UDC

UDC awarded US Air Force project for ejection-safe, 6" flexible OLED display prototypes

oled — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 23:46:18 -0400

UDC has been awarded a 750K$ contract from the US Air Force, to work on a non-glass, ejection-safe, flexible OLED display prototype for prospective use by pilots in tactical cockpit settings.

The idea is to provide pilots with a replacement for printed maps and checklists typically held on their knees. The pilots will be able to 'wrap' the OLED around a cylinder for easy storage during flight.

UDC are working on their flexible OLED together with L3 and LG Display, and have already shown some wearable (bracelet) prototypes before. The displays are energy efficient, offer full-color video rate and have wireless communications capabilities.

UDC, LG and L3 will deliver four prototypes based on a bright 6” diagonal, full-color, low power consumption PHOLED display on flexible metal foil. These displays will then be wrapped around cylinders containing power supplies and wireless communications electronics.

Universal Display and Seiko Epson achieves new efficient red and green inkjet printable OLEDs

oled — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 00:43:47 -0400

Universal Display and Seiko Epson have been working on their inkjet printable, phosphorescent OLED technology and materials for quite some time... They have now announced new advances in performace:

A red P²OLED with CIE (0.67, 0.33), an efficiency of 10 candela per ampere (cd/A) and an operating lifetime of 20,000 hours, to 50% of initial luminance of 1,000 nits
A green P²OLED with CIE (0.33, 0.62), an efficiency of 34 cd/A and an operating lifetime of 25,000 hours.

Just a few days ago we talked to Seiko-Epson on their new inkjet OLED technology. They hope to have OLED TVs with this new tech in the market at around 2012.

LG Display to buy OLED materials from Idemitsu Kosan

oled — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 03:48:02 -0400

LG Display says they have signed an agreement with Japan's Idemitsu Kosan for OLED materials. LG sees OLEDs growing rapidly, and they want a stable soruce for materials.

Idemitsu Kosan are also working with Sony and UDC on OLED display materials.

LG display plans to start making larger panels towards the end of 2009, and to sell OLED TVs in December 2009 or January 2010 in Korea. They expect the market to reach over 3B$ in 2010 (citing DisplaySearch numbers).

Seiko Epson sees 37" (and larger) inkjet-printed OLED TVs in 2012

oled — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 08:20:54 -0400

Last month Seiko Epson has unveiled a new inkjet-printing technology for OLEDs, suitable for large sized panels. We have talked to Satoru Miyashita, General Manager of Seiko Epson's Core Technology Development Center about this new technology and their plans for OLED production.

Q: You have shown a new ink-jet based OLED technology. You say it will enable 37" or larger HD-OLED TVs. Do you have any plans to actually make such TVs? When do you think products can be made with this new tech?
Epson is currently considering a variety of options regarding the commercialization of this technology, but at this point no specific announcements have been made about plans. We see 2012 as being the year that 37"+ OLED TVs will be launched by various makers, and 2015 as the year that sales will really take off for this market.

Espon 14-inch Inkjet processed OLED

Interview with LG Display's OLED sales and marketing VP

oled — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 04:46:47 -0400

LG Display is one of the leaders in OLEDs, but they have recently sent some mixed messages - great OLED TV prototypes, promises of new OLED TV products soon, no AMOLED phones plans... Mr Won Kim, Vice Presideont of OLED Sales and Marketing from LG Display has agreed to answer a few questions we had, and set things straight.

Mr Won Kim ha sas BA in business management from Korea University, and has been working for LG since 1984. Now he's VP of OLED sales and marketing (since 2005).

Q: What kind of OLED products are LG currently selling? What is your current capacity for OLED production?
Mobile phone only. Current capacity is 7k sheets(365 x 460) per month, which is equivalent to 200k pcs of 3" size.

Q: Can you name some products that use your OLED displays?
So far two mobile phones tailored to SKT in Korea.

