Introduction
The market for OLEDs has witnessed several advancements in the last 18 months, thus providing the belief to the industry that OLEDs will finally realize their potential. Full-color AMOLED displays have now become an element of the mainstream products with innovations led by Samsung's Galaxy smartphone products in this niche market. OLED televisions are all set to be available on the marketplace within a year or so. OLED lighting is already commercially available and even though it comprises virtually high-cost lighting so far, big lighting panels for use in office applications may be the next hot trend in the lighting market.
Universal Display – The Beneficiary
Universal Display, a materials company, is likely to be benefited significantly from aforementioned trends. The company is known for phosphorescent OLED (PHOLED) technology, which will facilitate OLEDs to achieve their required efficiencies for the widespread adoption of OLED technology. PHOLED technology is already employed in most of the AMOLED products available on the market and only the blue PHOLED emitters still lags in lifetime performance.
Most of the key OLED makers are already UDC licensees, which include Samsung that represents over 90% of the global OLED production. Other UDC licensees include NEC, Sony, Philips, Konica Minolta, Pioneer, Panasonic Idemitsu Lighting, Chi Mei/Innolux, AUO, Lumiotec, and LG, to name a few.
Other Contenders
Since the OLED industry is experiencing an unexpected boom, other companies may also want to take part in the PHOLED field; and Sun Fine Chemical and Duksan are the two potential contenders. Undermining UDC's intellectual property (IP) position is the only efficient way to dent the company's leadership in the OLED materials market. Based on this fact, some successful patent challenges have been raised in the European Union, Korea and Japan.
UDC Continues to Lead OLED Materials Market
According to NanoMarkets, UDC will continue to lead the OLED materials market for some more time. The reasons are
- Only a very few of the UDC IP that too not the important patents is facing challenge
- UDC patents do not face any challenge so far in most geographical markets
UDC is the owner of important patents with respect to iridium phosphors and recent report about the invalidation of UDC patent in Europe was not true. Actually, the European Union office supported UDC's claims on iridium emitters even though it demanded that claims based on other key materials are segregated into other applications. However, the company's three patents were invalidated in Japan in a lawsuit filed by Duksan, a materials supplier in Korea. Nevertheless, the invalidated patents were not key patents. Moreover, the ultimate result of the lawsuit is yet to be known because the JPO verdict is under appeal.
UDC Juggernaut Rolls On
UDC remains on top as it continues to ink both new and renewed licensing deals. In 2011, both the UDC technology was licensed by both Panasonic Idemitsu and Pioneer, while Samsung recently signed license renewal for the technology as it intends to begin utilizing UDC green emitters and has commercialization plans for products with UDC blue materials immediately after their qualification. Even Lumiotec recently inked a deal with UDC and is currently shifting to PHOLED technology.
In the mean time, UDC has also teamed up with Moser Baer in a joint development project in the United States for own de facto development line, which can be served as a 'test bed' for UDC materials to maintain its leadership in the industry. Moreover, UDC declared working collaborations with GE in the R2R OLED business, DuPont in the solution-processed material business, Novaled and much more. The company is likely to get significant benefits from the growing OLED lighting industry as materials are expected to be utilized in high quantities for OLED lighting after 2015 or so.
Vulnerabilities
NanoMarkets predicts that moving forward, UDC will face more number of patent disputes in key nations such as the United States. At present, the company has enough money to overcome against any future disputes on its IP as it amassed $250 million last spring from investors. However, since courts are unpredictable organizations, there is a possibility of invalidation of a key UDC patent in the future. Moreover, the European Union court verdict clearly stated that it is not possible for UDC to claim property rights on non-iridium cores, which significantly impact the driver behind UDC patents during their emergence. However, the good news is that commercially available non-iridium materials are not seen any time soon.
UDC's Expansion Strategy
In the mean time, to address new realities, UDC will need to change itself into a new type of company and NanoMarkets is witnessing the changes through UDC's extension into other OLED materials such as encapsulation chemistries, ETLs, HILs, hosts and much more. With these other OLED materials, the company can get benefits from its robust supply chain relationships and recognition for high quality and can grow a robust new IP in the process.
Conclusion
However, NanoMarkets warns that the attack on UDC is only in the beginning stage. When the OLED market grows further, UDC will face more challenges posed by other firms.
