Jones Lang LaSalle
Einstein Alley rising
By: Lauren Otis , Business Editor
Universal Display's expansion helps fulfill a high-tech vision
EWING — The Einstein Alley initiative, encouraging economic growth in central New Jersey, specifically in the technology realm, is about "taking good ideas, creating jobs and creating the future," said U.S. Rep. Rush Holt (D-12), who has been the prime mover of the concept.
Universal Display Corp. is one of those companies, Rep. Holt said last week at a ribbon-cutting ceremony officially opening an expanded research and development facility at UDC's headquarters.
"(UDC) is a company that has a product that will be useful to the world and it has got a collection of workers that are truly ingenious, and that is our future," Rep. Holt said of the Nasdaq-listed company which develops and manufactures OLEDs — organic light emitting devices, a flexible and energy efficient technology for display screen applications, from small cell phone displays up to television screens and larger applications — which UDC hopes will challenge and eventually supersede current LED technology.
Rep. Holt's Einstein Alley idea, inspired by Silicon Valley in California, is to foster an atmosphere of creative ferment in central New Jersey in the technology realm, building on the already solid foundation of academic researchers and entrepreneurial companies that call the area home.
Rep. Holt spoke at the UDC "Discovery Day" event, effectively a high-tech open house last week where UDC employees gave tours of the new expanded company headquarters and research facility. From leasing out one quarter of the 40,000-square-foot building in 1999, the company now owns and occupies the full 40,000-square-foot space, which it has spent $22 million on, in labs, infrastructure and equipment, said UDC President Steven Abramson.
Mr. Abramson also took the opportunity to announce a $ 1.275 million contract extension awarded to UDC by the U.S. Army for the continued development of flexible OLED displays on metal foil.
Reading from a letter from Rex Howe, chief of the Battle Command Applications Division of the U.S Army's Communications and Electronics Research, Development and Engineering Center at Fort Monmouth, Mr. Abramson quoted the CERDEC official, saying: "For over a decade, the U.S. Army has yearned for a common, lightweight, portable display to enhance the commander's situational awareness and decision-making process. The CERDEC views portable, flexible displays as a critical component required for future commanders to assess the common operational picture anytime, anywhere on the battlefield.
"In support of this program, Universal Display Corporation has demonstrated significant progress in developing flexible displays, which will assist future commanders with a common view of the battlefield, and digital transfer and display of horizontal battlefield situational awareness while on the move."
Under the newly extended Army contract, UDC, along with Palo Alto Research Center and L-3 Communications - Display Systems will continue to develop a flexible, active-matrix OLED display for a wrist-based communications device.
Mr. Abramson said that several cell phone manufacturers, including Pioneer Corp. of Japan, already market phones utilizing displays with UDC flat OLED technology. Currently, less than one percent of the $60 billion flat panel display industry utilizes OLED technology, Mr. Abramson said.
"We saw the future," he said, noting that the company's $22 million investment in its new facility will help it capitalize on what it sees as the significant growth potential for OLED display technology. Companies UDC has entered into technology development and other relationships with include: Samsung, Sony, Seiko Epson, Toyota Industries, Dupont and Nippon Steel Chemical Co.
In addition to flat and flexible light displays, UDC is working on technologies such as phosphorescent OLEDs, or PHOLEDs, that will emit light more efficiently than traditional fluorescent lighting, and transparent OLEDs, or TOLEDs, which allow the development of clear "smart windows" which will turn into light sources at night using energy they have absorbed during the day, according to Mr. Abramson.
"What Steve is talking about is just what Einstein Alley is all about," said Rep. Holt. "It is about encouraging entrepreneurs, it is recognizing that jobs are created primarily by small companies, who take an idea and grow with it.
"We know companies like to be here," the congressman added. "We know people like to live here because all you have to do is look at cornfields which are sprouting houses. What we need to do with Einstein Alley is not to set up a top down plan, but to create an atmosphere across this whole part of the state where we have a research and development tradition — building on that R&D tradition, encouraging entrepreneurs, selling our workforce, and making sure we preserve the livability of this region," said Rep. Holt.
James C. Sturm, director of PRISM, the Princeton Institute for the Science and Technology of Materials, was also present at the UDC event. Forward-looking R&D efforts with commercial applications, such as what UDC is engaged in, "will be tremendously exciting for the future in the United States and for here in central New Jersey," he said.