Q: You have been showing a 15" OLED TV prototype since the beginning of 2009... and you said it can begin production by June 2009. Which is now.. will you start making these panels? Or are you still waiting for a customer?
During the period of Dec 2009-Jan 2010, our customer will launch 15" OLED TV in Korean market. Thereafter global roll-out follows.

UDC and LG give more info on the 4" flexible OLED bracelet

oled — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 09:51:10 -0400

UDC and LG has been showing a wrist-worn flexible OLED prototype for a long time now. They have released some new information on the display today.

The display is 4", supporting 320x240 pixels at 100ppi. The luminance is 100cd/m2, contrast 1,000:1. The whole panel is 0.3mm thick, with a steel plate as substrate, using amorphous Si TFT. It weights 8g.

Via TechOn

Universal Display and Samsung Present Advances in Highly Efficient, Long Lifetime Green PH-OLEDs

oled — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 00:47:10 -0400

Universal Display and Samsung Mobile Displays present advances in green Phosphorescent OLEDs at SID. This new material will be used in both hand-held devices and OLED TVs, extending lifetime and efficiency. UDC's red materials are already used in Samsung's AMOLED displays, and it's likely that we'll see Samsung use their green materials as well.

The companies showed a highly-efficient, green UniversalPHOLED material that has been used in a top-emission PHOLED device architecture. Using this approach, they achieved two milestones. A green PHOLED with NTSC color at CIE(0.20, 0.73), high luminous efficiency of 110 candelas per Ampere (cd/A), and a low voltage of 3.6 V at 3,000 candelas per square meter (cd/m2) was achieved.

A second device structure using this green PHOLED material system also achieved an ultra-high luminous efficiency of 160 cd/A along with CIE(0.28, 0.69) and low voltage of 3.8 V at 3,000 cd/m2. These compare to a standard bottom-emission device with CIE(0.33, 0.62) and 52 cd/A using this same green PHOLED material system. Replacing the green fluorescent OLED material typically used today in an AMOLED with this new green PHOLED can result in a significant 37% power savings.

FDC and UDC achieve a breakthrough in flexible OLEDs

oled — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 06:45:17 -0400

Universal Display and the Flexible Display Center at Arizona State University has announced a significant milestone towards a manufacturable flexible OLEDs. The new display is the first a-Si:H active matrix flexible OLED display to be manufactured directly on DuPont Teijin’s polyethylene naphthalate (PEN) substrate.

The companies will be showing a 4.1" monochrome QVGA flexible OLED at SID. This display has the same brightness as normal displays with extremely low power consumption. The flexible backplane display was manufactured at the Flexible Display Center utilizing a 180°C thin film transistor process. The FDC’s facility implements traditional flat panel and semiconductor tools and processes to achieve flexible displays, enabled by its proprietary bond-debond technology to secure the plastic substrate to a rigid carrier during manufacture.

Universal Display reports 1Q results

oled — Thu, 07 May 2009 23:05:59 -0400

Universal Display reported their 1Q results. For the first quarter of 2009, the Company reported a net loss of $5.5M, Revenues were $2.8M.

They are still optimistic, and waiting for ramp-ups in OLED production from Samsung SMD, CMEL and LG.

There isn't much news from them. Interestingly, during their conference call they talk about Samsung's 23" OLED prototype - even though we now know that it was actually a LED-based LCD monitor, and not an OLED.

Universal Display Shows White, Transparent and Flexible OLEDs

oled — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 00:56:54 -0400

Today Universal Display is showing their PHOLED technology at EcoFocus NY.

UDC Flexible OLED Display Concept

Among the product prototypes will be Universal Display’s wrist-worn, flexible PHOLED display, developed jointly with LG Display and L-3 Communications for the U.S. Department of Defense. In addition, the company will showcase a scaled white PHOLED lighting atrium, transparent PHOLED pixels, and commercial products that currently use Universal Display’s PHOLED technology.

We don't have any new photos yet, but hopefully we'll get some during the day.