In 1994, our founder and visionary, Sherwin Seligsohn visited the electrical engineering school at Princeton University and he observed research by Drs. Forrest and Thompson in self-emissive organic materials. He saw a green dot, with a 9-V battery hanging from it, light up for seconds before it expired. From that green dot, Sherwin saw the future of display technology, and so began Universal Display’s story.
We were founded with a vision of creating the next generation of displays, back when TVs were still CRTs (cathode ray tubes). That technology was energy-efficient organic light emitting diodes, or OLEDs. In 1996, Universal Display became a publicly traded company with a research contract with Princeton University, 3 part-time employees and one patent pending.
Fast forward almost two decades and we have grown from an R&D start-up to a global leader in the OLED industry. Today, we work with the largest consumer display panel manufacturers in the world. Our proprietary technologies and materials can be found in virtually every commercial OLED product in the world, from smartwatches and tablets, to smartphones and TVs, including Samsung’s Galaxy series and LG’s OLED TVs.
Our leading-edge phosphorescent technology is also key in OLED lighting. With over 15% of the world’s total electricity and 5% of worldwide greenhouse gas emissions stemming from lighting, more energy-efficient lighting products are in high demand. Based on our proprietary UniversalPHOLED® technology and materials, OLEDs have the potential to offer power efficiencies that are superior to those for today’s incandescent bulbs and fluorescent tubes. The OLED industry is just beginning to take off, and we are excited to continue to have a critical role in this new era of display and lighting technologies.
