Universal Display's CFO, Sidney Rosenblatt, participated in an investor conference (the 15th Annual Needham Growth Conference, January 15). This was an interesting presentation. Sidney confirmed that Samsung's next AMOLED products will include the company's green PHOLED material (and probably the host too), which will make them more efficient (by 25%). The new products will be released in Q1 or Q2 2013. According to reports, this will be the Full-HD 4.99" 440PPI display prototype shown at CES.
Regarding Samsung's flexible display program, Sidney says that Samsung is still using LTPS. The production process is too hot for the plastic substrate (it will melt) and so the LTPS transistors are deposited on glass and the glass is later delaminated. The encapsulation technology is Vitex's multi-layer technology which is very slow (the panel has to enter the evaporation chamber 6 times). All this means that plastic displays will be more expensive than glass ones.
UDC's UniversalBarrier single-layer encapsulation technology is being evaluation by Samsung. UDC has a working 6" R&D deposition machine for the encapsulation layer, but it's not ready for Samsung's Gen-5.5 line yet. Samsung's license allows them to use all of UDC's IP, and so they will not pay extra for the encapsulation technology. This also holds true for UDC's basic plastic-on-OLED patent.
Other interesting tidbits:
- LG is using yellow PHOLED and blue OLEDs to create their WOLED for the WRGB OLED TV.
- UDC's share repurchase program has started, but they intend to use the $50 throughout 2013.
