Universal Display Corporation (UDC) - Page 38

Universal Display Corporation today announced that it has been awarded two new Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I grants totalling $200,000 from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to develop WOLED™ white OLED technology for future solid-state lighting applications.

In the first grant, Universal Display will work to develop white PHOLEDs with a stacked architecture. The stacked architecture will be based on the SOLED™ stacked OLED technology that was previously pioneered by Universal Display and its academic partner, Princeton University. In a SOLED, multiple OLEDs are stacked or built on top of one other, increasing the light emission from the device. As a result, white SOLEDs may offer power and stability advantages over standard structures.

The second grant also focuses on demonstrating white PHOLED performance advances. When the size of an OLED device is increased, or several OLED devices are connected together to make a panel, their performance is often reduced. In this specific program, Universal Display will address the technical issues that relate to demonstrating similar performance on a 6 x 6 WOLED lighting panel that has been previously demonstrated on a smaller scale. UDC recently announced a white PHOLED with a power efficiency of 45 lm/W at a luminance of 1,000 cd/m2.

The Company’s two new grants represent further evidence of that potential and are targeted toward the DOE’s efficiency goal for white OLEDs, 150 lm/W at a brightness level of 1,000 cd/m2, by the year 2025.

The achievement of a green PIN PHOLED(TM) phosphorescent OLED device in bottom-emission geometry with a CIE of (0.36, 0.61) of above 200,000 hours were attained by combining Universal Display's high-efficiency phosphorescent OLED materials with low-voltage Novaled PIN-OLED(TM) technology and doped transport materials.

"We expect that very low driving voltages below 2.6 V which we already achieved for Ir(ppy)3 can also be obtained for other phosphorescent green emitters" adds Jan Birnstock, VP Technology Transfer.

Financial terms of the agreement have not been disclosed; however, as is customary with these agreements, Universal Display will recognize commercial chemical sales and license fee revenues from its supply of materials to LG.Philips LCD.  The term of the agreement runs through June 30, 2008.

LG.Philips LCD has long been a leader in LCD display products, and we are excited to be part of their plans for the production of AMOLED display products for the commercial market, said Steven V. Abramson, President and Chief Operating Officer of Universal Display. This new agreement with LG.Philips LCD illustrates the acceptance of our phosphorescent OLED technology and materials by the display industry for thinner, energy-efficient commercial OLED displays.

LG.Philips LCD is currently focused on introducing small and medium-sized OLED panel applications. The relationship between LG.Philips LCD and Universal Display most recently yielded the world’s first high-resolution AMOLED display built on flexible metal foil utilizing Universal Display’s proprietary high-efficiency PHOLED and FOLED® flexible technologies.

Universal Display's Dr. Brian W. D'Andrade, Senior Scientist, presented the WOLED advances at White OLED I session with a paper titled "Efficient White Phosphorescent Organic Light-Emitting Devices." Dr. D'Andrade discussed a novel white OLED structure with an external quantum efficiency (EQE) of 20%, corresponding to a luminous efficiency of 33 cd/A. With CIE coordinates of (0.38, 0.39) and operating lifetime exceeding 4,000 hours at 1,000 cd/m(2). This is believed to be the highest EQE reported to date, for a single, non-stacked WOLED. Dr. D'Andrade also reported on the use of outcoupling enhancements to further increase the EQE to 37%. Outcoupling refers to the portion of light generated in the device that can be extracted from the device as useable light.

Universal Display Corporation today unveiled a new, deep red PHOLED material at the Society for Information Display's (SID) 2007 International Symposium, Seminar and Exhibition in Long Beach, California. The Company's continued advances in high-efficiency PHOLED materials and technology are leading the way for the next generation of OLED displays for TV's and other demanding product applications.

To specify chromaticity of the three primary colors in a display, two color space standards are commonly used. They are the National Television Standards Committee (NTSC) standard, originally developed for televisions, and the more recent s-RGB color space standard established for monitors, printers and the Internet. UDC-RD26 is designed to match the deep red, NTSC chromaticity standard, while UDC-RD39 meets the bright red, s-RGB specification. Depending on the specific display application, manufacturers may prefer either a deep red color or a brighter red color with higher intrinsic luminous efficiency.

