Universal Display Corporation (UDC) - Page 29

Samsung have been using UDC's PHOLED materials (red, and soon green) for quite some time - the original agreement was announced in 2005. The agreement has expired, and the companies agreed to extend it for 3 months (until September 30th). Universal Display and Samsung will negotiate in an effort to enter into a new business arrangement.

Universal Display announced that they have been awarded another Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I $99,900 program from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). Under
this program (titled Novel Optical
Enhancement for Thin
Phosphorescent OLED Lighting Panels) Universal Display intends to demonstrate a white
phosphorescent OLED lighting panel that meets Energy Star criteria
using
an optical enhancement technique which improves outcoupling
efficiency
while preserving the thin, elegant form factor of the white OLED
lighting panel.

Universal Display will
employ a
novel outcoupling technique that performs as well as thicker
treatments,
such as macro-extractors or outcoupling blocks, but is
significantly
thinner. Outcoupling enhancements are commonly used to increase
the
amount of light that is emitted as useful light. In addition to
maintaining its thin and light weight form factor, the resulting
white
PHOLED lighting panel, which UDC intends to deliver to the DOE,
may
improve the company’s previously reported lighting panel efficacy
results by over 25% and demonstrate a desirable path to meet the
Energy
Star Category B criteria for solid state lighting.

Universal Display announced that they have been awarded a new Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I $99,900 program from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). During this program, the Company will study the potential to enhance the performance of white PHOLED lighting devices in order to meet DOE requirements for general illumination applications.

Under a program titled Thermal Management of High-Efficacy White Phosphorescent Organic Light Emitting Devices, Universal Display will design and build white PHOLED lighting panels to evaluate the impact of operating temperature on performance.

Universal Display has more news for us at SID 2010. They have already announced the new light-blue light-blue phosphorescent OLED emitter system, suitable for both display and lighting applications. Today they are presenting an all-phosphorescent white OLED to address initial commercial niche white lighting applications

UDC is showing a 15cm x 15cm OLED lighting panel using the company’s highly-efficient phosphorescent OLED technology and materials. UDC believes that this panel is the most energy-efficient performance, at this scale, reported to date. This panel emits a warm-white light with a color rendering index (CRI) of 87 and a correlated color temperature (CCT) of 3055K. It also has a luminous efficacy of 50 lumens per Watt using an optical outcoupling treatment with a modest 1.5x enhancement factor. With an operating lifetime of approximately 10,000 hours to 70% of an initial luminance of 1,000 cd/m², this panel performance has the potential to meet the requirements for a number of initial commercial niche OLED lighting applications, and is an important step toward white OLED panel performance that achieves Energy Star
targets.

A couple of days ago, Universal Display has announced a new light-blue phosphorescent OLED emitter system, suitable for both display and lighting applications. Today they are presenting the all-phosphorescent AMOLED architecture that uses the light-blue OLED as a fourth light-blue sub-pixel.

The introduction of a light blue sub-pixel can significantly extend the operational lifetime of an OLED display and reduce the display's power consumption by as much as 33%, as compared to an RGB OLED display using a fluorescent blue sub-pixel.

Universal Display has announced a new light-blue phosphorescent OLED emitter system, suitable for both display and lighting applications. Today they are giving us more information about the new material.

Universal Display’s new light-blue emitter system offers CIE coordinates of (0.17, 0.37) and a peak wavelength of 472 nm. It also provides a luminous efficiency of > 45 candelas per Ampere, corresponding to > 20% external quantum efficiency at 1,000 candelas per square meter (cd/m²). Under accelerated test conditions, this new emitter system demonstrates an operating lifetime of approximately 9,000 hours, to 50% of an initial luminance of 1,000 cd/m². These performance gains are significant, representing a 30% increase in luminous efficiency and an almost 100% increase in operating lifetime, as compared to Universal Display’s earlier-generation light-blue PHOLED emitter system.

Universal Display is going to present a number of advances in their phosphorescent OLED technologies and materials at the 2010 Society for Information Display (SID)  exhibition. They will also show new prototypes and product concepts.

A major highlight will be a new light-blue UniversalPHOLED emitter system. The company has used this system to demonstrate significant performance gains in a commercial-sized white OLED lighting panel that can begin to address initial white lighting applications. It also plays a key role in the company’s demonstration of a new four sub-pixel display design with the potential to accelerate commercial introduction of all-phosphorescent AMOLEDs with enhanced energy efficiency and extended lifetime.

Universal Display reported their financial results. For the first quater of 2010, the net loss was $2.9 million, revenues were $4.2 million. The company reprots an increase in revenue (both in commercial OLED sales and development activities) and a decrease in operating costs.

LG Chem white OLED panels

UDC says they are devoting more and more resources into OLED Lighting. We know that they are working with Konika Minolta, and now UDC say that several more companies are using their materials in OLED Lighting prototypes: LG Chem, NEC Lighting, Panasonic (using UDC's red and green materials) and Showa Denko.

NEC Lighting OLED lamp prototype

UDC is currently shipping Red PHOLED materials for customers (mostly Samsung). They are also hoping that these customers will start using their Green materials, which will enable better efficiency on these displays.

Universal Display Corporation has been awarded a $500,000 Phase II contract from
the National Science Foundation (NSF) for its novel thin-film encapsulation technology, focused on flexible OLEDs for lighting and displays. UDC's encapsulation is single-layer, ultra-hermetic, transparent and flexible. It's also environmental friendly, and can also be used for solar cells, batteries and sensors.

Universal Display has announced their 4Q 2009 financial results: a net loss of $3.8 million with $4.8 in revenue. Commercial revenue (chemical sales and royalties) rose to $1.9 million from $1.4 million in 4Q 2008 (35%). This shows the fast growth of AMOLED production, mostly by Samsung, and also the fact that LG is gearing up towards a new 3.5G plant in a few month, and have bought more 'development chemicals'.

UDC also reports about AU Optronics efforts to build new production lines (they plan to start mass producing OLEDs again in 2011) - they say that AUO are using their PHOLED materials (which is not a big surprise since they used these back in 2006)