Universal Display Corporation (UDC) - Page 33

UDC reported data for a series of white PHOLEDs that span a range of white colors that were designed to satisfy the requirements of differing lighting applications. These research results range from warm to cool white with varied power efficacies of 54 to 102 lumens per watt (lm/W). Depending on the specific designs employed, the color rendering indices (CRI’s) varied from 70 to 88, and lifetimes varied from 4,000 to 17,000 hours (to 70% of initial luminance at 1,000 nits*).

UDC white light OLED prototype

White OLED performance characteristics can be tuned by manipulating the OLED materials and structures that are used. To show this effect, a series of white OLEDs, from approximately 2,700 to 4,000 Kelvin, were developed that exceed the Energy Star Category A Color Specification of color rendering index (CRI) of > 75 and the Efficiency Specification of > 35 lm/W. The Energy Star lifetime specification is ? 25,000 hours (to 70% of initial luminance at 1000 nits*), however, the lifetime results for this series may be sufficient for a variety of niche products while the Company continues to develop white OLEDs that meet the requirements for more demanding applications.

UDC says that they are moving closer to meeting the U.S. Department of Energy’s solid-state lighting targets and the requirements of Energy Star, a joint specification between DOE and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Digitimes shows LG Display's OLED roadmap for 2004-2011. As stated before, LG plans to introduce 15" displays in the second half of 2009 - this will only be a 'trial production' - real quantities, and larger 32" OLED TVs will come in 2010.

LG Display OLED roadmap

LG also plans to introduce products based on their flexible OLED technology (developed together with UDC). They have already shown a 4" flexible OLED for military use, back in January 2009 at CES:

UDC Flexible OLED Display Concept

UDC has announced today that CMEL has renewed their 'commercial supply' agreement. UDC are providing CMEL with materials to use in their AMOLED displays. The new agreement will run through 31th of December 2009.

CMEL 7.6 AMOLED

CMEL ae making AMOLED displays, and are currently shipping the largest display available (beside Sony's XEL-1 11" TV) - a 7.6" OLED panel, as used in Kodak's digital photo frame. 

Universal Display Corporation announced their latest financial results. In the last quarter (4Q 2008) they had a net loss of 4.4M$, and 3.5m$ in revenue (which is actually their quarterly record).

In their conference call, they say "I would say substantially all of the active OLEDs that are in the market use our technology." - basically all displays by Samsung and LG. They also believe that we're gonna see many new products released in the second half of 2009, with larger OLED panels being introduced.

UDC are working on flexible displays - they have shown a nice AMOLED 4" display at CES (made together with LG Display and L-3). Now they say they are considering adding touch controls to their displays - although it is difficult to do on a flexible display. This will be interesting.

UDC announced that it got a $1,089,600 new contract (SBIR III) from the United States Army to continue and develop the Flexible OLED display tech. The wrist-worn 4" OLED device has been shown at CES earlier this month.

UDC Flexible OLED Display Prototype

The program is extended for 15 months, and will focus on demonstrating advances in display performance, including higher display
brightness and enhanced reliability, as well as improved product design
(i.e., a thinner, lighter weight and more compact system housing). During this time they will also put actual prototypes in the field for soldiers to test.

The OLED materials are from UDC, while the backpane is amorphous Siliocn (a-Si) TFT backpane made by LG. The wrist-worn device was designed by L-3 Display Systems.

Flexible OLEDs are hot in this CES. We've got a nice photo (from Ubergizmo) of UDC's fleixlbe OLED prototype. As we mentioned before, this is a 4" OLED, based on a project for the army, together with L-3 and LG Display.

UDC Flexible OLED Display

Universal Display Corporation today announced that it will exhibit a novel, wrist-worn flexible OLED communication device prototype at a CES 2009 event. The prototype device, based on a four-inch flexible OLED display, was initially developed for military use through a program sponsored by the U.S. Army Communication Electronics Research and Development Engineering Center (CERDEC). Universal Display fabricated this prototype in collaboration with LG Display and L-3 Display Systems, as a complement to the flexible display development work ongoing at the U.S. Army’s Flexible Display Center at Arizona State University, of which Universal Display is a founding member.

Universal Display Corporation and SFC from Koea announced today that the companies have entered into a strategic business agreement to develop and commercialize highly-efficient phosphorescent OLED material systems.

Based on Universal Display’s proprietary UniversalPHOLED technology, Universal Display will support SFC’s development and marketing of phosphorescent hosts and other non-emitter materials that are matched to Universal Display’s phosphorescent OLED emitter materials. The companies will market and sell their respective materials that result from the collaboration. As part of the arrangement, SFC will transfer certain existing phosphorescent emitter materials to Universal Display, including manufacturing and sales of these materials.

Vitex has produced a nice video of several OLED products that use their thin film encapsulation technology. Among those products you can see the Samsung's flapping display, foldable phone and curved displays. Several UDC OLED prototypes are in there as well, including their flexible displays, developed together by LGDisplay.

Vitex told us that their tech is used on AMOLED and PMOLED displays, on glass, silicon or metal foil. Some of those products use direct encapsulation, and some use barrier substrate. A few of the photos seen show products that use flexible CIGS PV cells laminated with Vitex's barrier.