Phosphorescent | OLED-Info

UDC reports its Q4 2019 financial results, with $102 million in revenues

Universal Display reported its Q4 2019 financial results - revenues were $102 million, an increase of 45% compared to Q4 2018. Net income in the fourth quarter was $26.4 million.

Universal Display PHOLED materials photo (2020)

Looking at 2019, UDC had a record year - with revenues of $405 million and a net income of $138 million. 2019 was a year of significant capacity additions, and 2020 will see less significant growth due to "capacity digestion". Looking into 2020, UDC sees revenues in the range of $430 to $70 million. UDC estimates that the coronavirus outbreak in China could lower its 2020 revenues by $40 - 50 million.

TADF OLED emitter technology - industry status

TADF, or Thermally Activated Delayed Fluorescence, is a relatively new class of OLED emitter materials that promise efficient and long-lifetime performance without any heavy metals. TADF research started at around 2012, originally at Kyushu University in Japan and today many academic groups and several commercial companies are developing TADF materials.

Blue TADF emitter molecules

The main reason companies are interested in TADF emission is that it could lead to an efficient and long-lasting blue OLED emitter - something that hasn't been yet achieved by other means (mainly - UDC's Phosphorescent OLED emitter technology). In recent years companies initiated commercial development of red, green and yellow TADF emitters as these can offer a lower cost alternative to UDC's PHOLEDs materials.

Idemitsu Kosan and Toray developed a red TADF/HF device that is the world's most efficient OLED emitter

Idemitsu Kosan and Toray Industries announced that the companies have jointly developed a red OLED device that is the world's most efficient emitter at 46 cd/A. The device uses a TADF emitter combined with red fluorescent materials (which likely means this is a HyperFluorescence device).

Idemitsu and Toray has been collaborating on OLED material development since 2017. This new device uses Idemitsu's TADF material combined with Toray's new red fluorescent material. The two companies say that this new material provides the same results as currently used red phosphorescent devices, and the plan is now to "drive forward to secure adoption of their materials" in mobile and TV applications.

Researchers from RUDN University developed OLED emitter compounds based on silver and copper doping

Researchers from RUDN University in Russia have synthesized new OLED emitter compounds. These compounds seem to be phosphorescent emitters, based on copper and silver atoms.

Copper and Silver OLED emitter compounds (RUDN University)

The researchers say that the compound platform they created can lead to efficient and cost-effective OLED emitters, and also offer a special molecular geometry that can enable freedom-of-design for developers.

Universal Display reports excellent quarterly results and increases its guidance for 2019 again

Universal Display reported its Q3 2019 financial results - revenues were $97.5 million, and net income was $37 million. This was another strong quarter for the company, which increased its 2019 guidance to revenues of $400 - $410 million.

UDC believes that year-end 2019 will have an installed OLED square meter cpaacity that is 50% larger than year-end 2017. In 2020 the company sees continued revenue and earnings growth. By 2021, UDC sees OLED capacity to incrase about 50% again over year-end 2019.

Universal Display and Merck to accelerate development of OLED materials and technologies

Universal Display and Merck announced that the two companies will collaborate on OLED research and development. The two companies will join their know-how to accelerate the development of new products.

This joint development program brings together UDC's leading-edge phosphorescent OLED emitters with Merck's state-of-the-art transport materials. The objective is to develop higher performing OLED stacks for OLED manufacturers around the world.

Universal Display reports excellent quarterly results and increases its guidance for 2019

Universal Display reported its financial results for Q2 2019. Revenues were $118.2 million, the operating profit reached $48.7 million and net income was $43.4 million. UDC increased its 2019 revenue guidance to be in the range of $370 million to $390 million. The company ended Q2 with $553 million in cash and equivalents.

UDC PHOLED materials photo (2017)
The Q2 results include about $15-20 million of orders that UDC estimates were pulled-in from the second half of 2019 as Chinese customers build up inventory for trade-related reasons.

Universal Display to show new automotive OLED emitters and an OVJP device prototype

Universal Display announced that next week during SID DisplayWeek it will demonstrate, for the first time, a PHOLED display device that was produced using the company's OVJP process at its recently-installed pilot line system.

UDC emitter and host materials photo

The green OVJP device features a lifetime of over 50,000 hours (LT95) at 1,000 nits. At the tradeshow UDC will also show its latest commercial and development red, yellow, green and blue phosphorescent material systems in its "eco-friendly PHOLED Garden".

UDC: our RGB1B2 AMOLED architecture minimizes blue light hazard

In 2010 Universal Display announced a new AMOLED display architecture called RGB1B2 that uses two blue sub-pixels - a fluorescent deep-blue and a phosphorescent light blue. The introduction of a light blue sub-pixel can significantly extend the operational lifetime of an OLED display and reduce the display's power consumption by as much as 33%.

UDC RGB1B2 AMOLED architecture, blue light (OLED Korea 2019)

The RGB1B2 was never adopted (one of the reasons is that adding another sub pixel complicates the TFT backplane and has other disadvantages - but the architecture is now again on the table and UDC presented it again at OLED Korea 2019.