Universal Display Corporation (UDC) - Page 35

During this SSL Product Development Project, Universal Display and its subcontractor, Armstrong, will develop and deliver an integrated ceiling illumination system that is targeted to exceed the DOE’s 2010 performance goals. The white OLED lighting panels will be designed and fabricated by Universal Display using its high-efficiency phosphorescent OLED technology. The panels will then be integrated by Armstrong into its innovative TechZone™ open-architecture ceiling system. In addition, the team will deliver a white OLED lighting panel fabricated on a thin metallic foil substrate using Universal Display’s UniversalPHOLED and other OLED technologies, to demonstrate the commercial product potential of white OLEDs with a flexible form factor.

A tremendous opportunity exists for white OLED lighting products, based on their potential energy efficiency and environmental advantages as compared to existing products, stated Steven V. Abramson, President and Chief Executive Officer of Universal Display. Through its Solid State Lighting program, the U.S. Department of Energy has been a very strong proponent of white OLED lighting, and it has been instrumental in helping to drive the performance of this technology to where it is today. With white OLED performance rapidly approaching commercial targets, we are delighted to be collaborating with Armstrong World Industries, a leading developer and manufacturer of innovative building systems, to develop and demonstrate a novel product concept using white OLEDs. Together, our goal is to make energy-efficient, environmentally-friendly, and economical white OLED lighting a commercial reality.

Armstrong is pleased to be able to support the kind of leading edge effort in energy efficiency and environmental sustainability represented by Universal Display’s solid-state OLED lighting research program, stated Stephen J. Senkowski, Executive Vice President of Armstrong World Industries and Chief Executive Officer of its Building Products Division. The ability to couple ground-breaking developments in the field of lighting with the proven benefits of commercially accepted building systems like TechZone™ is a key goal of this DOE supported project.

Through the use of its UniversalPHOLED phosphorescent OLED technology, Universal Display recently announced a major research milestone for white OLEDs of 102 lm/W. Compared to incandescent bulbs with less than 15 lm/W and fluorescent lamps typically from 60 - 90 lm/W, this research result is a significant advance toward achievement of the full set of performance requirements for commercial products.

Power-efficient white OLEDs may reduce energy consumption dramatically and lower the amount of by-product heat, further reducing energy and environmental burdens. White OLEDs are also environmentally benign, especially compared to mercury-containing fluorescent lamps and newer compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs). Combining these important ‘green’ features with a very thin, lightweight and durable form factor, white OLEDs offer significant new lighting design opportunities, such as the one envisioned in this Armstrong ceiling system concept.

In July 2008, I had the chance of interviewing Gildas Sorin, Novaled's CEO. Novaled is engaged in the commercialization of the new generation of OLEDs. Novaled developed an innovative doping technology (Novaled PIN OLED) enabling large area OLED display and lighting.

Novaled claims to deliver the highest power efficiencies in combination with longest lifetimes and holds several OLED world records.

Novaled, established 5 years ago, is located in Dresden, Germany. Dresden city is becoming the biggest European organic electronic centre with a network of university, R&D centers and companies acting in the organic fields.

White OLEDs are already producing more light per watt than incandescent bulbs, according to engineering professor Stephen Forrest from Michigen University, but it is trapped inside the device. By fabricating a tandem system of grids and micro lenses on a white OLED, the device can achieve a brightness of over 70 lumens per watt, compared with 15 lumens for incandescent bulbs--almost as much as fluorescent tube lights (90 lumens).

"We have achieved 78 lumens using our grid and lens structures--almost as much as fluorescents," said Forrest. "And when you consider that a lot of the fluorescent tubes light is lost, since it comes out it all directions around the tube, our white OLEDs will be perceived in many applications as brighter than fluorescents."

I recently had the chance to interview Mr. Corey Hewitt and Dr. James Buntaine from Kodak OLED Systems. Kodak is where OLEDs were first discovered, and they are still in the fore-front of the technology. This is going to be a long article - these guys have given me a lot of background info, even before answering my questions. But first let's introduce Corey and James:

Mr. Corey Hewitt, Operations Manager & Vice President, Kodak OLED Systems
Mr. Hewitt's responsibilities include worldwide operations, finance, marketing and business development. Corey has traveled and worked closely on a worldwide basis with Dr. Buntaine in determining the future strategy for OLED technology and how it relates to Eastman Kodak Company. Corey received his Business Administration/Finance degree from the University at Buffalo and subsequently completed his Masters of Business Administration from the Rochester Institute of Technology. Corey has joined Kodak in 1999, and held several positions before becoming the Operations Manager and VP of Kodak OLED Systems.

