Universal Display Corporation (UDC) - Page 36

Universal Display Corporation will today report advances in the development of P2OLED™, printable, phosphorescent OLED, material systems for use with ink-jet printing processes at the Society for Information Display’s (SID) 2008.

Presenting on a joint paper with Seiko Epson Corporation, Dr. Sean Xia, Senior Research Scientist at Universal Display, will describe advances in red, green and blue P2OLED material systems. Dr. Xia will also discuss the companies’ demonstration of ink-jet printed P2OLED technology and their continuing work to achieve commercial entry performance goals. Ink-jet printing has the potential to be a cost-effective approach for the production of large-area OLED displays.

The collaborative paper is the result of a joint development program during which the two companies successfully demonstrated the compatibility of Universal Display’s P2OLED technology and materials with Epson’s proprietary ink-jet printing process technology.

Through continued development using spin-coating techniques, the team has doubled the projected operating lifetime of its red P2OLED system since late last year to 100,000 hours (from an initial luminance of 500 cd/m2) with CIE coordinates of (0.67, 0.33) and a luminous efficiency of 12 candelas per Ampere (cd/A). The team also improved the projected lifetime of its green P2OLED system with CIE(0.33, 0.62) and a luminous efficiency of 34 cd/A to 63,000 hours (from an initial luminance of 1,000 cd/m2).

The team also made progress in the development of two blue P2OLED systems. A light blue P2OLED system with CIE(0.18, 0.39) and a luminous efficiency of 19 cd/A now has a projected lifetime of 6,000 hours from an initial luminance of 500 cd/m2, also twice that reported late last year. A new blue P2OLED system has more saturated color, with CIE(0.15, 0.22), a luminous efficiency of 6 cd/A and a projected lifetime of 1,000 hours (from an initial luminance of 500 cd/m2).

Universal Display’s PHOLED technology and materials, which offer up to four times higher energy efficiency than traditional OLED systems, are today being incorporated in products manufactured using conventional vacuum thermal evaporation (VTE) equipment. Universal Display’s P2OLED materials and technology are based on this same PHOLED technology, but are designed for use with solution-based manufacturing processes such as ink-jet printing.

Universal Display Corporation and LG Display announced today the joint development of a flexible, full-color, active-matrix OLED (AMOLED) display prototype. Built on thin metallic foil, these prototypes are being showcased at each company’s booth during the 2008 Society for Information Display Conference.

The four-inch diagonal, QVGA full-color AMOLED display prototype combines LGD’s amorphous-Silicon backplane technologies with Universal Display’s OLED frontplane technologies, including its high-efficiency Universal PHOLED™ and transparent compound-cathode TOLED® technologies. Building on the foundation of the jointly-developed prototype shown at last year’s SID Exhibition, this new demonstrator offers enhanced brightness, improved color saturation, broader color gamut and a one-sided electrical interconnection, making it the most advanced flexible OLED display built on metallic foil using a-Si backplane technology to date.

The development of this prototype has been, in part, supported by the U.S. Department of Defense through the Battle Command Interface Branch of the U.S. Army Communication Electronics Research and Development Engineering Center (CERDEC). This work also complements flexible display development ongoing at the U.S. Army’s Flexible Display Center at Arizona State University, of which Universal Display is a founding member and LGD recently joined as an Associate member.

Universal Display Corporation announced today that the Company has been awarded a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I grant for $99,978 from the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory to develop its flexible OLED display technology for rollable applications. The ultimate goal of this U.S. Air Force program is to develop lightweight, rugged, low power displays that can replace printed paper maps on pilots’ knees and be rolled up for stowage when not in use. Rollability is also important for a variety of novel commercial applications, including the Company’s concept Universal Communication Device.

Under the terms of this nine-month Phase I grant, Universal Display and its partner, L-3 Display Systems, will provide the U.S. Air Force with an initial design and mock-up of a low-power consumption, full-color, video-rate OLED display that can be rolled around a cylinder for stowage. If successful, Universal Display would then propose a follow-on Phase II program to deliver six-inch diagonal, 480 x 480 full-color, active matrix PHOLED display prototypes that would be built on metallic foil to be flexible enough to wrap around a 2.5 inch diameter cylinder containing the power supplies and wireless communication electronics.

