OLED-TV Display/Monitor Technology News

Universal Display Corporation (NASDAQ:PANL), a major force behind today’s and tomorrow’s displays and lighting with its Universal PHOLED™ phosphorescent OLED technology and materials, 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 International Symposium, Seminar and Exhibition in Los Angeles, CA.

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.

“The development of phosphorescent materials’ lifetimes has been the key factor limiting OLED as a reliable technology until today. I am so satisfied with the latest achievements of our collaboration, and it has a big possibility to draw “the time of OLED” closer,” stated Mitsuro Atobe, the head of the Display Development Division, Seiko Epson Corporation.

“Our strong collaboration with Epson has yielded significant advances in our P2OLED materials and technology for future ink-jet printing of OLED displays,” said Steven V. Abramson, President and Chief Executive Officer of Universal Display. “As active-matrix OLED display products continue to enter the marketplace, new cost-effective manufacturing alternatives will be sought, especially as display sizes continue to grow. With its technological leadership in ink-jet printing technology, Epson has shown tremendous vision toward this end.”

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.

Seiko Epson Corporation, a world leader in the development and commercialization of ink-jet printing technology and largely responsible for the revolution in low-cost, high-quality printers for the home computer industry, has been leveraging this expertise to develop high-speed, ink-jet printing for OLEDs.