At their yearly share holder meeting, UDC reviewed their company's and the OLED industry's progress. UDC also highlights continued adoption of its energy-efficient PHOLED technology in commercial displays and advances in its flexible OLED, white OLED lighting, and printable, phosphorescent P(2)OLED(TM) technologies.

Universal Display’s Chief Executive Officer, Steven V. Abramson, began the meeting by reviewing progress in the commercialization of the Company’s OLED technologies over the past year. Mr. Abramson followed this by highlighting advances in next generation technologies for display and lighting applications, and providing a vision of the future for the Company and the OLED industry.

The last year has seen a number of steps forward for both Universal Display and the OLED industry, Mr. Abramson stated. Our high efficiency, phosphorescent OLED technology is essential for the production of low-power consumption displays. Through commercial agreements with industry leaders, we have seen increasing numbers of active-matrix OLED displays that use our technology, in products that include KDDI, Nokia, Sony Ericsson and Toshiba cell phones, as well as iRiver and Teclast multi-media players. As the market for smaller-area OLED displays solidifies, the next wave of product applications like laptops, computer monitors and TVs is taking shape. A number of announcements have also been made about an increasing demand for AMOLED displays and plans to expand production capacity to meet this demand. As the market continues to grow, we believe that we are well-positioned to participate in that growth.

Mr. Abramson also highlighted progress in the Company’s core OLED technologies. In addition to reviewing the Company’s 102 lm/W breakthrough in white OLEDs that was reported two days earlier, Mr. Abramson discussed key advances in PHOLED, P²OLED and flexible OLED technologies. He also reported a new blue PHOLED material system, at CIE(0.16, 0.25) with over 15,000 hours of operating lifetime (to 50% initial luminance) at 500 nits, which is nearly double the lifetime reported a year ago.

In addition, Mr. Abramson highlighted a number of exciting prototypes on exhibit at the meeting that demonstrate the Company’s core technologies. These included a flexible OLED display built in collaboration with LG Display and partially supported by the U.S. Department of Defense. Also on display were inkjet-printed samples built using the Company’s solution-processible P²OLED technology and materials, and examples of commercial products with OLED displays from CMEL, Pioneer and Samsung SDI. Other technical advances, including those in the Company’s infra-red OLED and organic vapor-jet printing technologies, were also described.

Mr. Abramson concluded, Today, OLED technology is commercial, offering its benefits to manufacturers and consumers alike. The near future will bring bigger and brighter displays, OLED TVs will become even more common, and our next-generation technologies will continue to be refined and advanced. Our phosphorescent OLED technology offers a real ‘green’ solution for display and lighting applications with its energy efficiency and environmental appeal. We believe that our UniversalPHOLED and other OLED technologies will be at the very core of this progress.

Universal Display Corporation today announced that the company has successfully demonstrated a record-breaking white OLED with a power efficacy of 102 lumens per watt (lm/W) at 1000 cd/m2 using its proprietary, high-efficiency phosphorescent OLED technology.

Just last month at the Society for Information Display Symposium, Universal Display announced a new record of 72 lm/W. Since then, Universal Display has continued to make significant advances in this area achieving yet another major milestone toward commercialization. The milestone also demonstrates the potential of white OLEDs to offer significant energy savings and environmental benefits to end users around the world. For the first time, white OLEDs have surpassed the power efficacy of the two incumbent indoor lighting technologies - incandescent bulbs are less than 15 lm/W and most fluorescent lamps are 60 - 90 lm/W.

Funded in part by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) through its Solid-State Lighting initiative, Universal Display’s 102 lm/W milestone is a significant achievement toward the DOE's roadmap goal of a 150 lm/W commercial OLED light source by 2015.

This WOLED light source also offers a pleasing white emission with a color rendering index (CRI) of 70 and a coordinated color temperature (CCT) of 3900 Kelvin. This all-PHOLED structure uses complementary materials from Universal Display's collaboration partners at LG Chem and Nippon Steel Chemical Company.

