Seiko Epson today announced that it has developed a new inkjet technology that enables uniform deposition of OLED materials in large size displays. They believe that this is a major step towards 37" (or larger) HD OLED TVs.

Espon 14-inch Inkjet processed OLED

Seiko Epson claim this is the first technology that can reliably form uniform organic materials on large substrates. The most widely used tech today, Vaccum Thermal Evaporation (VTE) is not able to do it because of several technical issues.

Epson has recently developed the long-awaited solution in the form of
an OLED display fabrication process that leverages the company's
proprietary Micro Piezo inkjet technology to achieve markedly greater
accuracy in organic material deposition than the conventional
technology. The process has been used in trial production to fabricate
a highly uniform prototype panel. Extremely uniform layers (volume
error ejection of multi-size droplets of ink material on a substrate so that
only the required volume of material is deposited.

Epson will give more details at SID, together with a 14" prototype display (shown above), that has a HD resolution.

It's a bit late, but here are some interesting things that Epson showed at SID this year. First of all is a 8" OLED display for Automotive applications. Epson says that they are in talks with several auto companies to embed those devices in the dash board. You can see a video of the displays in the link below. Epson also showed other OLED displays, including a portable DVD player prototype.

DisplayBlog's Jin Kim talked to Mr. Satoru Miyashita, General Manager of OLED Development Center. Miyashita-san explained that Epson’s OLED displays were manufactured at the company’s G2 R&D fab. He also shared that there are plans to expand OLED production capability by adding a line in the company’s G3 fab located in Tottori. By using a larger G3 fabrication plant, Epson can produce up to 14" OLEDs.

Universal Display Corporation will today report advances in the development of P2OLED™, printable, phosphorescent OLED, material systems for use with ink-jet printing processes at the Society for Information Display’s (SID) 2008.

Presenting on a joint paper with Seiko Epson Corporation, Dr. Sean Xia, Senior Research Scientist at Universal Display, will describe advances in red, green and blue P2OLED material systems. Dr. Xia will also discuss the companies’ demonstration of ink-jet printed P2OLED technology and their continuing work to achieve commercial entry performance goals. Ink-jet printing has the potential to be a cost-effective approach for the production of large-area OLED displays.

The collaborative paper is the result of a joint development program during which the two companies successfully demonstrated the compatibility of Universal Display’s P2OLED technology and materials with Epson’s proprietary ink-jet printing process technology.

Through continued development using spin-coating techniques, the team has doubled the projected operating lifetime of its red P2OLED system since late last year to 100,000 hours (from an initial luminance of 500 cd/m2) with CIE coordinates of (0.67, 0.33) and a luminous efficiency of 12 candelas per Ampere (cd/A). The team also improved the projected lifetime of its green P2OLED system with CIE(0.33, 0.62) and a luminous efficiency of 34 cd/A to 63,000 hours (from an initial luminance of 1,000 cd/m2).

The team also made progress in the development of two blue P2OLED systems. A light blue P2OLED system with CIE(0.18, 0.39) and a luminous efficiency of 19 cd/A now has a projected lifetime of 6,000 hours from an initial luminance of 500 cd/m2, also twice that reported late last year. A new blue P2OLED system has more saturated color, with CIE(0.15, 0.22), a luminous efficiency of 6 cd/A and a projected lifetime of 1,000 hours (from an initial luminance of 500 cd/m2).

Universal Display’s PHOLED technology and materials, which offer up to four times higher energy efficiency than traditional OLED systems, are today being incorporated in products manufactured using conventional vacuum thermal evaporation (VTE) equipment. Universal Display’s P2OLED materials and technology are based on this same PHOLED technology, but are designed for use with solution-based manufacturing processes such as ink-jet printing.

Universal Display Corporation today reported significant progress in the development of P2OLED printable, phosphorescent OLED materials for use with solution-based manufacturing processes, which display manufacturers consider a prospective solution for the cost-effective production of large-area OLED displays.

Reported in a joint paper with Seiko Epson Corporation (Epson) given today at the Society for Information Display’s 2007 International Display Workshop (IDW) Conference in Sapporo, Japan, these advances are the result of a three-year joint development program during which the two companies focused on the successful demonstration of Universal Display’s P2OLEDs for application to Epson’s proprietary ink-jet printing process technology.

Given by Epson’s Takuya Sonoyama, the paper reported progress in red, green and blue P2OLED device performance in spin-coated devices and ink-jet printed devices. Demonstrating the high luminous efficiency of PHOLED technology, the team made significant progress in extending the operating lifetimes of its red and green material P2OLED systems: Red with CIE(0.66, 0.33), luminous efficiency of 9 cd/A and > 50,000 hours of operating lifetime to 50% of initial luminance (at 500 cd/m2) and green with CIE(0.33, 0.63), 35 cd/A and > 50,000 hours (at 1000 cd/m2). The team also reported data for a new sky blue P2OLED with CIE(0.19, 0.40), 18 cd/A and > 3,000 hours (at 500 cd/m2). In addition, results with ink-jet printed P2OLED devices were reported which demonstrate the excellent film-forming ability of the small molecule layers. Ink-jet printed green P2OLED devices were also demonstrated to have the same efficiency as those of the spin-coated control P2OLEDs following an in-depth study of solvent selection and process optimization.

