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Material Science to develop blue dopant for OLED … OLED Efficiency ⋅ Lifetime Up↑

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A Korean venture company has succeeded in developing blue dopant for Organic Light Emitting Diodes (OLED) that a Japanese company has had its exclusive patent for. The dopant is an element that improves efficiency and life time by mixing with host that actually colors within the OLED.

In the meantime, many domestic material companies have developed OLED host, but it is the first case that a venture company has independently developed dopant on a commercial scale without receiving any support of large corporations.

 

Material Science (CEO Lee Soon-chang), an organic material developer for OLED has developed a technology that can replace Japanese I Company’s patent for blue dopant. Established in 2014, Material Science is supplying HTL( Hole Transporting Layer) and ETL (Electron Transfer Layer) to OLED panel makers.
Half of the 50 employees are R&D personnel. Last year, its sales were 6.6 billion won, and it is expected to exceed 10 billion won this year.

This time, due to the development of blue dopant by Material Science, OLED panel companies have an alternative to supply blue host and dopant besides I Company.

Japanese I Company has been developing blue dopant since 1995. At present, the company has more than 30 patents related to blue dopant (based on Japanese application for a patent), and its major 8 patents are valid until 2034. In particular, it has an exclusive patent for the combination method of blue dopant that includes blue host and pyrene with an anthracene structure (a compound in which three benzene rings are sequentially bonded). For this reason, the panel makers which purchase dopant from I Company must buy its host. If they mix I Company’s blue dopant with another company’s host, it is inevitable to infringe the patent in the case a host material has an anthracene skeleton.

Both Samsung Display and LG Display have been using I Company’s blue dopant and host.

The blue dopant developed by Material Science is designed to make molecules that are completely out of I Company’s compound patent. Conventionally, the method of applying an electron acceptor to a molecule has been used to improve the efficiency and lifetime of OLED and have a blue color.
On the other hand, Material Science introduces electron donor into molecules to improve the efficiency and lifetime while generating dark blue color. This dopant greatly reduces the solvent-dependent color development (solvatochromism) where emission wavelength changes due to the polarity of the surroundings. Therefore, the change of emission wavelength is also greatly reduced.

Jung Jae-ho, a researcher at Material Science said, “We have developed a new structure and a synthesis method, which makes it possible to produce its differentiated dopant.” “Panel companies are now able to utilize various types of blue hosts”. In addition, Material Sciences has been recently developing TADF(Thermally Activated Delayed Fluorescence) that OLED panel makers are struggling to introduce for the longer life of blue-emitting phosphors.

<OLED emitting material market forecast, UBi Research>

According to UBi Research, the OLED organic market is expected to reach $ 3.36 billion by 2021 (about 3.8 trillion won). And blue materials account for 11.5% of total sales.

Merck-Idemitsu Kosan made an agreement on OLED Materials

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Merck and Idemitsu Kosan announced on November 7 that they made an agreement to use a part of patent rights of both companies’ OLED materials.

The two companies are the representative manufacturers of OLED materials with a long history of development and many patents while providing many clients with OLED materials.

This agreement was signed to develop long-durable and high-efficient OLED materials.

With this agreement, Merck and Idemitsu Kosan are able to develop, manufacture and sell OLED materials using some of each other’s patent rights under the stated terms, while focusing on R&D in high-performance OLED materials.

Besides, both companies announced that they will continue to discuss the scope expansion of their shared patent rights in order to secure more OLED markets.

Meanwhile, according to the OLED Emitting Material Annual Report published by UBI RESEARCH, the OLED material market is expected to grow at 46% each year on average between 2016 and 2021 and record US$ 4,323 million due to the production of newcomers and the expansion of the TV OLED panel market.