We are excited to continue the research and development of flexible and rollable OLED technology an idea that is moving quickly from being a vision to becoming a reality,The U.S. Air Force as well as other branches of the U.S. Department of Defense have been strong supporters of our flexible OLED technology. Also offering thinness, light weight and ruggedness, rollable displays may revolutionize the way soldiers view information on the battlefield and in the cockpit. This program should also support our efforts to commercialize FOLED technology for a variety of novel consumer applications. said Steven V. Abramson, President and Chief Executive Officer of Universal Display.

For the first quarter of 2008, the Company reported a net loss of $4,193,385, or $(0.12) per diluted share, versus a net loss of $4,583,801, or $(0.15) per diluted share, for the first quarter of 2007.

Revenues for the first quarter of 2008 were $2,716,819, compared to $3,014,630 for the first quarter of 2007. Commercial revenue, which includes commercial chemical revenue, license fees and royalty income, increased to $1,555,065 for the first quarter of 2008, from $1,440,900 for the first quarter of 2007. Developmental revenue, which includes contract research revenue, technology development revenue and development chemical sales, decreased for the first quarter of 2008 to $1,161,754, compared to $1,573,730 for the first quarter of 2007. Universal Display believes these revenue categories, which now combine accounts previously reported separately, better reflect the Company’s business strategies and activities.

Our licensee, Samsung SDI, has achieved volume production of AMOLED displays and reports that it will increase output in 2008 and again in 2009. This should drive a further increase in our commercial revenue, said Sidney D. Rosenblatt, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Universal Display. However, total revenues for the quarter decreased due to lower developmental revenue, but this is to be expected as AMOLED manufacturer’s transition from development to commercial activities.

Mr. Rosenblatt, continued, We expect our financial results to be impacted positively as an increasing number of AMOLED displays are sold and integrated into the marketplace through customers such as Chi Mei EL, LG Display and Samsung SDI. As the year progresses, we will look to maintain our operating expenses at current levels, while continuing to generate new innovations and commercial opportunities for our OLED technologies and materials, including in the areas of white OLED lighting and flexible OLED displays. In all, we believe that Universal Display is well positioned to benefit from the accelerated growth being forecast for the OLED market.

Universal Display Corporation today announced the successful development and delivery of a novel OLED display prototype to the U.S. Army. The prototype demonstrates the world’s first flexible OLED display that incorporates both visible green emission for daytime operation and infrared (IR) emission for use in dark environments.

Developed through a two-phase Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program with the U.S. Army, this initial prototype was designed to demonstrate capabilities that would enable soldiers in the field to view one display in two modes. Using Universal Display's high-efficiency PHOLED technology, the OLED display prototype provides green-color emission for daytime operation, and can be switched to operate in an IR-emission mode, that can only be detected through specialized night-vision goggles, for covert operations. By integrating this onto a flexible substrate, the Company has achieved a design suitable for portable, rugged and conformable use both day and night in the field.

In April 2008, we had the chance of interviewing Mary Kilitziraki, Fast2Light's project manager. Fast2Light is an integrated (9 companies, 3 research institutes and 2 universities) R&D project that aims to research and develop light emitting foils based on OLED tech.

Q: What are the major goals of the Fast2Light project? What will you consider to be a big success in the project?

Fast2Light aims to lay the foundations for marrying large-area roll-to-roll technologies with the field of organic electroluminescence, for all necessary layers in an OLED device on foil. We aim to set in place all the experimental platforms that when integrated will produce a high quality lighting foil. Yet, these technology platforms can be used in other electronic devices. We will indeed think ourselves as successful if we develop and master the new large-area processes and demonstrate these in a 30cmx30cm lighting foil in 3 years time. But equally important, one of the successes of the project will be the exploitation of our results, on platform level, in other fields of electronic devices.

LG Chem and Universal Display Corporation today announced that they have signed a non-exclusive joint development agreement to accelerate the commercialization of high-performance OLED materials for use in OLED displays and lighting products. The collaboration will focus on combining LG Chem's electron transport and hole injection materials with Universal Display's phosphorescent OLED emitter materials and technology.

Universal Display's proprietary PHOLED technology offers up to four times higher efficiency than conventional OLED technology - a feature that is very important for today's battery-operated cell phones and other portable devices, as well as for tomorrow's large-area TV's and solid-state lighting products.

For the fourth quarter of 2007, the Company reported a net loss of $3,256,104, versus a net loss of $4,408,826 for the fourth quarter of 2006. The Company’s net loss for the year ended December 31, 2007 was $15,975,841, compared to a net loss of $15,186,804 for the year ended December 31, 2006.

