Tuesday July 25, 10:00 am Eastern Time
Company Press Release
SOURCE: Universal Display Corporation
Universal Display Corporation Signs Development and
License Agreement with AIXTRON AG of Germany
Parties to Jointly Commercialize a Revolutionary New Technology for High Throughput OLED
Production Equipment
EWING, N.J., July 25 /PRNewswire/ -- Universal Display Corporation (UDC) (Nasdaq: PANL; PHLX), a leading developer
of flat panel display technology, has entered into a development and license agreement with AIXTRON AG of Aachen,
Germany, the leading manufacturer of precision semiconductor production equipment for LEDs, to develop and fabricate OLED
(organic light emitting device) production equipment based on an innovative low cost, precise, high throughput process, it was
announced here today.
OLEDs are seen by many industry observers as the technology of the future for the flat panel displays required by the
information age, including portable electronic communications devices based on new wireless and cellular telephony.
Using a transformational technology called Organic Vapor Phase Deposition (OVPD) invented by scientists at Princeton
University, the production process utilizes a carrier gas stream in a hot walled reactor at very low pressure to precisely deposit
the thin layers of organic materials used in OLED displays. Conventional OLED fabrication equipment evaporates the organic
molecules at high temperature and pressure. OVPD offers the ability to precisely control the multi-source deposition required for
full-color OLED displays. The OVPD design is also adaptable to the rapid, uniform deposition of organics on large-area
substrates.
UDC and AIXTRON will develop the production equipment together which will be sold exclusively by AIXTRON under
royalty bearing-licenses from UDC. Plans to install a demonstration pre-production system next year at the UDC facility are
underway.
``The partnership with AIXTRON is designed to provide the next generation of OLED fabrication equipment and processes that
can dramatically reduce the cost of producing OLED displays,'' said Steven V. Abramson, President of UDC. ``This is an
important step in our mission to commercialize innovative OLED technologies that can dramatically expand the penetration of
OLED products in the flat panel display marketplace.''
``OVPD provides a fundamentally new solution to the problems encountered in the low cost, high precision mass production of
molecular organic displays,'' said Dr. Stephen Forrest, Chairman of the Electrical Engineering Department at Princeton
University and a principal inventor of the OVPD technology. ``It is very exciting working with AIXTRON, a world leader in the
production of semiconductor growth equipment, and our partners at UDC, to see the emergence from the laboratory
demonstrations of our work into the high volume marketplace of OLED display production.''
``As the world leading supplier of semiconductor production equipment to the LED industry (for large screen outdoor video
displays, signaling and illumination), AIXTRON is excited to further extend its equipment diversification by adding OVPD
machines for OLEDs, using synergies in the market and applications,'' comments Dr. Holger Juergensen, President and CEO of
AIXTRON. ``Through OVPD, the OLEDs receive superior properties, which convinced us to invest into this joint development
with UDC and the team of Dr. Stephen Forrest of Princeton University.''
About UDC
UDC has been developing OLED technology with Princeton University and The University of Southern California (USC) since
1994. This partnership continues to be committed to the innovative research and commercialization of this proprietary OLED
technology.
The Company believes that OLEDs will open up significant new markets for flat panel displays based on their novel features that
include transparency and flexibility. OLEDs are seen by many as a future replacement technology for Cathode Ray Tubes
(CRTs) and Liquid Crystal Displays (LCDs), due to their bright and beautiful colors, wide viewing angle, compatibility with full
motion video, broad temperature ranges, thin and conformable form factor and low power requirements. CRTs and LCDs
currently dominate the growing $40 billion annual electronic display market.
Universal Display Corporation is located minutes away from their research partners at Princeton University. The new location
encompasses 11,000-sq. ft., which includes a pilot production line as well as 2,500 square feet of clean room space and
laboratories for technology development and technology transfer.
About AIXTRON:
AIXTRON AG, Germany, and AIXTRON Inc. Chicago offer a wide range of CVD and epitaxial equipment for
multicomponent materials like compound semiconductors, dielectrics and ferroelectrics. The production equipment scales to
20x4`` or 9x6'' batch processes, or 8``/300 mm bridge tools, of which a variant will be developed for OVPD. AIXTRON has
installed over 350 systems worldwide and is represented in over 15 countries, providing an extensive service and support
network.
AIXTRON equipment is being used in manufacturing of LED and optoelectronic components by customers like
Agilent/LumiLeds (subs. H-P), Alcatel, Anritsu, Epistar, Epson, JDS-Uniphase, Lucent, Mitsubishi, NEC, Nortel, OSRAM,
Samsung, ShowaDenko, Sumitomo, Thomson, UEC, VPEC, and many renowned research institutes and Universities
worldwide. AIXTRON AG is a multi billion dollar traded public stock company on the German Exchange ``Neuer Markt'' in
Frankfurt under AIX.
All statements in this news release that are not historical are forward- looking statements. Such statements are subject to risks
and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially for Universal Display Corporation from those projected,
including, but not limited to, uncertainties relating to technological approaches, product development, manufacturing, and
marketing acceptance, uncertainties related to cost and pricing of Universal Display products, dependence on collaborative
partners, and other competition, risks relating to intellectual property of others and the uncertainties of patent protection. These
are discussed in periodic reports filed with the SEC, including the Company's annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended
December 31, 1999 and quarterly report on Form 10-Q. Universal Display Corporation expressly disclaims any obligation or
undertaking to release publicly any updates or revisions to any forward-looking statements contained herein to reflect any change
in Universal Display Corporation's expectations with regard thereto or any change in events, conditions, or circumstances on
which any such statements are based.
SOURCE: Universal Display Corporation
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