DOW CORNING AWARDED USDC CONTRACT TO
DEVELOP NEW MATERIALS FOR OLED PRODUCTION

SAN JOSE, Calif., May 3, 2005 - The U.S. Display Consortium (USDC), a public/private partnership chartered with developing the manufacturing equipment and materials supply chain needed for next-generation flat panel displays (FPDs), today announced it has awarded an R&D contract to Dow Corning Corporation of Midland, Mich. The USDC’s contract award to Dow Corning will focus on the development of novel hole injection materials (HIM) for production of higher efficiency organic light emitting diode devices (OLED) suitable for high-definition displays.  The USDC, based in San Jose, Calif., and Dow Corning will equally share the cost of the $2.39M development project.  

OLEDs will enable the production of rugged, super-thin and lightweight high-resolution displays with wide viewing angles and quick response times—giving them a potential competitive market advantage over liquid crystal displays (LCDs) and other FPD tech-nologies. 

 Typical OLED devices consist of several thin layers of various emissive and charge transport materials constructed on trans-parent substrates. The U.S. Department of Energy has stated that  “to realize the full potential of OLED technology, new materials and systems are needed that offer vastly improved efficiency and stability in the active regions of the device: cathode and anode layers, electron and hole transport and injection layers, emission layers, and carrier blocking layers.”  The Dow Corning project will address these challenges, in that new HIM systems will be developed to overcome processing and performance problems associated with conventional HIMs while maintaining or enhanc-ing the desired properties, such as OLED brightness, efficiency and lifetime.  

 “Currently available hole injection and transport materials and their processing do not provide the ideal solution for use in OLEDs, especially polymer-based OLEDS,” stated Carl Bilgrien, Dow Corning’s Manager of Display Technology. “Consequently, Dow Corning is pleased to receive a USDC R&D contract that will stimulate the development of improved material systems and process technology to strengthen the nascent OLED industry.”   The USDC-funded project will be undertaken in two phases, with the second phase focused on the application of Dow Corning’s improved HIM using inkjet printing or other patterning techniques.

 "The flat panel display industry is developing new technologies that will revolutionize our military, including systems that will be incorporated into our next generation combat vehicles that are part of the Army's Future Combat Systems. I am pleased to support Dow Corning in their leading role in these valuable Army R&D efforts," said Senator Carl Levin (D–MI), Ranking Member of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

 The USDC program is a partnership between the U.S. Army Research Lab (ARL), based in Adelphi, Maryland, and private industry.

Contact:

Heidi Hoffman
USDC
408.993.8111
heidi@usdc.org

About the U.S. Display Consortium
The U.S. Display Consortium is an industry-led public/private partnership providing a common platform for flat panel display and flexible microelectronics manufacturers and developers, FPD users, and the supplier base. Headquartered in San Jose, Calif., the consortium’s primary mission is to fund supply-chain projects and share the results with USDC member companies. The USDC also provides a communication channel among industry, government and the financial communities for display issues; sponsors workshops to broaden the impact of technological developments; and educates consumers on the importance of displays in providing access to information technology. More information about the USDC can be found at www.usdc.org

About Dow Corning
Dow Corning (www.dowcorning.com) develops, manufactures and markets diverse silicon-based products and services, and currently offers more than 7,000 products to more than 25,000 customers around the world.  Dow Corning is a global leader in silicon-based materials with shares equally owned by The Dow Chemical Company and Corning Inc.  More than half of Dow Corning’s $3.4 billion in annual sales are outside the United States.