By Helen Kull
“Innovation, Diversity and Liberty” are not only the themes for which New Jersey is being celebrated in this 350th anniversary year; they are hallmarks of New Jersey’s history. Last month we began our brief investigation into Ewing’s contributions to these hallmarks. This month we’ll touch on the theme of Innovation.
While I’m sure there must have been some innovative practices and processes at both the GM and Naval Air Propulsion plants in their day, unfortunately I am not aware of them, nor am I sure where to research them. If any reader knows of particularly innovative practices at those plants in their heydays, please contact me!
But there are innovative processes and products being created in Ewing right now, and there is one that I would particularly like to bring to “light” — the Ewing-based Universal Display Corporation’s creation and development of particular types of OLEDs.
Of whats???
Let’s first back up for a moment and consider another innovator in New Jersey’s past. Most people connect Thomas Edison, “The Wizard of Menlo Park,” with the invention of the light bulb. While several people around the world actually contributed to the development of the light bulb, it was New Jersey’s Edison who, around 1879, invented the first practical, commercially viable, long-lasting incandescent light bulb — the type we all used for years and years, until just recently. So there’s one “innovation” for New Jersey — but alas, not for Ewing.
But incandescent bulbs are grossly inefficient. If you’ve ever tried to unscrew a lit incandescent bulb, OUCH! You immediately know that they generate a lot of heat! Almost 90 percent of the energy going into a traditional light bulb is emitted as heat, and only 10 percent as light. People have been trying to invent more efficient light sources since Edison patented his bulb over 100 years ago.
And so they have. We’re familiar with the fluorescent light, and the CFL (compact fluorescent light), and more recently the LED (Light Emitting Diode). But even more recently, OLEDs — for Organic Light Emitting Diodes — have hit certain markets and increased in application and use.
You may actually use one every day, and don’t even know it. OLEDs are semiconducting devices with a thin layer of an organic (carbon-containing) compound which emits light when hit with electric current. This lighting technology is thin, bright, lightweight, cool, highly efficient and relatively inexpensive, and is widely used in mobile devices, advanced lighting and displays, and televisions. Many smartphones or tablets use this type of lighting for the images on the screen.
A particular type of OLED — the PHOLED — uses phosphorescent molecules as the organic compound, which substantially increases the efficiency of the lighting, making it almost 100 percent efficient in creating light. What you may not realize is that the creator, inventor and developer of PHOLED technology is right here in Ewing!
Universal Display Corporation’s world headquarters is located in the industrial park right off of Lower Ferry Road, on Phillips Boulevard. They continue to lead the development of this technology, and together with their research partners at Princeton University and manufacturing partners at PPG, they are the one source for licensing, materials and applications using this technology.
Universal Display’s work unites chemistry and physics with materials research and technology to produce innovative lighting solutions and applications, especially in display lighting applications.
In some respects, they are mimicking Edison, more than 100 years later. One of Thomas Edison’s major innovations was his industrial research lab in Menlo Park (now known, fittingly, as Edison). His was the first institution devoted to researching, innovating, inventing and producing “new and improved” devices, including the first commercially viable light bulb.
Universal Display Corporation is also in the business of researching, innovating, inventing and producing “new and improved” devices in lighting, and they continue to amaze.
Ewing is pleased to be the home of such a business, which is devoted to improving our visual world by making it lighter, brighter, cheaper and more environmentally friendly. We are proud to have Universal Display Corporation “lighting the way” in innovation in Ewing.
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Don’t miss the Historical Society’s Annual Flea Market on Sept. 13 from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Benjamin Temple House, 27 Federal City Road. Or, clean your closets, rent a table for $10, and make some cash! Contact Ellie at 883-2455 or info@ethps.org to reserve a table. Tours of the Temple House will also be available.
Do you have a Ewing story to share, or a topic you’d like covered? Contact Helen at ewingthenandnow@gmail.com.
