October 22, 2008--Universal Display Corporation (Ewing, NJ) has received two $750,000 United States Department of Energy (DOE) Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II contracts; work under these contracts will focus on demonstrating further advances in the performance of Universal Display's white-OLED technology toward meeting the DOE's targets for solid-state lighting. (This is in addition to another contract that Universal Display already has with the DOE.)
"In the first program, we will work on issues associated with increasing the size of white-OLED panels, while the second program will demonstrate enhanced device performance through the use of our award-winning SOLED stacked-OLED technology," stated Steven Abramson, president and CEO of Universal Display Corporation. "Together, these programs should help accelerate the commercialization of white-OLED technology for general lighting."
Using the company's high-efficiency UniversalPHOLED technology, Universal Display will build a 6" x 6" white-OLED lighting panel with targets of greater than 75 lm/W and an operating lifetime of over 35,000 hrs at 1,000 cd/m2 initial luminance. Based on results previously obtained on much smaller test pixels, this work will focus on a number of scale-up issues associated with the performance of a panel as a function of its size.
Under the second contract, Universal Display will demonstrate a high-brightness white OLED based on the company's SOLED technology, where one OLED device is directly stacked on top of another OLED. A white OLED will be designed to demonstrate the same efficiency and lifetime as above at approximately twice the initial luminance. This is especially important for applications where a high brightness illumination source is desired.
Universal Display's UniversalPHOLED technology, offering up to four times the luminous efficiency of conventional OLED technology, has become recognized as an essential element in the development of energy-efficient white-OLED lighting. Using this technology, Universal Display has reported landmark research results over the past six months, including a 102 lm/W device demonstrating significant progress towards the goals of the DOE's Solid State Lighting Initiative.
White-OLED lighting has the potential to reduce energy consumption dramatically in a broad range of lighting applications. White OLEDs are also environmentally benign when compared to mercury-containing fluorescent lamps and newer compact fluorescent lamps. Combining these important "green" features with a very thin, lightweight, and durable form factor, white OLEDs also offer extensive new lighting-design opportunities.