<OLED materials market prospect>(Source: UBI RESEARCH)

UDC’s 2015 OLED Emitting Materials Revenue $ 113 million, a 11% Decrease…Still Leading Market

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Source : UDC

Hyunjoo Kang / Reporter / jjoo@olednet.com

UDC (Universal Display) that is dominating the global OLED emitting materials market, recorded 11% reduced OLED emitting materials revenue in 2015 compared to 2014. Despite the decreased revenue, it maintained its top place in the market.

According to 2016 OLED Emitting Material Annual Report, published by UBI Research, UDC recorded approximately $ 113 million in 2015 OLED emitting materials revenue. In 2014, this company’s OLED emitting materials revenue recorded $ 127 million and led the global market, and maintained its position in 2015.

In particular, this company is a dominating presence in dopant materials sector. In 2015, UDC occupied 82% of the dopant materials sector, and the rest of the companies share the remaining 18%. Based on the phosphorescent patents, it is supplying phosphorescent red and green dopant to Samsung Display and LG Display.

Following UDC’s top place in 2015 global OLED emitting materials market in terms of revenue, Idemitsu Kosan ranked 2nd, and this was followed by Novaled, Dow Chem., and Samsung SDI. In 2013, Dow Chem. was at the top of the market, but since 2014 UDC overtook the leadership. In 2016, LG Display’s OLED TV mass production line operation rate, materials structure of Galaxy Note series to be mass produced in H2, and other factors are expected to affect the OLED emitting materials market.

UDC is scheduled to announce 2016 Q1 performance on 5 May (local time).

 

2015 OLED Emitting Materials Market, Dow Chem and LG Chem in Slump…Why?

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Hyunjoo Kang / Reporter /jjoo@olednet.com

 

 

In the midst of UDC`s domination of 2015 global materials market, with Japanese Idemitsu Kosan`s rapid growth and slump of emitting materials companied, there has been changes to the enviroment.

According to [2016 OLED Emitting Materials Annual Report] to be published by UBI Research in mid-April, the 2015 global emitting materials market recorded approximately a 17% growth compared to 2014

 

 

UDC’s revenue decreased from previous year, but remained at the top, the same as 2014. UDC was closely followed by Idemitsu Kosan despite its fourth place in 2014.

Such growth of Idemitsu Kosan is mainly due to its supply expansion in regards to Korean companies such as Samsung Display and LG Display. In 2015, Idemitsu Kosan began actively supplying Samsung Display with blue materials. Together with the increase in Idemitsu Kosan’s client LG Display’s OLED panel for TV mass production line’s operation rate, Idemitsu Kosan’s supply increased.

 

2015 Global OLED Emitting Materials Market Ranking
Source: UBI Research, 2016 OLED Emitting Materials Annual Report

◆ Samsung Display to Determine Up and Down of Companies

On the other hand, some OLED emitting materials companies that ranked high until 2014 showed poor performance. Dow Chem., that reached the second place in 2014 after UDC in revenue, fell to the fourth place in 2015 due to a big sales decrease. The third and fifth companies in 2014, LG Chem and Duksan Neolux respectively, fell below fifth place in 2015 due to the same reason.

Dow Chem. and Duksan Neolux are analyzed have recorded sales decrease in comparison to 2014 due to the supply chain changes of Samsung Display. In the case of LG Chem, the sales fell as the Samsung Display’s supply volume decreased.

However, Samsung SDI recorded sales increase, and entered within the top 5 in 2015. This company’s performance improved as it supplied Samsung Display with green host.

The company that recorded greatest growth is a Germany company Novaled that Samsung SDI, then Cheil Industries, took over. This company recorded approximately 150% revenue increase compared to previous year, and reached the third place in 2015 following UDC and Idemitsu Kosan. With the increase in OLED panel for TV mass production line’s operation rate, Novaled’s revenue greatly increased.

UBI Research estimated that in 2016, LG Display’s OLED TV mass production line operation rate and Galaxy Note series’ material structure, to be mass produced in the second half, will greatly affect revenue of OLED emitting materials companies.