Polish breakthrough in OLED! Noctiluca from Toruń has developed a material that could revolutionise the screens of the future

Could the solution to the problem that the OLED industry has struggled with for years come from Poland? The company Noctiluca from Toruń has presented the results of research on the new material NCEIL-4 – and it looks like this could be a real gamechanger for the future of screens.

NCEIL-4: the answer to the biggest challenge of OLEDs?

For decades, one of the biggest issues in OLED technology has remained blue light emitters. Their short lifespan and low energy efficiency create a bottleneck for the further development of this technology. Most manufacturers are still using outdated, first-generation solutions from the 2000s.

Instead of following the beaten path and designing another blue emitter, Noctiluca decided to take a closer look at the structure of OLEDs themselves. The focus was on optimizing the emission layer (the one responsible for producing light), and the result of this work is a new material – NCEIL-4, which serves as an electron-injecting layer. In tests conducted in South Korea, it demonstrated impressive results: up to 15 times longer lifespan for blue pixels and significantly lower energy consumption.

How does it work?

NCEIL-4 replaces the commonly used compound Liq (8-Quinolinolato lithium) and shows much better properties:

• Reduces the injection barrier of charges

• Reduces operating voltage

• Increases quantum and current efficiency

• Does not affect the light spectrum – maintains full colour quality

Moreover, the material can be applied using both vacuum evaporation (PVD) and InkJet printing methods, making it a more versatile solution for various production lines.

Not just televisions

NCEIL-4 is not just the future of screens. The material also shows potential in other organic technologies:

• OPV solar cells,

• OFET field-effect transistors,

• and even in applications such as document security or modern lighting.

From Toruń to the Global Elite

Noctiluca is not a garage startup. The company debuted on the NewConnect market in 2022, and by December 2024, it moved to the main board of the GPW. Since then, it has been rapidly developing – it opened a modern laboratory in Toruń, created an R&D team in Korea, and established cooperation with top institutes in Germany and Taiwan (ITRI).

Today, Noctiluca collaborates with 8 out of the 10 largest screen manufacturers in the world, as well as companies such as:

• the largest Chinese telecommunications equipment manufacturer,

• a Swiss maker of premium watches,

• a leading American consumer electronics brand. (Probably Apple, but we don’t know for sure 😉)

Plans? Even More Ambitious

The company plans to invest 2-3 million dollars this year in developing engineering skills and device physics in Poland. It also aims to create a European centre for research on chemicals for OLEDs and become a leader in the OLED revolution in Europe.

The significance of this announcement cannot be overstated. If NCEIL-4 truly delivers on the promises of mass production, it could not only revolutionise OLEDs but also make Poland one of the key players in the global technological race. And all signs point to the fact that this is just the beginning.

Source: Display Daily