead to cheaper displays - in fact DuPont claims that this technology may make an OLED TV cheaper than an LCD TV.

Prof. Daisuke Yokoyama from the Yamagata University in Japan published an interesting research paper about molecular orientation in small-molecule OLEDs. Daisuke says that orienting the molecules horizontally has two positive effects: the light outcoupling efficiency is increased (by around 50% compared to randomly oriented emitters) and the charge transport between molecules becomes more efficient (which can lead to a lower driving voltage).

Daisuke tells us that some materials in commercial OLEDs are already horizontally oriented - but not all. He claims that most phosphorescent emitters are not horizontally oriented yet. If so, we can expect good performance increases once these materials are oriented.

Nippon Electric Glass developed a new glass that dramatically reduces glare - from around 8% light reflection in normal glass to only 0.5%. They call it the "invisible glass" - which obviously could be very useful in mobile devices and TVs. NEG used an anti-reflection film on each of the front and back sides of the glass substrate.

Last week we reported that AUO plans to unveil a new 4" flexible OLED prototype, and today we have a photo and some details of this new panel. It turns out that this bottom-emitting panel is only 0.3mm thick, and it offers a resolution of 240x320. It can be bent with a curvature radius of 10mm.

To create this display, AUO formed a resin substrate on a glass substrate and formed the driver elements and OLED elements on it. Then, the glass substrate and the resin substrate were separated. The driver is based on amorphous IGZO (InGaZnO) TFTs, formed in a vacuum process.

Update: we have some more information about this upcoming plant, read more here

Sumitomo Chemical have began construction of a PLED material factory in Osaka, Japan. The company says that this plant will start mass-production of high-performance P-OLED materials in 2012. Total investment will be a several billion yen (a billion yen is about $12 million).

Sumitomo 6.5-inch AMOLED prototype

According to the report, these materials will be used for OLED TV production. Interestingly, back in 2009 Sumitomo said that 2012 will be the year when OLED TV finally takes off...

Researchers from the University of Toronto developed the world's most efficient OLED on plastic, which they say is comparable with the best glass-based OLEDs. They discovered that coating the plastic substrate with a 50-100 nano-meter thick layer of tantalum(V) oxide (Ta2O5), an advanced optical thin-film coating material enabled them to re-construct the high-refractive index property previously limited to heavy metal-doped glass:

The researchers say that to create a high-efficiency OLED you need a high-refractive-index (n 10,000 cd/m².

Corning launched a new glass called Lotus Glass, which was developed for cutting-edge displays - such as OLEDs and next-gen LCDs (based on LTPS and Oxide-TFTs). Corning explains that the new glass has a high annealing point that delivers the thermal and dimensional stability required by these new high-performance displays. Lotus Glass has already been qualified and is now in production.

Lotus Glass's intrinsic stability means it can withstand the manufacturing thermal cycles better than conventional glass, and so enable tighter design rules needed in advanced backplanes (which are needed for high resolution and fast response time). It's good to see a new glass substrate from Corning, although we're still waiting for Corning's future flexible glass as shown in their "Day made of glass" video released a few months ago (which features future designs made with durable, transparent and even flexible glass displays):

A few days ago we reported that AUO will show a 6" transparent OLED panel, and today we have some more details and nice photo of this display. The display features 400x300 resolution, 36% transmittance and 400 cd/m² brightness. Both the cathode and anode are transparent - and so light is emitted in both sides.

AUO announced it will show several OLED prototypes at the FPD International 2011 exhibition later this week. The company will show a new 32" Full-HD OLED TV prototype. This TV uses a Metal Oxide TFT as backplane and is only 3mm thick. AUO says that the TV has a quick response time and high contrast ratio. Hopefully the company will unveil the specifications and commercialization plans during the conference.

AUO will also show a 4" Flexible AMOLED panel (which is based on Low Temperature Processed Metal Oxide TFT as backplane driver). This panel is only 0.3mm thick.

AUO unveiled a new 4.3" AMOLED panel offering 257ppi. The company actually said they "launched" the new product, but it seems that they aren't mass producing it yet (this will probably happen in early 2012). But the company is reportedly shipping samples already.

The company has also demonstrated a 6" transparent OLED display (with a transparency rate of over 35%), and a 4" Touch AMOLED display that features 30% less energy consumption compared to other AMOLED. We assume that this display includes an in-cell touch panel - similar to Samsung's Super AMOLED displays. AUO unveiled their AMOLED in-cell touch technology back in June 2010.