Kodak

Digitimes reports that CMEL has landed 7.6" AMOLD panel orders from Kodak. The panels will be used in digital photo frames.

CMEL will start shipping those in September - just in time for Kodak to sell the photo frames in the holiday season. 

CMEL has a capacity of 100,000 monthly panels, and is installing a 2nd line (will come online in early 2009)

Read more here (Digitimes) 

I recently had the chance to interview Mr. Corey Hewitt and Dr. James Buntaine from Kodak OLED Systems. Kodak is where OLEDs were first discovered, and they are still in the fore-front of the technology. This is going to be a long article - these guys have given me a lot of background info, even before answering my questions. But first let's introduce Corey and James:

Digitimes reports that Chi Mei EL (CMEL) expects that its AMOLED TV-panel technologies, which are being developed with help from Kodak and DuPont, will see a breakthrough next year, and volume production may start in 2010 or 2011, according to company vice chairman Peter Chen.

There's a new OLED group that has just been formed - the OLED Association (OLED-A). The group is mananged by Barry Young (Former senior VP, Display Search).

There are ten members in the group - Cambridge Display/Sumitomo, Corning, DuPont, Kodak, eMagin, Ignis, MicroEmissive Displays, Novaled, OLED-T, Samsung SDI, and Universal Display, and OLED-A are working to add more members.

OLED-A will "provide the forum for solving common technology issues" and "developing standards for measuring and reporting performance" (materials will be an initial focus), as well as creating "a common marketing platform" to promote the cause to the display, solid-state lighting, photovoltaic, organic semiconductors, and other OLED-friendly sectors.

“We are pleased with the opportunity to expand our relationship with LG Display beyond the Joint Evaluation Agreement we announced in February 2006,” said Mary Jane Hellyar, President, Kodak Display Business, and Executive Vice President, Eastman Kodak Company. “As we said during our recent investor meeting, OLED is an important technology that will help fuel Kodak’s future growth. Our goal is to see AMOLED panels that have been co-developed continue to appear in the industry during 2008.”

CMEL recently was reported to have landed orders for 7.6-inch OLED panels from Kodak with shipments to kick off in the middle of this year, according to today's Chinese-language Commercial Times.

(1) Each of the Company's quarterly royalty payments owed to Kodak under the certain Nonexclusive Field of Use License Agreement Relating to OLED Technology for Miniature, High Resolution Displays, dated March 29, 1999 between the Company and Kodak, as amended(the "License Agreement") for the second half (from July 1 through December 31) of calendar year 2007 shall be reduced by fifty percent (50%); and

DisplaySearch revealed in its latest Quarterly OLED Shipment and Forecast Report that Q1'07 OLED shipments were 19.1M, up 71%Y/Y and revenues were $121M, up 56% Y/Y. Shipments and revenue were down Q/Q, 14% and 13%, respectively, due to seasonality. OLED displays compete with LCDs in small/medium applications such as mobile phone main displays and sub-displays, MP3s, and automotive consoles.

The license, which is royalty bearing to Kodak, enables CMEL to use Kodak technology for active matrix OLED modules in a variety of small to medium size display applications such as mobile phones, digital cameras and portable media players. The agreement also enables CMEL to purchase Kodak's patented OLED materials for use in manufacturing displays. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

Eastman Kodak announced a licensing agreement with Tohoku Device. Tohoku Device plans to incorporate Kodak's organic display technology into white OLED modules for use as backlights in displays. Tohoku Device joins more than 15 companies that have licensed organic display technology from Kodak.