Universal Display’s PHOLED technology and materials, which offer up to four times higher energy efficiency than traditional OLED systems, are today being used in products manufactured using conventional vacuum thermal evaporation (VTE) equipment. P2OLED materials and technology, based on this same PHOLED technology, are designed for use with solution-based processes such as ink-jet printing.

Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. was showing three prototype OLED TVs based on 14-inch panels. That's larger than the 11-inch screens that are in the new Sony TVs but a close look at the Samsung panels revealed some imperfections. In each of the three prototypes on display were pixels locked to a single color.

Japan's Seiko Epson Corp., which has been researching OLED technology for many years, was displaying five prototype 8-inch OLED panels. In contrast to the Samsung panels, the Epson ones didn't have any visible defects and offered a bright, smooth and crisp image. The screens, which are 3 millimeters thick, attracted a crowd at the show -- many more people than the company expected, a representative confided.

Neither Samsung nor Epson would say when their larger TV screens might be ready for mass production.

Samsung SDI Co. Ltd. was showing a bendable 4-inch OLED. The screen was fixed in a slightly curved position and delivered a good picture but again there were imperfections visible. The company was also showing what must be one of the thinnest OLED panels in the world. At just 0.37 millimeters the 2.4-inch QVGA panel is super thin and destined for use in cell phones.

Seiko Epson has a production line at its Nagano plant and aims to take orders for OLED panels by the end of the year. The plant is capable of manufacturing several thousand OLED panels a year, the daily said. The company has expanded the life span of OLED panels to more than 50,000 hours compared with the maximum life of standard OLED devices, which is typically 30,000 hours, Nikkei said.



OLED panels, which emit light when an electrical charge is passed through the surface, are lighter and thinner than existing LCD panels or plasma displays, and boast higher contrast pictures, but are also more expensive.



The company plans to start making an eight-inch business-use OLED monitor that is 2.8 millimeter thick at its thinnest part. The production line is also capable of manufacturing larger models of up to 21 inches, the daily said.

Universal Display Corporation today announced significant advances in the development of P(2)OLEDs printable, phosphorescent OLEDs as part of an ongoing joint development program with Seiko Epson Corporation. The demonstration of P(2)OLED materials that possess the high-efficiency of Universal Display's PHOLED phosphorescent technology, as well as ink-jet printing potential, is an important step toward the realization of cost-effective, large-area OLED displays. OLED displays are currently used in cell phones, MP3 players and PDAs, and are widely recognized as a strong candidate for use in the next generation of flat screen televisions.

After working together for less than two years, Universal Display is reporting key achievements in the development of a P(2)OLED system based on solution-processable, small-molecule PHOLED materials. These results include significant lifetime and efficiency advances for red and green color emitters.

UDC and Seiko Epson signed a settlement and license agreement over OLED patents and inkjet printing patent. There is not a lot of information available yet, besides the Following Form 8K:

UDC entered into a Settlement and License Agreement with Seiko Epson Corporation ("Epson"). Under the terms of the agreement, the Registrant licensed one of its ink jet printing patents and certain related patent filings to Epson. Epson's license rights include the right to grant sublicenses to third parties, subject to specified limitations in the agreement. In consideration of the license, the parties resolved outstanding issues concerning the licensed patent rights and Epson agreed to pay a fixed amount to the Registrant. If, within a specified period of time, the parties enter into a broader license agreement covering other aspects of the Registrant's OLED patent portfolio, this amount is creditable against license fees and royalties payable under that broader license agreement.

DisplaySearch has updated its 2006 OLED Technology Report, a comprehensive examination of the fledgling OLED industry, which reached revenues of $491M in 2005, up 8% Y/Y, and unit shipments of 55.8M, up 72%. Updates are due to a number of recent changes affecting the OLED industry: Liquidation of SK Display, TMDisplay and Seiko Epson de-emphasizing commercialization of AMOLEDs, Pioneer closing its ELDis JV and the concurrent end of its AMOLED activity, Sharp reduction in small/medium panel ASPs due to over capacity in TFT LCDs, Continuing difficulty in using LTPS backplanes for AMOLEDs.

The OLED display makers are in transition from passive matrix to active matrix centricity, not unlike LCDs in the early to mid 1990s. The difference is that AMOLED display makers expect to ride the benefits of the existing TFT infrastructure created for LCDs. The report shows the status of material development, manufacturing (both evaporation and ink-jet printing) and the proposed solutions to high yielding a-Si and p-Si backplanes.

Read more here

In addition to its development of OLED displays, Epson has researched the characteristics of OLED as an electronic device. Specifically, Epson has succeeded in creating a print head that uses OLED as a light source (OLED print head), opening the way for utilization of OLED as a new printing technology for printers.

At present, electro-photographic printing technologies for copiers and printers use either laser or LED light sources. Epson merged the many years of expertise it had accumulated in printing and display technology, and partnered with Sumitomo Chemical Co., Ltd. to jointly develop a super bright OLED that can be used in printing. Printing tests using a prototype of an OLED-based print head have produced printouts quality comparable to or better than those produced by conventional laser printers.