Researchers from the University of Michigan, in collaboration with Universal Display are developing a low-cost roll-to-roll (R2R) process to produce flexible OLED lighting panels. The goal is to achieve a panel cost of less than $10 per klm - a tenfold reduction compared to current costs.

The roll-to-coll system can continuously produce encapsulation panels, at high speeds and reduce costs. The front plane (organic stack) deposition is done via OVPD. The researchers say the will demonstrate reliable, encapsulated 25 cm² flexible white OLED panels with an efficacy of 50 lm/W and a CRI >85 on barrier-coated plastic films or thin glass.

Universal Display reported its Q3 2020 financial results, with revenues of $117 million (up from $58 million in Q2 2020 and $98 million in Q3 2019, and a net income of $40.5 million. UDC ended the quarter with with $673 million in cash and equivalents

UDC reports a significant pickup in customer orders in the third quarter, and the company expects full-year 2020 revenues to be in the range of $385 million to $400 million. UDC sees meaningful growth in the OLED industry in 2021 and beyond.

Researchers at Universal Display, developed an OLED device with plasmonic decay rate enhancement that dramatically increase device stability. By including a nanoparticle-based out-coupling scheme to extract energy from the plasmon mode, the researchers managed to maintain the device efficiency.

The device used an archetypal phosphorescent emitter to achieve a two-fold increase in functional stability at the same brightness as a reference conventional OLED device and extracted 16% of the energy from the plasmon mode as light.

Universal Display reported its financial results for Q2 2020. The COVID-19 pandemic continued to impact UDC, as customer orders and shipments declined. UDC reports $58 million in revenues (down from $112 million in Q1 2020 and $118 million in Q2 2020) and a net income of $800,000. Part of the reason for the revenue drop were two orders made in Q1 (worth $44 million) as safety-stock due to the trade concerns and COVID-19 uncertainties.

While the second quarter was very disappointing for UDC, the company reports that demand has picked up in July (the first month of Q3) as customer orders increased. There are still "significant uncertainties" ahead and the company will not provide any guidance until visibility improves.

Japan Display says it is developing a new OLED production technology that will enable higher resolution and higher efficiency OLED displays, and the company is in talks with potential customers regarding a joint investment in producing next-generation OLEDs.

According to JDI's CEO, the company is using a new manufacturing technology that is different to the evaporation method currently used by OLED makers. It is not clear what is meant by that - it could be an inkjet-printing technology (but achieving high resolution for smartphone displays with inkjet printing is a challenge) or something like OVPD or OVJP - or a new technology developed in-house at JDI.

Universal Display established a new subsidiary, called OVJP Corporation, that will advance the commercialization of UDC's OVJP OLED TV manufacturing technology.

OVJP stands for Organic Vapor Jet Printing, and the basic idea is to use a gas-stream based process that resembles ink-jet printing but one that uses evaporation OLED materials. In an OVJP process, the OLED materials are evaporated into a carrier gas that delivers them to a jet engine for direct printing of patterned OLED layers.

TCL subsidiary China Star Optoelectronics (CSoT) signed an OLED technology license agreement and material purchase agreement with Universal Display (UDC). UDC will supply phosphorescent OLED materials CSoT to be used in its display products.

CSoT is currently producing flexible OLEDs in its T4 line which has a monthly capacity of 45,000 6-Gen substrates. Last week it was reported that CSoT is planning to build a new flexible OLED production line in Wuhan, in a $1.4 billion investment.

DSCC updated its OLED material market estimates, saying that AMOLED stack material sales will grow from $951 million in 2019 to $2.69 billion in 2024 - a CAGR of 23%. These new estimates take into account DSCC's reduced input area forecast due to the slowdown in demand cased by the Covid-19 pandemic.

DSCC says that incremental improvements in material utilization and price reductions, material costs per square meters will decline in the future. The unyielded cost of producing a square meter of a WOLED TV panel will decline from $95.21 in 2019 to $56.11 in 2024.

Universal Display reported its Q1 2020 financial results. While the company and its market are effected by the Corona Virus, UDC had an excellent quarter with revenues of $112.3 million (material sales of $66.6 million, up from $60.8 million in Q4 2019 and $54.5 million in Q1 2019) and a net income of $38.2 million.

At the end of the quarter, UDC had $640 million in cash and equivalents. Due to the pandemic, the company withdraws its 2020 annual guidance. UDC also says that some of its orders in the quarter was due to its customers stocking up inventory due to industry uncertainties.

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.

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.