Lifetime

Earlier today we reported that  The University of Rochester received a $1.2 million from the U.S. Department of Energy to develop host materials for white phosphorescent OLEDs. This funding is part of the DOE's Recovery Act Rewards, and now we have found the complete list, which contains several OLED Lighting projects:

• Cambrios got $1.2 million (out of $1.8 for the total project) for "Solution-Processable Transparent Conductive Hole Injection Electrode OLED SSL". This project seeks to develop a cost-effective replacement for indium tin oxide for use as an electrode in OLED lighting devices. Indium is both rare and very expensive. 
• The University of Rocherser got $1.2 million (out of $1.3 million) for "Development and Utilization of Host Materials for White Phosphorescent OLEDs". This project seeks to produce white OLEDs with > 100 lm/W efficiency after light extraction enhancement and > 10,000 hour operating time, by making a new class of emissive materials.
• PPG Industries got $1.6 million (out of $2.1 million) for "Low-Cost Integrated Substrate for OLED Lighting". PPG Industries plans to develop a new low-cost integrated substrate product that is suitable for OLED lighting manufacture and is compatible with PPG’s existing flat-glass and transparent-glass coating technologies and high-volume glass manufacturing methods.
• GE Global Research got $4 million (out of $8 million) for "Roll-to-Roll Solution-Processable Small-Molecule OLEDs". This project seeks to upgrade GE’s prepilot OLED roll-to-roll manufacturing line through improved high-performance phosphorescent small-molecule OLED materials, advanced OLED device architectures, plastic ultra-high barrier films, and an advanced encapsulation scheme.
• UDC got $4 million (out of $8.3 million) for "Creation of a U.S. Phosphorescent OLED Lighting Panel Manufacturing Facility". This project seeks to design and set up two pilot phosphorescent OLED (PHOLED) manufacturing lines. The team will implement UDC's PHOLED technology and provide prototype lighting panels to U.S. luminaire manufacturers to incorporate into products, to facilitate testing of design, and to gauge customer acceptance.

Interestingly, two of these project (the GE and UDC ones) involves actual OLED Lighting panels pilot production lines - which could lead to actual OLED products being commercially available.

The University of Rochester says they have received a $1.2 million to develop host materials for white phosphorescent OLEDs. The funding comes from the U.S. Department of Energy. This project seeks to produce white OLEDs with > 100 lm/W efficiency after light extraction enhancement and > 10,000 hour operating time, by making a new class of emissive materials. Here's more information on the DOE's Recovery Act Rewards (which contains 4 other OLED projects).

Via Rochester Business Journal

In an interesting article by the Financial Times, both Idemitsu Kotsan and Sumitomo executives estimate that "2012 will be the year when OLEDs hits the big times".

Idemitsu Kotsan also says that they are working on a new way to 'spray' small-molecule OLED materials. The new method should be ready by 2015. Spraying OLEDs (instead of using vapor-deposition) will mean less material loss, and thus cheaper displays. It will also make it easier to fabricate large panels.

Sumitomo is focusing on blue lifetime, and say that they will reach 50,000-60,000 hours by March 2010. 

NEMO (NEw Materials for OLEDs) is a new EU project focusing on new emitting systems based on soluble small molecules with long lifetime and efficiency. NEMO is led be four companies (coordinated by Merck) and seven research and academic institutions (including the Fraunhofer institute). The project is scheduled to last for 2.5 years, and is funded by the German government with 32 million euros.

Via EE Times

Idemitsu Kosan is showing some new OLED lighting prototypes using their own fluorescent and phosphorescent OLED materials. Phosphorescent OLEDs are more efficient than fluorescent ones. In the following photo, the panel on the left has a high-color temperature, and uses both fluorescent and phosphorescent materials (it is targeted mainly for the EU market). The other 3 panels use just fluorescent materials, and have a low color temperature.

Idemitsu has already commercialized their red phosphorescent, and almost commercialized the green one. They still do not know when they'll be able to release a blue color material, currently the lifetime is about 10% of what the clients need.

