Universal Display, L-3 Display Systems Deliver Ruggedized AMOLED Display System Prototype to U.S. Air Force

Universal Display Corporation and L-3 Display Systems (L-3 DS) announced the delivery of a novel AMOLED display system prototype to the U.S. Air Force for use on a pilot’s knee in tactical cockpits.

The knee-mounted display system, designed with touch functionality by L-3 DS, contains an unbreakable, full-color, phosphorescent OLED display built on a plastic substrate. This ejection-safe electronic flight bag system is designed to replace the paper maps and checklists traditionally held on the pilot’s knee, through the use of flexible OLED technology, which can mitigate the hazards of traditional glass-based displays.

“We are pleased that our long-standing collaboration with Universal Display and the U.S. military continues to drive improvements in this exciting, new flexible OLED technology,” said Bruce Coffey, president of L-3 Display Systems. “This technology provides the warfighter with superior portable situational awareness due to its unmatched ruggedness, readability, and reduced size, weight, and power (SWaP), resulting in limitless product applications. We are looking forward to bringing these benefits to our customers in the near term.”

“We appreciate the support of the U.S. Air Force, as well as our partners, including L-3 Display Systems, to demonstrate and deliver exciting OLED display system innovations to the U.S. military,” said Steven V. Abramson, president and CEO of Universal Display. “OLED technology is driving a new, brighter era in thin, lightweight, and unbreakable displays. Our collaboration has forged advances that can improve pilots’ capabilities and their safety during flight, which may, in turn, benefit a myriad of consumer display products in the future.”

Designed and built under an Air Force Research Laboratory Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II program titled “Low-Power, Direct-View Flexible Displays,” the prototypes are rated at Technology Readiness Level (TRL) 5 and use a 4.3-inch diagonal, 480 x 320 pixel, active-matrix OLED display. The AMOLED displays were built using Universal Display’s high-efficiency UniversalPHOLED phosphorescent OLED materials and technology on a plastic substrate system. The displays were assembled into a ruggedized package with touch functionality provided by L-3 DS. The delivered systems will be evaluated by the U.S. Air Force.

The product concept demonstrated during this program is the third product design that this team has developed. It builds on earlier programs with the U.S. Army Communications-Electronics Research, Development and Engineering Center (CERDEC), Army Research Laboratory and the Flexible Display Center to develop wrist-mounted communications devices using phosphorescent AMOLEDs built on flexible substrates.