Technical / Research - Page 91

We already know that GE plans to start printing OLED Lighting panels in 2010. Now Anil Duggal, GE's OLED lighting printing group leader, says that they know that those pilot panels will be very expensive. He hopes that by 2015, it'll be possible to print OLED panels that will be both cheap and efficient.

GE has recently received $4 million from the DOE to upgrade their pre-pilot roll-to-roll manufacturing lines (the whole project will require $8 million).

Yesterday we reported on the DOE's Recover Act Rewards, and today we have more details on two of the projects. UDC got $4 million (out of a $8.3 million project) to create a US phosphorescent OLED Lighting panel manufacturing Facility. UDC will design and setup two pilot lines, and will provide prototype lighting panels to U.S. luminaire manufacturers to incorporate into products, to facilitate testing of design, and to gauge customer acceptance.

Moser Baer Technologies will supply equipment for these lines. The first might become operational already in 2011 (the specific location isn't public yet). The second line is geared towards commercial volumes of panels. This could mean that UDC will become an OLED panel production company - and not just an IP one. This is an interesting move by UDC that is quite risky as they will compete with their licensees.

UDC will also work with PPG Industries on another project titled "Low-Cost Integrated Substrate for OLED Lighting". PPG plans to develop the OLED lighting integrated substrate using low-cost soda lime float glass plus transparent anode materials and light extraction layers.

Earlier today we reported that  The University of Rochester received a $1.2 million from the U.S. Department of Energy to develop host materials for white phosphorescent OLEDs. This funding is part of the DOE's Recovery Act Rewards, and now we have found the complete list, which contains several OLED Lighting projects:

• Cambrios got $1.2 million (out of $1.8 for the total project) for "Solution-Processable Transparent Conductive Hole Injection Electrode OLED SSL". This project seeks to develop a cost-effective replacement for indium tin oxide for use as an electrode in OLED lighting devices. Indium is both rare and very expensive. 
• The University of Rocherser got $1.2 million (out of $1.3 million) for "Development and Utilization of Host Materials for White Phosphorescent OLEDs". This project seeks to produce white OLEDs with > 100 lm/W efficiency after light extraction enhancement and > 10,000 hour operating time, by making a new class of emissive materials.
• PPG Industries got $1.6 million (out of $2.1 million) for "Low-Cost Integrated Substrate for OLED Lighting". PPG Industries plans to develop a new low-cost integrated substrate product that is suitable for OLED lighting manufacture and is compatible with PPG’s existing flat-glass and transparent-glass coating technologies and high-volume glass manufacturing methods.
• GE Global Research got $4 million (out of $8 million) for "Roll-to-Roll Solution-Processable Small-Molecule OLEDs". This project seeks to upgrade GE’s prepilot OLED roll-to-roll manufacturing line through improved high-performance phosphorescent small-molecule OLED materials, advanced OLED device architectures, plastic ultra-high barrier films, and an advanced encapsulation scheme.
• UDC got $4 million (out of $8.3 million) for "Creation of a U.S. Phosphorescent OLED Lighting Panel Manufacturing Facility". This project seeks to design and set up two pilot phosphorescent OLED (PHOLED) manufacturing lines. The team will implement UDC's PHOLED technology and provide prototype lighting panels to U.S. luminaire manufacturers to incorporate into products, to facilitate testing of design, and to gauge customer acceptance.

Interestingly, two of these project (the GE and UDC ones) involves actual OLED Lighting panels pilot production lines - which could lead to actual OLED products being commercially available.

There's an interesting story over at MobileCrunch. They say that according to rumors the new Windows Mobile 7 will actually be a copy of the Zune HD kernel. It will only work on one screen size, and will "work best on OLED devices". Hardware makers will have to comply to the H/W specifications. This might mean a very big push for OLEDs if Microsoft says that it's the preferred display technology. There were rumors that the LG Apollo phone will use WinMo 7 and have a WXGA (1280x720) resolution. The Zune HD, meanwhile, has a 480x272 display.

The new OS will not be backward compatible - which means that all applications will need to be rewritten. The user interface looks just like the Zune HD's, it won't have background processing, no threading and no access to system resources for applications. 

NanoMarkets have released a new report on OLED materials (Markets for OLED Materials: 2010-2017). They forecast that there will be an explosion in demand for OLED materials - which will grow from around $420 million in 2010 to $2.9 billion in 2015.

Key points from the report:

• OLED Lighting is expected to consume about 70% of OLED materials by 2015.
• Rigid glass substrates, which offer the best combination of performance, costs and manufacturability will be the de facto option at least through 2012.
• NanoMarkets sees a significant consolidation of control of important IP in the OLED materials space with UDC, Summation, and LG holding pivotal positions in the OLED materials IP mesh. Access to established IP is an increasingly important factor for success, especially for materials used in the organic layers of OLEDs.

Here's a couple of nice photos of Samsung's 14" 3D OLED TV prototype. It's nice to see both Sony and Samsung work on these OLED 3D displays. Samsung's display is only 1.6mm thick...

Sony are showing a new 24.5" 3D OLED TV prototype. This is just a technology demo, Sony hasn't announced any plans for newer and larger OLED TVs yet. Engadget say that they are "blown away once more by the sheer vibrancy and clarity of the output".

It's still good to see Sony still working on OLED TV technology. There are some reports that Sony has abandoned OLEDs altogether.

Samsung are showing a laptop that uses a 14" transparent OLED display:

The OLED is up to 40% transparent. I'm not sure if it's useful, but it sure is amazing. In any case, Samsung did not mention any plans to make this into a real product... Here's a short video:

It seems that Sony are very serious about printed flexible OLEDs. In June 2009, they have created a group whose goal is to launch the flexible OLED panel business "as soon as possible". They had several researchers working on organic TFT in several departments in Sony, and now they all work in the same group.

Sony Flexible OLED Prototype (CES 2009)

Sony wants to 'change the fundamental design of equipment" using the new flexible displays. They have already shown us flexible-OLED prototypes (photo above, and video below). Hopefully we'll hear more at CES 2010 next week.

Doosan Electro-Materiasl have signed an agreement with the Korean Institute of Industrial Technology (KITECH) to co-develop materials for OLED lighting. They plan to develop white phosphorescent materials that feature high efficiency and long lifetimes. Doosan EM is already producing materials for OLED displays (PMOLED and AMOLED).