Flexible Color Phosphorescent OLED Displays

The goal of this U.S. Army CECOM SBIR Phase II Program is to design, develop, and demonstrate an Active Matrix Flexible Color Display for use in a variety of military applications, providing significant size and weight reduction advantages over traditionaldisplays. Universal Display Corporation (UDC) is developing advanced organic light emitting diode (OLED) technology based on their proprietary high-efficiency phosphorescent OLED (PHOLEDT), transparent OLED (TOLEDT) and flexible OLED (FOLEDT)technologies. The novel integration of UDC's low power consumption, top-emitting PHOLED technology with a poly-Silicon backplane deposited on a thin, flexible, stainless-steel foil substrate is the best solution to meeting the Army's flexible displayrequirements.Specifically, in this Phase II program we propose to deliver to the Army a flexible, low power consumption phosphorescent AMOLED on a stainless steel substrate using a poly-Si backplane. This will be accomplished by combining poly-Si backplanes fabricatedat PARC (formerly Xerox PARC), a leading center for research and development of large-area electronics, with UDC's top emission PHOLEDs. To the best of our knowledge, this prototype AMOLED display will represent the first display demonstration of theintegration of these novel technologies.The successful outcome of this Program will create myriad benefits in a variety of military and commercial applications. It will provide the U.S Army with a clearly demonstrated technology path for flexible displays for a range applications for use invehicles, command centers, and being carried by soldiers.Beyond current U.S. Army applications, flexible displays are increasingly being considered for use in a range of industrial, medical and consumer applications. For example, these include avionic and automotive applications for conformed instrument paneldisplays, and consumer cell phones with roll-out high information content OLED displays. Moreover, replacing glass with steel foil substrates improves safety, ruggedness and reduces weight, all extremely attractive features for these applications. DisplaySearch now projects a $4.2 billion market for OLEDs in 2007. By developing all the key technology components necessary to fabricate these displays, the UDC team, through the work under this Program, expects to commercialize these technologies for militaryand commercial applications through joint ventures and licensing partnerships with established flat panel display manufacturers.