Through the use of Universal Display’s PHOLED technology, power-efficient white OLEDs have the potential to reduce energy consumption dramatically and to lower the amount of by-product heat, which creates additional energy and environmental burdens. White OLEDs are also environmentally benign, especially compared to mercury-containing fluorescent lamps and newer compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs). It has been estimated that white OLEDs could worldwide save well over $20 billion in electric costs and over 9 million metric tonnes of carbon emissions from the U.S. alone by 2016.

I have just learned from AUO that they have resumed their OLED operation in January 2008. As you may recall, in 2007 AUO stopped their OLED production, and relocated all OLED engineers to their LCD business. AUO has done a lot of research into AMOLEDs in the past years, and the first AMOLED phone (the BenQ S88) used their 2" AMOLED display.

AUO used UDC's PHOLED materials, and I understand that they are likely to still use PHOLEDs in the new OLEDs.

UDC describes a new simplified WOLED architecture that represents an important milestone toward the achievement of cost-effective OLEDs for lighting applications. Offering a warm white color with CIE coordinates of (0.45, 0.46) and 30 lumens per Watt (with outcoupling), this WOLED device boasts an extremely long operating lifetime, exceeding 200,000 hours at 1,000 cd/m2, and may be suitable for a variety of entry lighting products.

Dr. D’Andrade will also report on a new white OLED with record-breaking power efficacy of 72 lumens per Watt. Both devices use transport and injection materials provided by Universal Display’s collaboration partner, LG Chem.

This work was funded, in part, by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) through its Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program. Under the SBIR program and the Solid State Lighting Initiative, the DOE is working to accelerate advances in OLEDs as an energy-efficient, solid-state lighting technology. The DOE views OLEDs as a pivotal emerging technology that promises to fundamentally alter lighting in the future. Through the use of Universal Display’s PHOLED technology, WOLEDs have the potential to meet the DOE’s future performance targets, including a power efficiency of 150 lumens per Watt, in an exciting new thin form factor.

There's a new OLED group that has just been formed - the OLED Association (OLED-A). The group is managed by Barry Young (Former senior VP, Display Search).

There are ten members in the group - Cambridge Display/Sumitomo, Corning, DuPont, Kodak, eMagin, Ignis, MicroEmissive Displays, Novaled, OLED-T, Samsung SDI, and Universal Display, and OLED-A are working to add more members.

Universal Display Corporation today announced the development of the world’s thinnest flexible, active-matrix OLED (AMOLED) display prototype built to date. Resulting from Universal Display’s collaboration with Professor Jin Jang of Kyung Hee University, the Company’s research demonstrates significant flexibility enhancements and AMOLED robustness when built on ultra-thin metallic foil substrates. This work will be reported in a joint paper at the Society for Information Display (SID) 2008 International Symposium, Seminar and Exhibition at the Los Angeles Convention Center in Los Angeles, CA.

The joint paper, which will be presented by Universal Display’s Dr. Rui Qing (Ray) Ma, Department Manager, Flexible Displays, discusses the successful fabrication of a low-power flexible AMOLED device built on ultra-thin (25µm) metallic foil substrate. The monochrome device combines an amorphous-Silicon (a-Si) backplane developed and fabricated by Professor Jang’s team with a top-emission, phosphorescent OLED front plane from Universal Display. Through flexibility testing, the work shows that these backplanes can operate effectively when conformed repetitively to a tight diameter of 5 millimeters. This is significant in that it demonstrates additional feasibility for product concepts such as the Company’s Universal Communication Device™. Dr. Ma will present the findings today during the OLED Display Technology I session in Concourse Hall 152 at 10:40 A.M. PT. The paper is titled Highly Flexible Low Power Consumption AMOLED Displays on Ultra-Thin Stainless Steel Substrates.

We’re excited to announce advances in the flexibility and ruggedness of ultra-thin OLED displays, the result of a successful collaboration with our world-class collaborators at Kyung Hee University, said Steven V. Abramson, President and Chief Executive Officer of Universal Display. These advances support our initiative to develop flexible OLED display technologies for military and consumer applications, including a ‘roll-out’ OLED display for our concept Universal Communication Device.