Universal Display Awarded Two $750G U.S. DOE OLED Lighting Contracts

Universal Display, a provider of UniversalPHOLED phosphorescent OLED technology, announced that it 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.

“We are pleased to continue our work with the United States Department of Energy. These two new programs focus on areas that will help us demonstrate the full potential of white OLED lighting,” said Steven V. Abramson, President and Chief Executive Officer of Universal Display. “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 SOLEDTM stacked OLED technology. 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 > 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.

White OLED lighting has the potential to reduce energy consumption 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 (CFLs). Combining these important green features with a very thin, lightweight and durable form factor, white OLEDs also offer new lighting design opportunities.