Feb 8 2011
Moser Baer Technologies Inc., a U.S. subsidiary of Moser Baer India Ltd., and Universal Display Corporation (NASDAQ: PANL), enabling energy-efficient displays and lighting with its UniversalPHOLED® technology and materials, today announced that the two companies have agreed to terms of a Memorandum of Agreement for technology licensing, material supply and technology assistance to support Moser Baer Technologies’ initiatives in white OLED lighting.
This agreement follows a program that the two companies announced last year in which the companies received $4,000,000 from the U.S. Department of Energy to design and build the first white OLED lighting pilot manufacturing facility in the United States.
Under the agreement, Moser Baer Technologies will license Universal Display’s proprietary PHOLED and other OLED technologies and purchase Universal Display’s highly energy-efficient UniversalPHOLED materials for white OLED panel manufacturing. Moser Baer Technologies and Universal Display will also work together in a five-year program to support Moser Baer’s manufacture of white PHOLED lighting products.
The establishment of Moser Baer Technologies’ pilot manufacturing facility is a key next step in the development of a manufacturing base and market for white OLED lighting products in the U.S. The resulting panels will be made available to luminaire manufacturers to help seed the market for a range of new white OLED lighting products in the $90 billion lighting market.
“We are very pleased to further strengthen our partnership with Moser Baer Technologies,” said Steven V. Abramson, President and Chief Executive Officer of Universal Display. “This Memorandum of Agreement will accelerate the development and manufacturing of phosphorescent OLED lighting panels by Moser Baer, a world leader in the development of low cost, high volume manufacturing facilities. Universal Display’s PHOLED technology and materials provide excellent performance characteristics that translate into energy savings, environmental benefits and cost effectiveness. Those benefits are key to enabling the manufacture of highly-efficient white OLED lighting products by companies such as Moser Baer Technologies.”
“The global lighting industry is going through a major transformation with the advent of solid state lighting options. The Moser Baer Group brings several years of experience in light management and substrate manufacturing technologies which are suitable for OLED lighting devices. We plan to use Universal Display’s superior PHOLED emitter materials and technology in combination with our substrate technology competencies and develop integrated, high-volume manufacturing concepts for OLED lighting products of the future. We are pleased to be working with Universal Display through this agreement which covers Universal Display’s phosphorescent OLED technology license to Moser Baer Technologies, access to Universal Display’s leading edge PHOLED materials and a multi-year technology support program for Moser Baer Technologies to commercialize OLED lighting products,” said Dr. G. Rajeswaran, CEO of Moser Baer Technologies and Group CTO of Moser Baer India Ltd. He further added, “We are confident that with our extensive capabilities in low cost/high throughput manufacturing, we will be able to industrialize this technology at competitive cost points.”
“Our existing capabilities and asset base for high speed substrate manufacturing are our strengths being leveraged as we take our initial steps in the Solid State Lighting space, with significant potential in the U.S., Indian, and other global markets,” added Yogesh Mathur, Director, Moser Baer Technologies and Group CFO, Moser Baer India Ltd.
The joint DOE program between Moser Baer Technologies and Universal Display is part of the DOE’s long-term commitment to advancing the development and introduction of energy-efficient white OLED lighting sources for general illumination. PHOLED technology is expected to play a critical role in the development and deployment of OLED solid state lighting technology, which offers increased energy efficiency, decreased power consumption, and an environmentally friendly alternative to traditional incandescent and compact fluorescent light bulbs. According to industry estimates, electric bills for lighting alone are over $200 billion per year on a worldwide basis. It has been estimated that by 2016, white OLEDs could generate well over $20 billion in worldwide savings of electricity costs and could save over nine million metric tons of carbon emissions from the U.S. alone.