DARPA funds organic flat-panel-display development
The US Defense Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has awarded a $5 million contract to Planar Systems (Beaverton, OR) to develo¥and advance the commercial viability of organic-light-emitting-diode (OLED) flat-panel-display technology. The project seeks to produce a full-color VGA-resolution OLED active-matrix display using materials and processing furnished by Eastman Kodak Co. (Rochester, NY). The David Sarnoff Research Center (Princeton, NJ) will design and fabricate the polysilicon active-matrix circuitry, with support for process integration by the Princeton University Center for Photonics and Opto-Electronics Materials (POEM). Organic light-emitting thin films have potentially higher efficiencies than inorganic thin-film phosphors for lower display-power needs. Mark Hartney, DARPA program manager for display technology, notes, "Planar`s thin-film electro luminescent technology and manufacturing process are similar to what is expected for successful OLED manufacturing." POEM director Stephen Forrest told a Boston meeting of the Laser and Electro-Optics Society that a small, full-spectrum (white light) OLED display should be functioning at the center by the end of the year.