Universal Display Corporation announced the formation of its wholly-owned subsidiary OVJP Corporation.
To be headquartered in Silicon Valley, CA, OVJP Corp was established to advance the commercialization of Universal Display’s (UDC) novel, mask-less, solvent-less, OLED printing manufacturing platform.
This newly established subsidiary will be led by Jeff Hawthorne, who was appointed CEO of OVJP Corp.
Organic Vapor Jet Printing (OVJP) is a dry direct printing technology for depositing organic materials to manufacture 4K and 8K resolution OLED TVs.
This technology represents a high-throughput, high-performance, efficient, large-area patterned OLED manufacturing process platform and enables cost-effective printing of side-by-side red, green and blue (RGB) OLED TVs.
OVJP technology originated at Princeton University with Prof. Stephen Forrest and his research team under the long-term research program with UDC.
The company has made significant advancements through the years and is currently working on printing full-color phosphorescent RGB 4K test panels.
OVJP research and development will continue in Ewing N.J., and OVJP Corp. will focus on scaling the technology into a commercial equipment system.
Hawthorne brings a wealth of technical, strategic and operational leadership expertise, and 25+ years of experience in the capital equipment industry, primarily at Photon Dynamics (PDI).
Under his leadership, Photon successfully scaled its tools from Gen 4.5/5 to Gen 6, 7.5, 8 and Gen 10 as panel makers broadened its manufacturing of displays from small/mid-size to large-size and PDI became the market leader of test and repair equipment for the global flat panel display market.
“The formation of OVJP Corporation is the next step in our strategic roadmap for commercializing our state-of-the-art OLED printing technology and we are pleased to have Jeff join us to lead our new subsidiary,” said Steven V. Abramson, Universal Display's president and CEO. “UDC was founded with the mission to enable the OLED industry. We began with the idea of energy-efficient, high-performing phosphorescent OLED emissive technology and forged a path of discovery, development and delivery to now a broadening portfolio of commercial UniversalPHOLED materials. We are now taking the idea of dry printing OLED TVs in a vacuum environment and accelerating its commercial path. Jeff’s seasoned background and in-depth knowledge of the display capital equipment industry, from both the technical and operational aspects, will be valuable during this critical period as we further shape and evolve OVJP into the OLED market.”
“I am excited to join OVJP Corporation and build on UDC’s technical innovation and momentum of this revolutionary manufacturing technology,” Hawthorne added. “Universal Display’s leadership in the OLED industry and its outstanding history of successfully commercializing technology innovation is remarkable. OVJP has the tremendous potential to transform OLED TV manufacturing and further enable proliferation of OLEDs in the marketplace. I look forward to contributing to UDC and the OLED industry’s next stage of growth.”