Universal Display's new UDC-RD26, with CIE coordinates of (0.67, 0.33) can operate at a luminous efficiency of 19 candelas per Ampere (cd/A), corresponding to an 18% external quantum efficiency, at 1,000 candelas per square meter (cd/m2). Under accelerated testing conditions, UDC-RD26 demonstrates an operating lifetime of approximately 90,000 hours, at an initial luminance of 1,000 cd/m2. These performance gains are significant, representing an 80% increase in luminous efficiency and 10% increase in lifetime, as compared to Universal Display's first-generation commercial deep red PHOLED emitter. In addition, both new second-generation materials are specifically designed for use in high-volume production environments.

Universal Display Corporation today announced the pricing of an offering of 2.8 million shares of its common stock at a price of $14.50 per share. The offering is being conducted pursuant to Universal Display's effective shelf registration statement. The offering is expected to close on May 22, 2007. Universal Display plans to use the net proceeds for working capital and general corporate purposes, including funding for research and development efforts, acceleration of the development efforts, investments and acquisitions relating to complementary businesses, technologies and intellectual property, and prosecution and defense of intellectual property rights.

LG.Philips LCD has announced that it has developed (in cooperation with UDC.) the first full-color flexible AMOLED display that uses amorphous silicon (a-Si) technology.

The 4-inch full-color flexible AM OLED display features 320×240 QVGA resolution and can reproduce 16.77 million colors. It uses a stainless metal foil substrate to ensure durability and protection against heat, which improves the manufacturing process and enhances product stability, noted LG.Philips LCD.

Using a-Si backplane technology allows LG.Philips LCD to use its existing TFT LCD production line for these AM OLEDs, a major step toward demonstrating the commercial viability of such products. LG.Philips LCD will unveil the full-color flexible AM OLED display at SID 2007 in the US on May 20.

Read more here (Digitimes)

Ross Young, DisplaySearch's President and Founder says -

The technology behind this product is small molecule OLED material and a CMOS LTPS backplane produced at their joint venture with Toyoda. The red material is the highly efficient phosphorscent type from UDC fabricated by PPG. The blue is likely from Idemitsu Kosan. It is a top emission design which improves brightness, but it also uses a color filter which lowers brightness and makes it even more costly. They went with the color filter along with the RGB OLED materials to meet their color gamut requirements.

Samsung SDI, which has a more recent design, is able to achieve the same color gamut without the color filter. We would expect Sony’s next design to either exclude the color filter or go with white OLED material and maintain the color filter which would be bad news for UDC unless they went with UDC’s white material.

For the first quarter of 2007 Universal Display had revenue of $3,014,630, compared to $3,271,406 for the first quarter of 2006. The Company’s revenue mix continues to shift as its PHOLED technology and materials transition to commercial applications. For the first quarter of 2007, the Company reported a net loss of $4,583,801 or $(0.15) per diluted share, versus a net loss of $3,522,040 or $(0.12) per diluted share for the same quarter of 2006.

The first quarter of 2007 saw a continued transition in our revenue mix, as well as increased recognition of revenue from government contracts, said Sidney D. Rosenblatt, Chief Financial Officer of Universal Display. Commercial OLED displays manufactured by one of our major licensees continued to gain traction during the quarter, with two major display products introduced into the Asian marketplace to date. We are also excited about our recent commercial licensing agreement with Chi Mei EL Corporation, as they look to expand production of AMOLED displays for commercial products. Looking ahead to the coming quarters of 2007, we continue to pursue new commercial licensing agreements for displays and lighting, as well as strategic partnerships that will advance OLED technology and its commercial adoption.

Universal Display Corporation and Chi Mei EL Corporation (CMEL) announced that they have entered into an agreement for Universal Display to supply proprietary PHOLED™ phosphorescent OLED materials and technology to CMEL for use in CMEL’s manufacture of commercial AMOLED display products.

Financial terms of the agreement have not been disclosed, however, as is customary with these agreements, Universal Display will recognize commercial chemical sales and license fee revenues from its supply of this material to CMEL. The term of the agreement runs through December 31, 2008.

CMEL is currently focused on producing small and medium-sized OLED panel applications.