©PACKETONLINE News Classifieds Entertainment Business - Princeton and Central New Jersey 2006
Einstein Alley rising
By: Lauren Otis , Business Editor
Universal Display's expansion helps fulfill a high-tech vision
EWING — The Einstein Alley initiative, encouraging economic growth in central New Jersey, specifically in the technology realm, is about "taking good ideas, creating jobs and creating the future," said U.S. Rep. Rush Holt (D-12), who has been the prime mover of the concept.
Universal Display Corp. is one of those companies, Rep. Holt said last week at a ribbon-cutting ceremony officially opening an expanded research and development facility at UDC's headquarters.
"(UDC) is a company that has a product that will be useful to the world and it has got a collection of workers that are truly ingenious, and that is our future," Rep. Holt said of the Nasdaq-listed company which develops and manufactures OLEDs — organic light emitting devices, a flexible and energy efficient technology for display screen applications, from small cell phone displays up to television screens and larger applications — which UDC hopes will challenge and eventually supersede current LED technology.
Rep. Holt's Einstein Alley idea, inspired by Silicon Valley in California, is to foster an atmosphere of creative ferment in central New Jersey in the technology realm, building on the already solid foundation of academic researchers and entrepreneurial companies that call the area home.
Rep. Holt spoke at the UDC "Discovery Day" event, effectively a high-tech open house last week where UDC employees gave tours of the new expanded company headquarters and research facility. From leasing out one quarter of the 40,000-square-foot building in 1999, the company now owns and occupies the full 40,000-square-foot space, which it has spent $22 million on, in labs, infrastructure and equipment, said UDC President Steven Abramson.
Mr. Abramson also took the opportunity to announce a $ 1.275 million contract extension awarded to UDC by the U.S. Army for the continued development of flexible OLED displays on metal foil.
Reading from a letter from Rex Howe, chief of the Battle Command Applications Division of the U.S Army's Communications and Electronics Research, Development and Engineering Center at Fort Monmouth, Mr. Abramson quoted the CERDEC official, saying: "For over a decade, the U.S. Army has yearned for a common, lightweight, portable display to enhance the commander's situational awareness and decision-making process. The CERDEC views portable, flexible displays as a critical component required for future commanders to assess the common operational picture anytime, anywhere on the battlefield.
"In support of this program, Universal Display Corporation has demonstrated significant progress in developing flexible displays, which will assist future commanders with a common view of the battlefield, and digital transfer and display of horizontal battlefield situational awareness while on the move."
Under the newly extended Army contract, UDC, along with Palo Alto Research Center and L-3 Communications - Display Systems will continue to develop a flexible, active-matrix OLED display for a wrist-based communications device.
Mr. Abramson said that several cell phone manufacturers, including Pioneer Corp. of Japan, already market phones utilizing displays with UDC flat OLED technology. Currently, less than one percent of the $60 billion flat panel display industry utilizes OLED technology, Mr. Abramson said.
"We saw the future," he said, noting that the company's $22 million investment in its new facility will help it capitalize on what it sees as the significant growth potential for OLED display technology. Companies UDC has entered into technology development and other relationships with include: Samsung, Sony, Seiko Epson, Toyota Industries, Dupont and Nippon Steel Chemical Co.
In addition to flat and flexible light displays, UDC is working on technologies such as phosphorescent OLEDs, or PHOLEDs, that will emit light more efficiently than traditional fluorescent lighting, and transparent OLEDs, or TOLEDs, which allow the development of clear "smart windows" which will turn into light sources at night using energy they have absorbed during the day, according to Mr. Abramson.
"What Steve is talking about is just what Einstein Alley is all about," said Rep. Holt. "It is about encouraging entrepreneurs, it is recognizing that jobs are created primarily by small companies, who take an idea and grow with it.
"We know companies like to be here," the congressman added. "We know people like to live here because all you have to do is look at cornfields which are sprouting houses. What we need to do with Einstein Alley is not to set up a top down plan, but to create an atmosphere across this whole part of the state where we have a research and development tradition — building on that R&D tradition, encouraging entrepreneurs, selling our workforce, and making sure we preserve the livability of this region," said Rep. Holt.
James C. Sturm, director of PRISM, the Princeton Institute for the Science and Technology of Materials, was also present at the UDC event. Forward-looking R&D efforts with commercial applications, such as what UDC is engaged in, "will be tremendously exciting for the future in the United States and for here in central New Jersey," he said.
©PACKETONLINE News Classifieds Entertainment Business - Princeton and Central New Jersey 2006
posted by Jones Lang LaSalle NJ News Blog at 12:30 PM
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