Environmentally responsible investors (and others) will be interested in this. Use of phosphorescence provides more efficient use of light in flat panel displays such as cell phones, Palmpilots and laptops. Longer battery life in wireless devices could replace current standard of OLED's. Plus they have the patents on this technology. Has already run up quite a bit today but is worth keeping on radar for entry.
Julie
Universal Display Corporation's Research Partners Develop
PR Newswire - February 29, 2000 09:45
New Organic Materials For Higher Efficiency OLED Flat Panel Display
EWING, N.J., Feb. 29 /PRNewswire/ -- The Universal Display Corporation (UDC) (Nasdaq: PANL; Philadelphia: PNL), a developer of flat display technology, announced today that its research partners have discovered a variety of new, energy efficient organic materials to be used with organic light emitting diodes (OLED's) for the manufacture and production of the next generation of electronic flat panel displays. Their achievements were reported in the February 17 issue of Nature, the prestigious peer reviewed journal of science.
UDC's research partners, led by Dr. Stephen Forrest of Princeton University, have found that combining two different methods for emitting light, fluorescence with phosphorescence, can create more efficient sources of light. The findings by Dr. Forrest and the research team including Dr. Mark Thompson of The University of Southern California and Marc Baldo, a graduate student at Princeton University, demonstrate UDC's proprietary material system which involves co-mingling phosphorescence with fluorescence to improve the efficiency of the other OLED systems. Fluorescence, which has been used in OLEDs, can potentially provide a wider range of colors.
Dr. Forrest said electronics manufacturers could use the new techniques within six months in certain applications such as car stereo displays. Eventually the technique could lead to ubiquitous use of OLED's in products such as palm pilots, cell phones and laptops. "It offers manufacturers exactly what they want," said Forrest. "You want a laptop that doesn't run down the battery in three hours; you want a battery to last 10 hours."
"This invention provides validation to the innovative direction of our research, development and commercialization program and helps position us as a leader in the creation of the OLED industry and its widespread integration into commercial use," said Steven Abramson, President and COO of Universal Display. "We congratulate our research team which has exercised its tremendous talent to harness those properties and prepare us to deliver products to the market."
The Nature article details how combining certain molecular properties with a phosphorous sensitizer can result in light sources that are brighter, last longer and may be less expensive to produce than today's traditionally used liquid crystal diode (LCD) technology and inorganic light emitting diode (LED) technology. The lengthy Nature scientific review indicates that the emerging OLED technology has the potential to replace the current standard LCD and LED light sources to give us greater illumination, truer coloration and longer lasting battery life.
Industry's adoption of the OLED technology should provide major benefits for manufacturers of such items as, cellular phones, palm size computers, laptop computers, electronic readout panels and point of purchase displays.
Founded in 1994, Universal Display is engaged in the research, development and commercialization of OLEDs for use in flat panel displays and other applications. OLEDs are seen as the future replacement technology for the $40 billion electronic display market.
An OLED is an electronic device made by placing a series of organic thin films between two conductors. When the current is applied, a bright light is emitted. OLEDs are lightweight, durable, power efficient and ideal for portable applications. OLEDs have fewer process steps and also use both fewer and lower-cost materials than LCD displays. Universal Display believes that OLEDs will replace the current technology and have the following performance advantages over LCDs: greater brightness, faster response time for full motion video, fuller viewing angles, lighter weight, greater environmental durability, more power efficiency and broader operating temperature ranges.
All statements in this press 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 Form10-KSBA for the year ended December 31, 1998 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 to thereto or any change in events, conditions, or circumstances on which any statements are based.
SOURCE Universal Display Corporation
/CONTACT: Raymond Minkus, 312-541-8787, or Brooke Greenwald, both of
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