Here's the data sheet for the OLED materials, where you can see the lifetime and efficiency of each color:

Via Tech-On

IGNIS Innovation, in partnership with Kodak and Prime View International (PVI), has developed a 5" segment of a 32" OLED HDTV AMOLED display, using industry standard amorphous silicon thin film transistors (TFT). The prototype uses IGNIS' MaxLIfe solution, which compensates separately for both the TFT and LED degradation using only an electrical feedback - an industry first. This technology does not use any optical sensors which are unreliable.

IGNIS reports 20 years lifetime (when watching 12 hours a day), there is no burn-in images (the MaxLife technology keeps differential aging to 3% or less). The prototype was built using an amorphous silicon backplane from PVI using their standard a-Si LCD mass production process while the frontplane uses Kodak's long life and low power RGBW technology that delivers a vivid and outstanding viewing experience. They say that this combination provides the first reliable, low ost and scalable architecture.

Visionox (a Chinese company) is showing new 'decorative'  OLED lighting and display prototypes. There's an OLED lamp, and an OLED digital photo frame.

Visionox say they have achieved the following technology breakthroughs:

• Long lifetime (over 100,000 hours halftime at brightness of 1000 cd/m2) fluorescent white OLEDs with a composite blue emitting structure.
• Highly efficient hybrid OLEDs with an efficiency of over 40 lm/W at the brightness of 1000 cd/m2 without any light out-coupling technology.
• Flexible OLED lighting and transparent OLED lighting samples.

Visionox say that their decorative OLED-Lighting products are actually available in small volumes. They hope to enter the general lighting markets in a few years.

The lamps look very much like the TOPLESS project lamp prototypes (shown back in August).

Mitsubishi Electric is showing a new flexible OLED display (they call it the Diamond-Vision OLED) which is a modular display made from small OLED panels. Each panel is one 'pixel', and together they can be made into a large high-res image. There's no limit to the size of this display - it can be used to cover buildings, trains, or even 'entire-cities' like Mitsubishi says...

Mitsubishi 155-inch Diamond-Vision OLED TV

They are now demonstrating a 155" Diamond-Vision OLED TV prototype. Each pixel pitch is 3mm, which means that you have to watch the TV from about 2 meters away. 

Mitsubishi thinks that this screen is better than large LED displays used in sports stadiums and other places, because of the better resolution that can be achieved. The lifetime is said to be 20,000 hours. No word yet on pricing or availability.

Note - the OLEDs themselves are not 'flexible', but the display can be curved because it is made from individual OLED panels...

Mitsubishi entered the OLED market back in 2007.

When the Zune HD launched, there was an interesting blog post on the Apple-Insider site. They wanted to 'smash' five myths on the Zune HD, and one of the Myths is about the OLED display. They claim that OLEDs consumer more power than LCDs, are less bright, do not last long and are bad in direct sunlight. Barry Young from the OLED Association has responsed in his own blog post - basically saying that OLEDs look better, have even longer lifetime than most LCDs and consume less power.

Barry also says that when Steve Jobs first saw an OLED display, he said that's the best looking display he had ever seen. We're all waiting for Apple's first OLED product...

The only truth in the Apple-Insider article is probably about the sunlight visibility. We have discussed this issue before, and Zune HD users are indeed complaining.

The Zune HD has actually got great reviews, and it was sold-out within days of its launch. Some consider it as the first real competitor for the iPod touch, and most people love the OLED display. The Zune HD costs 290$ for the 32Gb version, and 219$ for the 16Gb.

In June 2008, I interviewed Corey Hewitt and Dr. James Buntaine from Kodak OLED Systems.

Mr. Corey Hewitt is the co-general manager, operations manager and VP of Kodak OLED Systems. Dr. James Buntaine is the second co-general manager, and also the CTO and VP.

They were kind enough to send us an update on Kodak's OLED program and market outlook:

Kodak OLED Technology Update & Advancements

Kodak expertise and experience lies in material discovery, organic layer design, mechanistic understanding, image science, panel/module design, and manufacturing technology. These key value drivers associated with the Kodak technology, know-how and patents, maintain Kodak as an industry leader in enabling both the OLED flat-panel display and OLED solid-state lighting industries. Provided below are selected key areas technology and Kodak accomplishments: