DuPont Broadens OLED Base With Uniax Buy

Du Pont E I De Nemours & Co.just got more competitive for organic light-emitting diode displays (OLEDs), with the <%=company%> iTechnologies (Wilmington, DE) acquisition of Uniax Corp. The Santa Barbara, CA-based startup focuses on polymer OLED displays (see DappCon '00: OLEDs Move Into the Spotlight). As part of the purchase, DuPont gains a significant portfolio of intellectual property, as well as manufacturing and test capabilities. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Spun out of the University of California, Santa Barbara, Uniax has been focusing on OLED-based displays on glass. At the recent DappCon '00 meeting (January 31-February 3; San Jose, CA), director of technology Nick Colaneri unveiled the company's most recent work, a 96 x 64 pixel polymer display on glass substrates. The company was projecting commercial sales in late 2000, and according to Colaneri was in active discussions will wireless phone handset manufacturers. The company has a total current capacity of 400 96 x 96 pixel displays per month, and a networked test database that tracks 1200 parameters for each display.

DuPont, meanwhile, has been focusing on fabrication of OLEDs on glass substrates, focusing on small molecule technology. The addition of Uniax will round out the company's portfolio. According to DuPont iTechnologies group vice president and general manager John Hodgson, the company's goal is to triple the size of its display business over the next 10 years.

Uniax will be folded into DuPont as a wholly-owned subsidiary under the Uniax name. The facility will remain open, says Uniax director of new technology Nick Colaneri. "Our hope is that to the outside world there will be almost no noticeable change," he adds. Staffing will be largely unchanged, with the exception that chairman and CEO William Cook will resign and the company will be headed by an as yet unnamed general manager.

According to industry estimates, the OLED market, which is about $3 million globally today, is expected to grow to more than $700 million by 2005. By then, estimates project that the total global display market will be worth more than $60 billion.

Edited by Kristin Lewotsky