Growing Interest in Organic Light Emitting Diodes Compels Manufacturers to Enhance Product Features.

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

PALO ALTO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 19, 2004

Following exceptional end-user interest in organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs), manufacturers have been under pressure to improve specific product features such as material lifetime, device stability, and light extraction. Rigorous research and development activities are being conducted to enhance these aspects and help increase uptake of OLED products.

To establish a clear lead over competing technologies such as liquid crystal display (LCD), manufacturers have to ensure that the superior brightness, luminance, and color performance of OLED devices do not deteriorate with age or use. Concerted efforts are also underway to find a low cost solution to reduce the impact of hostile environments such as heat, moisture, and dust while preserving the advantages of low weight and thin profile.

"Initiatives to enhance device stability are important because improved blue, green, and red emitters with longer lifetimes are necessary to scale up efficiency," states Frost & Sullivan Research Analyst Hrishikesh Bidwe.

Considerable research is being conducted on developing an easily manufacturable structure that forwards more light emitted from organic molecules without increasing the reflection of ambient light. Several companies are also collaborating to develop innovative OLEDs to meet consumer demand.

The hectic pace of technology development in the OLED market has led to prominent manufacturers ramping up production to introduce greater volumes of OLED-based products commercially.

Currently, small molecule OLEDs (SMOLEDs) are proving to be the biggest challenger to LCD, especially in the small-sized displays market. Constraints in current manufacturing techniques make SMOLEDs unsuitable for large displays, leading them to target the sub-display segment in mobile phones. Innovative marketing has resulted in SMOLEDs being used in 90 percent of flip phones with sub-displays.

"SMOLEDs, by being slimmer and more lightweight and power efficient, are stealing the march over LCD technology in cell phones and camera markets as well," remarks Bidwe. "Their advantage is pressed on by the fact that while SMOLEDs can be as thin as its circuitry, LCDs' requirement for backlighting adds to the thickness and heaviness of the device."

SMOLEDs have a host of other benefits such as wide viewing angles, full color capability, and much higher contrast ratios over LCDs. With such superior features and increasing research on newer manufacturing techniques, OLEDs are all set to extend their domination from small-sized displays to all display segments very soon.

Small Molecule OLED Technology is part of the Electronics Vertical Subscription Service, and reviews advances in the OLED display market with specific focus on SMOLEDs. The research provides detailed information on organizations, companies, universities, and institutions involved in the research and development of OLED displays. It includes analyses on budding renewable energy technologies. Executive summaries and interviews are available to the press.

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Small Molecule OLED Technology

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Database of Key Industry Participants: Applied Films; BTG; Covion Organic Semiconductors GmbH; DENSO Corp.; DuPont Displays; Eastman Kodak Co.; eMagin Corp.; Fraunhofer Institute for Photonic Microsystems (IPMS); Georgia Institute of Technology; IBM Zurich Research Laboratory; International Display Technology Co. Ltd.; Lite Array Inc.; Luxell Technologies Inc.; MIT; Opto Tech; Optrex Corp.; Princeton University; RiTdisplay Corp.; Royal Philips Electronics; Samsung NEC Mobile Display Co. Ltd.; SANYO North America Corp.; Technical University of Braunschweig; Technion - Israel Institute of Technology; Technische Universitat Chemnitz; The Pennsylvania State University; The University of Hull; Tohoku Pioneer of America Inc.; Toshiba Matsushita Display Technology Co. Ltd.; University of Alberta; University of Arizona; University of Cologne; University of Southern California; University of Texas - The Microelectronics Research Center; Univision Technology Inc.; Varitronix Ltd.; Vitex Systems Inc.; XEROX CORP.

Keywords in this release: organic light emitting diode, OLED, liquid crystal display, LCD, emitters, florescent dye-doped emitter, organic film encapsulation, passive-matrix phosphorescent OLED display, plastic substrates, transparent coating systems, electroluminescent polymers, small molecule OLED, SMOLED