Jan. 15, 2007 — Arrowhead Research Corp. of Pasadena, Calif., announced that its majority-owned subsidiary, Unidym, has entered into a collaborative agreement with the Institute of Materials Research and Engineering (IMRE) in Singapore to develop organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs) incorporating transparent electrodes made of carbon nanotubes.

Under the terms of the agreement, Unidym will provide IMRE researchers with access to its proprietary, carbon nanotube-based, transparent electrodes which IMRE will incorporate into its OLED devices.

According to iSuppli Corp., the market for OLEDs was $408 million in 2004 and is expected to reach $2.9 billion by 2011. Arrowhead says carbon nanotube-based transparent electrodes have the potential to improve the performance of OLEDs while also reducing their production costs.

“We believe IMRE is a world leader in OLED technology and are pleased that Unidym has entered this collaboration with such a distinguished institution,” said R. Bruce Stewart, Arrowhead Research chairman, in a prepared statement. “We will continue to look for strategic partners to integrate Unidym’s transparent electrodes into optoelectronic systems.” Arrowhead has an 88 percent ownership stake in Unidym.