Global OLED Technology (GOT) have won two key patent challenges in Europe (defending oppositions from Merck). GOT says this is significant for GOT and demonstrates that they will aggressively defend their patent rights throughout the world.

The first patent was EP 1730249, which details the use of certain anthracenes as non-emitting hosts in the light-emitting layers of OLED devices. The second patent is EP 1828342, which details the use of hole-transporting material adjacent to the phosphorescent light emitting layer. Both of these technologies enable high efficiency and long lifetime in OLEDs for both display and lighting applications.

Idemitsu Electronic Materials Korea (Idemitsu Kosan's Korean subsidiary) announced that their OLED material production plant in Paju is now complete - and they will soon start production. Commercial shipments of OLED materials will start at next spring, after quality inspection and production processes are complete. The building floor area is about 5,000 m2 and the annual production capacity is about 10 tons.

Idemitsu will offer these materials to companies in Korea, Japan, Taiwan and Europe. Idemitsu is currently producing OLED materials in its Shizuoka factory in Japan, and this second production base will extend their capacity while also enable a more stable supply to customers.

Global OLED Technology (GOT) announced today that it hired a new management team to "lead its efforts to fully monetize its OLED patent portfolio". GOT's new president and CEO is Daniel S. Carlineo, Esq.

The new team can "comprehensively cover the full scope of a patent monetization program from inventing, prosecution, and acquiring new IP assets to licensing and litigation" according to Mr. Carlineo, the new CEO.

Universal Display's CFO (Sidney Rosenblatt) attended Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet Conference 2012 yesterday, and he gave some very interesting updates. First of all, he commented on the recent AUO and Idemitsu Kosan (IK) agreement. According to Sid, IK are not selling emitter materials - they are offering organic materials that go into other layers of the OLED stack. They do not believe the AUO-IK agreement will have any effect of PHOLED sales to AUO, and in fact he tells us that UDC and Idemitsu Kosan are developing OLED materials together for Sony.

Host materials

In their latest earning report of 3Q 2011, UDC announced that they started to offer OLED host materials - and had almost $8 million in revenue from those materials. Today Sidney explained this business a bit further. Host materials are the materials that you put the emitting materials into (Sidney used a metaphor - if the OLED is chocolate milk, then the milk is the host material and the chocolate is the emitter). These materials are considered a commodity, and UDC didn't think to sell those as it's not an interesting market for them.

Update: UDC's CFO gave some comments on this deal - which involves only non-emitter materials and will not effect their red and green PHOLED sales to AUO...

AU Optronics (AUO) and Idemitsu Kosan announced that they will form an OLED strategic alliance - and will collaborate to develop high-performance OLED displays and OLED-related patents. Idemitsu will supply OLED materials to AUO including device structure proposal. AUO committed to reinforce the development of OLED products - both small sized OLED displays for phones and tablets and large sized OLED panels for TVs. The two companies will also study the possibility of collaboration in other fields beside OLEDs.

AUO 32-inch OLED TV prototype

AUO is gearing up towards mass production of 4" - 5" OLED panels in Q2 2012, targeting smartphones. AUO is using LTPS substrates and vapor deposition for the direct-emission RGB OLED sub pixels. AUO will produce these panels in their 3.5-Gen line in Hsinchu, Taiwan. In the second half of 2013, AUO's 4.5-Gen AMOLED Line in Singapore (at AFPD) will start producing panels as well. Towards the end of 2011 AUO unveiled prototypes of Oxide-TFT based 32" OLED TVs, 4" flexible OLEDs and 6" transparent ones.

Idemitsu Kosan established a new OLED materials manufacturing company in South Korea today. The new company (called Idemitsu Electronic Materials Korea) will join Idemitsu current OLED production facility in Omaezaki, Shizuoka - and will supply materials to customers in Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Europe and other countries. Idemitsu says they see further expansion in the OLED industryin the coming years.

The new company will start production sometimes in 2012. It will have around 30 employees (5 transfered from Idemitsu Kosan) and will have an initial capital of 30 billion won (about $30 million USD).

Panasonic Electric Works (PEW) released some very interesting news today regarding their OLED Lighting project. First of all, they announced that Panasonic Idemitsu OLED Lighting (PIOL), their joint-venture with Idemitsu Kosan will start shipping OLED lighting panels tomorrow (September 1st) - to local and international markets. Those rather small (80x80mm), thin (2mm) and light (38g) OLED panels will feature no less than Ra90 color rendering (they say it's the world's highest) and 3,000 cd/m² - the world's brightest panels. The efficiency is 30 lm/W and lifetime (D70) is 10,000. The temperature is 3,000K (like a regular light bulb).

PEW itself will start offering OLED lighting modules in December 2011 - which will include the OLED panel, a frame and a built-in control circuit. PEW says that these modules will be "easy-to-embed" and will have a narrow frame design (11mm maximum width). You will also be able to replace the OLED panel in the modules in a simple way.

Update: Panasonic announced that they will start shipping OLED panels on September 1st, 2011.

Universal Display signed a technology license agreement with Panasonic Idemitsu OLED Lighting (PIOL). PIOL will use UDC's OLED materials and technologies in its lighting products, and will pay running royalties on its sales (some of it prepaid) and may also purchase OLED materials. The agreement runs through July 2014.

PEW OLED Lighting panels

Panasonic Idemitsu OLED Lighting was established by Panasonic Electric Works (PEW) and Idemitsu Kosan in March 2011, with the aim of developing, manufacturing and marketing OLED lighting panels. The company combines PEW's design and manufacturing technologies with Idemitsu OLED materials. PEW was already using UDC's materials, and it's interesting to hear that the joint-venture will now use UDC materials as well and not just Idemitsu' materials. This validates the claim that efficient OLED lighting (above 40 lm/W or so) requires phosphorescent materials.

Panasonic Electric Works (PEW) and Idemitsu Kosan announced that they will establish a new joint venture for developing, manufacturing and marketing OLED lighting panels. The new company will be called Panasonic Idemitsu OLED Lighting and it will combine PEW's design and manufacturing technologies with Idemitsu OLED materials.

PEW OLED Lighting panels

The new company will have 10 employees at the time of establishment. PEW will owe 51% and Idemitsu will own the rest (49%). The initial company capital will be JP¥ 15 billion ($182 million).

Update: Digitimes posted a full list of earthqake effects on Japanese OLED plants and facilities.

According to Digitimes, the Japanese earthquake did not have a serious impact on OLED companies. The only company that was really hit was Showa Denko - and while it's not clear from the article is seems that the damage is not substantial. Sumitomo's PLED production saw some 'modest' disruption as well.

Idemitsu Kosan was only effected by the transportaion and power outrages. It's not clear how did TDK (who makes PMOLED panels) fare.