Phosphorescent

Universal Display reported its financial results for Q4 2021. Revenues for the quarter were $146 million, while net income was $46 million

UDC's 2021 revenues were a record high of $554 million, with a net profit of $184 million. UDC expects the OLED industry to continue to grow in 2022, and the company believes its revenues in 2022 will be between $625 million to $650 million (an increase of 12% - 17%).

Universal Display announced that Tianma Micro-electronics has extended its long-term OLED material supply and license agreement. UDC will continue to supply Tianma with its phosphorescent OLED materials and technologies.

UDC did not disclose any more details or financial terms. The original agreement between Tianma and UDC was signed in 2016.

Universal Display reported its financial results for Q3 2021. Revenues were a record $143.6 million, up from $117.1 million in Q3 2020 and net profit was $46.1 million (up from $40.5 million from Q3 2020). The company has about $789 million in cash and equivalents, the it reiterates its full-year 2021 revenue guidance to be between $530 million and $560 million.

Regarding its blue PHOLED R&D effort, UDC says it is making "excellent progress", and the company believes that a commercial blue material is a question of when and not if.

Hyperfluoresence emitter system developer Kyulux announced that its green material is getting close to commercialization. The company is now working closely with OLED makers, preparing for early adoption.

Kyulux says that its green emitter has not only met the required performance of OLED panel makers, in terms of efficiency, lifetime and driving voltage - but has actually surpassed the performance of green phosphorescent emitters in top emission devices. The green HF device achieves higher current efficiency, longer lifetime and offers a narrow emission spectrum and can thus enable better chromaticity.

During SID Display Week 2021, Kyulux detailed its latest TADF material performance. The red and green materials are "close to commercialization", and the company reports "excellent progress" with its blue emitter.

Using simulations, Kyulux shows how its Hyperfluorescence system is more efficient than a comparable phosphorescence emitter. While both emitters feature pretty much the same EQE, the narrow spectrum of the HF system which results in higher light intensity and can enable more efficient displays - by around 10%, according to Kyulux.

Universal Display and Visionox announced that the companies extended their long-term OLED material supply and license agreements. The new agreement runs for five years - that's the only details of the new agreement that has been disclosed.

The original agreement between Visionox and UDC was signed in 2018.

Universal Display and LG Display announced that the companies have extended their long-term agreements. LGD and UDC signed new OLED Technology License and Material Purchase Agreements. The new extended agreements run for five years.

UDC and LG did not disclose any further details or any financial terms. The two companies signed the original agreement in 2015.

Phosphorescent materials are based on the addition of a heavy-metal to the emissive materials, and most (if not all?) commercial materials use Iridium. The price of this rare metal has hit an all-time high last week.

Towards the end of last year, the price of one oz of Iridium was $1,760. Last week it hit $6,000 - the price jumped over 300% in just three months. Experts explain that the price has risen due to a disruption in the supply in South Africa (which supplies around 80% of the global market) and strong demand from the electrical and electrochemical sector.

PPG Industries and Universal Display established a strategic relationship in 2000, and since then PPG is the exclusive producer of UDC's PHOLED emitter materials. The two companies announced that they will establish a new manufacturing site in Shannon, Ireland, for the production of UDC's emitters.

The new facility will double the production capacity of UDC's OLED emitters at PPG, and will also diversify the company's manufacturing base. UDC leased the Ireland site (which, up until now, was producing pharmaceutical intermediates) and will adapt it to PHOLED production. Facility improvements and regulatory approvals are expected to be completed in the next 12 months, and operations are scheduled to commence in early 2022.

Researchers from Osaka University developed the best performing heavy-metal-free room-temperature phosphorescence (RTP) OLED emitters.

The researchers say that the new emitter (called SiAz), made entirely out of carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, and silicon atoms, combines the mechanisms of TADF and RTP to create an efficient emitter system.