David Savastano, Editor05.04.11
Flexible displays are an area of great interest for consumers. For example, the market for organic light emitting diodes, or OLEDs, is one of potential growth for both displays and lighting. Produced utilizing a layer of organic semiconductors, OLEDs offer numerous advantages over LEDs and LCDs, including enhanced performance and better color. OLEDs can also be produced on a flexible substrate, which can be a game changer in terms of how people utilize technology. Other new display technologies are also emerging. Printing is playing a role at some of these companies.
OLEDs are also less expensive to produce, and can be printed by using inkjet, gravure or screen, which is where printed electronics comes in. Samsung is considered to the be the industry leader, but the major television manufacturers (Sony, LG among others), cell phones (Nokia, LG, Motorola) and lighting producers (General Electric, Philips, Osram Sylvania and Panasonic, to name a few) have done extensive work in OLEDs. Suppliers such as DuPont are making advances in the technology that will ultimately support printing.
Meanwhile, there are a host of smaller start-ups that have had success in the display field. Companies such as Novaled AG, Liquavista, Universal Display, Cambridge Display Technology (CDT), Add-Vision and eMagin are among those companies who have made inroads into the OLED and display fields.
Novaled AG, Dresden, Germany, is a leader in the field of OLEDs and organic electronics. Novaled has developed a number of doping and transport materials to be used in organic OLEDs to further enhance and support the already existing advantages, and is working closely with major OLED manufacturers worldwide.
Another example is Liquavista, a 2006 spin out from the Philips Research Labs. Utilizing electrowetting technology, Liquavista developed innovative color display technology that it terms “LCD 2.0.” Its technology has caught the attention of Samsung Electronics, which engineered a buyout of Liquavista in January 2011, which formed Samsung LCD Netherlands R&D Center (SNRC).
In March 2011, Universal Display, a Princeton, NJ-based specialist in phosphorescent OLED, or PHOLED, completed its public offering of 5,750,000 shares of its common stock at $46.00 per share. A leader in state-of-the-art OLED technologies and materials to the display and lighting industries, Universal Display was founded in 1994, and owns or has exclusive, co-exclusive or sole license rights with respect to more than 1,000 issued and pending patents worldwide.
Universal Display has partnered with a number of industry leaders, including Samsung Mobile Display Co, Ltd., Seiko Epson Corporation, Sony Corporation, Showa Denko K.K., and Konica Minolta, among others.
Among its suppliers is Plextronics, which announced that its Plexcore OC NQ ink has been integrated into Universal Display Corporation’s P2OLED solution-processed, phosphorescent OLED technology. Plextronics is also collaborating with Cambrios, whose proprietary ClearOhm material is a UV curable, transparent conductive film, as well as Novaled.
Cambridge Display Technology was one of the pioneers in the OLED space. Formed out of Cambridge University, CDT focuses on the development of display technology based on polymer organic light emitting diodes, or P-OLEDs, using inkjet printing as part of the process. In September 2007, CDT was acquired by the Sumitomo Chemical Group, and is now part of the Sumitomo Chemical P-OLED Business Unit.
Based in Scotts Valley, CA, Add-Vision, Inc. utilizes P-OLED technology for low resolution displays and backlighting application on plastic, where every layer of the display can be rapidly deposited at very low cost using conventional printing equipment, notably gravure.
eMagin Corporation, headquartered in Bellevue, WA, is manufacturing active-matrix OLED (AM-OLED) microdisplays on silicon for military, industrial, medical and consumer OEMs through its own deposition process.
All in all, it is clear that OLEDs and similar technologies will continue to have a major place in the display and lighting field.
Photo courtesy of Liquavista. |
Meanwhile, there are a host of smaller start-ups that have had success in the display field. Companies such as Novaled AG, Liquavista, Universal Display, Cambridge Display Technology (CDT), Add-Vision and eMagin are among those companies who have made inroads into the OLED and display fields.
Photo courtesy of Novaled AG. |
Another example is Liquavista, a 2006 spin out from the Philips Research Labs. Utilizing electrowetting technology, Liquavista developed innovative color display technology that it terms “LCD 2.0.” Its technology has caught the attention of Samsung Electronics, which engineered a buyout of Liquavista in January 2011, which formed Samsung LCD Netherlands R&D Center (SNRC).
In March 2011, Universal Display, a Princeton, NJ-based specialist in phosphorescent OLED, or PHOLED, completed its public offering of 5,750,000 shares of its common stock at $46.00 per share. A leader in state-of-the-art OLED technologies and materials to the display and lighting industries, Universal Display was founded in 1994, and owns or has exclusive, co-exclusive or sole license rights with respect to more than 1,000 issued and pending patents worldwide.
Universal Display has partnered with a number of industry leaders, including Samsung Mobile Display Co, Ltd., Seiko Epson Corporation, Sony Corporation, Showa Denko K.K., and Konica Minolta, among others.
Photo courtesy of Add-Vision, Inc. |
Cambridge Display Technology was one of the pioneers in the OLED space. Formed out of Cambridge University, CDT focuses on the development of display technology based on polymer organic light emitting diodes, or P-OLEDs, using inkjet printing as part of the process. In September 2007, CDT was acquired by the Sumitomo Chemical Group, and is now part of the Sumitomo Chemical P-OLED Business Unit.
Based in Scotts Valley, CA, Add-Vision, Inc. utilizes P-OLED technology for low resolution displays and backlighting application on plastic, where every layer of the display can be rapidly deposited at very low cost using conventional printing equipment, notably gravure.
eMagin Corporation, headquartered in Bellevue, WA, is manufacturing active-matrix OLED (AM-OLED) microdisplays on silicon for military, industrial, medical and consumer OEMs through its own deposition process.
All in all, it is clear that OLEDs and similar technologies will continue to have a major place in the display and lighting field.