Universal Display Corporation (UDC) - Page 6

Universal Display established a new subsidiary, called OVJP Corporation, that will advance the commercialization of UDC's OVJP OLED TV manufacturing technology.

OVJP stands for Organic Vapor Jet Printing, and the basic idea is to use a gas-stream based process that resembles ink-jet printing but one that uses evaporation OLED materials. In an OVJP process, the OLED materials are evaporated into a carrier gas that delivers them to a jet engine for direct printing of patterned OLED layers.

TCL subsidiary China Star Optoelectronics (CSoT) signed an OLED technology license agreement and material purchase agreement with Universal Display (UDC). UDC will supply phosphorescent OLED materials CSoT to be used in its display products.

CSoT is currently producing flexible OLEDs in its T4 line which has a monthly capacity of 45,000 6-Gen substrates. Last week it was reported that CSoT is planning to build a new flexible OLED production line in Wuhan, in a $1.4 billion investment.

DSCC updated its OLED material market estimates, saying that AMOLED stack material sales will grow from $951 million in 2019 to $2.69 billion in 2024 - a CAGR of 23%. These new estimates take into account DSCC's reduced input area forecast due to the slowdown in demand cased by the Covid-19 pandemic.

DSCC says that incremental improvements in material utilization and price reductions, material costs per square meters will decline in the future. The unyielded cost of producing a square meter of a WOLED TV panel will decline from $95.21 in 2019 to $56.11 in 2024.

Universal Display reported its Q1 2020 financial results. While the company and its market are effected by the Corona Virus, UDC had an excellent quarter with revenues of $112.3 million (material sales of $66.6 million, up from $60.8 million in Q4 2019 and $54.5 million in Q1 2019) and a net income of $38.2 million.

At the end of the quarter, UDC had $640 million in cash and equivalents. Due to the pandemic, the company withdraws its 2020 annual guidance. UDC also says that some of its orders in the quarter was due to its customers stocking up inventory due to industry uncertainties.

Universal Display reported its Q4 2019 financial results - revenues were $102 million, an increase of 45% compared to Q4 2018. Net income in the fourth quarter was $26.4 million.

Looking at 2019, UDC had a record year - with revenues of $405 million and a net income of $138 million. 2019 was a year of significant capacity additions, and 2020 will see less significant growth due to "capacity digestion". Looking into 2020, UDC sees revenues in the range of $430 to $70 million. UDC estimates that the coronavirus outbreak in China could lower its 2020 revenues by $40 - 50 million.

TADF, or Thermally Activated Delayed Fluorescence, is a relatively new class of OLED emitter materials that promise efficient and long-lifetime performance without any heavy metals. TADF research started at around 2012, originally at Kyushu University in Japan and today many academic groups and several commercial companies are developing TADF materials.

The main reason companies are interested in TADF emission is that it could lead to an efficient and long-lasting blue OLED emitter - something that hasn't been yet achieved by other means (mainly - UDC's Phosphorescent OLED emitter technology). In recent years companies initiated commercial development of red, green and yellow TADF emitters as these can offer a lower cost alternative to UDC's PHOLEDs materials.

Idemitsu Kosan and Toray Industries announced that the companies have jointly developed a red OLED device that is the world's most efficient emitter at 46 cd/A. The device uses a TADF emitter combined with red fluorescent materials (which likely means this is a HyperFluorescence device).

Idemitsu and Toray has been collaborating on OLED material development since 2017. This new device uses Idemitsu's TADF material combined with Toray's new red fluorescent material. The two companies say that this new material provides the same results as currently used red phosphorescent devices, and the plan is now to "drive forward to secure adoption of their materials" in mobile and TV applications.

Universal Display reported its Q3 2019 financial results - revenues were $97.5 million, and net income was $37 million. This was another strong quarter for the company, which increased its 2019 guidance to revenues of $400 - $410 million.

UDC believes that year-end 2019 will have an installed OLED square meter capacity that is 50% larger than year-end 2017. In 2020 the company sees continued revenue and earnings growth. By 2021, UDC sees OLED capacity to increase about 50% again over year-end 2019.

In August 2019 Universal Display announced that it has established a network of OLED materials partnerships to help commercialize its new host materials. LG Chem announced today that it joined UDC's network and the two companies will work together to co-develop OLED host materials.

Under the new agreement, UDC will supply LG Chem with its phosphorescent emitters, while LG Chem will develop and host materials. The two companies will jointly develop the host/emitter system with an aim to develop a wider color gamut OLED device.

Earlier this month Universal Display announced that it has established a network of OLED materials partnerships to help commercialize its new host materials. Today UDC announced the first such partners, China-based Eternal Material Technology Company (EMT).

UDC announced that the two companies are working together to commercialize OLED host materials. EMT will be a volume manufacturer and vendor of these host materials to OLED panel markers in China.