Universal Display Corporation will announce today it has been awarded a $1.275 million contract extension from the U.S. Army Communication Electronics Research and Development Engineering Center (CERDEC). The extension will leverage the Company's achievements under its prior Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase III contract.

Under the extended program, Universal Display, Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) and L-3 Communications - Display Systems, will continue developing a flexible, active-matrix OLED (AMOLED) display for a wrist-based communications device. The combined team plans to incorporate enhancements in performance and functionality into the next generation of display prototypes to be delivered to the U.S. Departments of the Army and the Air Force.

The full-color AMOLED display device is enabled by Universal Display's proprietary PHOLED, TOLED® top-emitting OLED and FOLED® flexible OLED technologies, as well as by PARC's LTPS TFT technology. The electronics and packaging for the wrist-based device are from L-3 Communications Display Systems.

OLEDs and paper-like display technology are rapidly leading to new opportunities in the display industry according to a new report from NanoMarkets. The report predicts that combined sales of OLED displays and paper-like displays will reach $10.2 billion by 2011 and then go on to reach $14.7 billion by 2013.

Universal Display has been awarded a $500,000 extension to a successfully completed Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II contract from the U.S. Army Communication Electronics Research and Development Engineering Center (CERDEC).

This extension builds on previous advances Universal Display (Ewing, N.J.) made in developing full-color, active-matrix OLED (AMOLED) displays fabricated on a flexible metal foil substrate, based on the company's proprietary technologies and materials. The focus of the contract extension is to incorporate a laminated protective layer to the flexible AMOLED display, as well as to develop additional communications functionality and to integrate the display into a wrist-mountable housing.

In the paper titled Full Color 100 dpi AMOLED Displays on Flexible Stainless Steel Substrates, Dr. Anna Chwang will highlight the performance characteristics of a novel flexible, full-color AMOLED display prototype that is based on the Company’s proprietary phosphorescent OLED (PHOLED™), top-emitting OLED (TOLED®) and flexible OLED (FOLED®) technologies. The full-color AMOLED prototype also uses LTPS TFT backplanes designed and fabricated by PARC, a subsidiary of Xerox Corporation, and was encapsulated by Vitex Systems.

The four-inch diagonal display can portray a variety of images, including full-motion video. This advance is significant in proving the fundamental feasibility of the Company’s approach and also clearly demonstrates several key performance advantages. The display (without external drive electronics and package) is approximately 0.1 mm thick and weighs a mere 6 grams. The comparable glass-based LCD would be approximately 1.0-1.5 mm thick and weigh 20-30 grams. Research and development activities are continuing in a number of areas including enhanced display flexibility, defect elimination and enhanced electronics capabilities

The market for inks, substrates and other materials used in printable electronics is expected to reach $1.9 billion by 2010 rising to $8.9 billion in 2013, according to a new report from NanoMarkets.

The report provides a thorough analysis of market opportunities available in printable electronics firms for a wide range of materials including nano metallic silver and polymer inks, as well other a wide variety of other inks made from metals, organic materials and standard semiconductors.

Universal Display Furthers 'Flexible OLED Initiative' and Expands Prototype Capacity with Full-Color OLED Deposition System for OLED Displays on Plastic, Metallic Foil, and Glass Substrates.

UDC today announced the successful installation and start-up of a novel full-color OLED deposition system at Universal Display's technology development center in Ewing, New Jersey. Designed and built by Tokki Corporation, a leading supplier of OLED manufacturing equipment, working with Hitachi High-Technologies Corporation, a premier Japanese trading company, and using novel features designed by Tokki and Universal Display, the ELVES020C OLED Deposition System can produce OLED displays on both rigid glass and flexible substrates (e.g. metallic foil, and plastic).

This new system is the latest step in Universal Display's program to develop a broad array of technologies for conformable and flexible, full-color, high-resolution OLED displays. Universal Display was recently awarded a new $1.7 million Federal contract to develop flexible OLED display prototypes, bringing the Company's overall funded flexible OLED initiative to $6 million total.

Universal Display Corporation today announced it has been awarded a two-year, $1.7 million Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase III contract by the U.S. Department of Defense to continue its development of flexible OLED display technology for a next-generation military communications device.

In this Phase III contract, Universal Display is to develop and deliver functional prototypes of a Portable Flexible Communication Display Device. This futuristic communications device will be form-fitted to a soldier's wrist and communicate wirelessly to a nearby computer, thereby enabling soldiers to see crucial video and graphics information in real time.

The device will use a full-color, AMOLED display built on metal foil. The use of metal foil substrates can lead to a rollable, retractable and rugged display with a small and lightweight form factor for use in portable communication devices. Universal Display's FOLED® flexible OLED technology, combined with its TOLED® top-emission OLED technology, enables the use of flexible metal foil as a substrate material. With a 4-inch diagonal screen, the 320 x 240 pixel (QVGA format) AMOLED display will also use Universal Display's proprietary high-efficiency PHOLED™ phosphorescent OLED technology and materials.

Universal display has won a US Army SBIR Phase I project (titled "Flexible Day/Nighttime Phosphorescent OLED Displays") to develop a top-emission infra-red PHOLED on metal foil for use in military applications.;

The idea is to incorporate those infra-red OLEDs into a color display with regular full-color emitting pixels so a display can work in both daytime and nighttime. And that display will be flexible and rugged.