Royalty and license revenues were $354,025 and $828,371 for three months and year ended December 31, 2007, respectively, compared to $127,900 and $2,400,179 for the same periods in 2006. The decrease in royalty and license revenue for the year was attributable to a suspension of OLED display production by a major customer, AU Optronics Corporation, as well as structural differences in the Company’s licensing arrangements with AU Optronics and Samsung SDI Co., Ltd. Under the arrangement with AU Optronics, license revenues were earned when the Company sold materials to AU Optronics, while under the arrangement with Samsung SDI, corresponding royalty revenues are not earned until products incorporating the Company’s materials are sold by Samsung SDI and reported to the Company.

2007 marked a milestone year for Universal Display on a number of fronts, said Sidney D. Rosenblatt, Chief Financial Officer of Universal Display. Our licensee, Samsung SDI, began production and shipment of active-matrix OLED displays that utilize our phosphorescent OLED technology and materials. Recipients of these shipments included a number of major handset manufacturers, and we were encouraged to see that Samsung SDI had ramped volume production by the fourth quarter of 2007. We also continue to see a number of advances in our OLED technologies, with increased performance in our red, green and blue PHOLED material systems. In addition, we continued our work with industry leaders as well as the U.S. Department of Defense and U.S. Department of Energy, to accelerate growth of the OLED industry and to advance next generation OLED technologies like white OLED lighting and flexible OLED displays.

The DOE is giving 21M$ for several companies to research advanced lighting. OLED is one such technologies. Here's a list of OLED projects getting funded:

• Add-Vision : Low-Cost, High Efficiency Polymer OLEDs Based on Stable p-i-n Device Architecture. This project seeks to develop a polymer OLED (P-OLED) lamp technology using advanced material synthesis and a modified device architecture to enable large-scale manufacturing of robust P-OLED lamps.
  Project Value: $ 2,010,076
  Estimated DOE contribution: up to $ 1,567,858
  
• DOE’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (Richland, WA): Charge Balance in Blue Electrophosphorescent Devices. This project seeks to develop new organic phosphine oxide electron transporting/hole blocking materials in combination with ambipolar phosphine oxide host materials for achieving charge balanced blue phosphorescent OLED system, a necessary component of white OLEDs.
  Project Value: $ 1,783,000
  
• Arkema Inc. (King of Prussia, PA): Application of Developed Atmospheric pressure chemical vapor deposition (APCVD) Transparent Conducting Oxides and Undercoat Technologies for Economical OLED Lighting. This project seeks to develop a commercially viable process for an OLED substrate, which would consist of the actual substrate of soda lime glass, a barrier undercoat, and a transparent conducting oxide.
  Project Value: $ 2,626,632Estimated
  DOE contribution: up to $ 2,101,305
  
• Universal Display Corporation (Ewing, NJ): Development of High Efficacy, Low-Cost Phosphorescent OLED Lighting Luminaire. This project seeks to develop high efficiency OLED lighting luminaires as part of an integrated ceiling illumination system.
  Project Value: $ 2,662,489
  Estimated DOE contribution: up to $ 1,905,467

Idemitsu Kosan and Universal Display Corporation today announced that they have signed an agreement to extend their collaboration to accelerate the development of phosphorescent OLED materials for use in displays fabricated through dry processing methods, such as vacuum thermal evaporation. The agreement expands the collaboration into red and green phosphorescent OLED materials, in addition to the blue materials that the two companies have been collaborating to develop since December, 2006.

In order to further expand the market for phosphorescent OLED devices, blue phosphorescent OLED materials need to be more fully developed and the quality and lifetime of red and green phosphorescent OLED materials should continue to improve. Therefore, Idemitsu Kosan and Universal Display have agreed to extend their collaboration into red and green phosphorescent OLED materials, in addition to continuing their work together on blue phosphorescent OLED materials. The collaboration is focused on matching Universal Display’s phosphorescent emitters with Idemitsu Kosan’s phosphorescent hosts and other OLED materials. Through this collaboration, both companies expect to improve efficiency and operational lifetime of their respective phosphorescent OLED materials, which in turn should help accelerate the spread of phosphorescent OLED displays and lighting products.

Idemitsu Kosan has been developing OLED materials for middle and large size panels jointly with Sony Corporation (Sony) since 2005, and Universal Display also has been working with Sony since 2001. Idemitsu Kosan and Universal Display expect the results of this collaboration to be utilized for the OLED material development for Sony products.