Steven Van Slyke (born July 19, 1956) is an American chemist, best known for his co-invention of the
Organic Light Emitting Diode
An organic light-emitting diode (OLED or organic LED), also known as organic electroluminescent (organic EL) diode, is a light-emitting diode (LED) in which the emissive electroluminescent layer is a film of organic compound that emits ligh ...
(OLED) and his contributions to the commercial development of OLED displays. Van Slyke is currently the Chief Technology Officer at Kateeva, Inc. Prior to joining Kateeva, he held various positions at Eastman Kodak and was involved in all aspects of OLED Technology, from basic materials development to implementation of full-color OLED display manufacturing.
Education and career
Steven Van Slyke received his
BA degree in
chemistry from
Ithaca College
Ithaca College is a private college in Ithaca, New York. It was founded by William Egbert in 1892 as a conservatory of music and is set against the backdrop of the city of Ithaca (which is separate from the town), Cayuga Lake, waterfalls, and ...
and his
MS degree in
materials science from
Rochester Institute of Technology
Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) is a private university, private research university in the town of Henrietta, New York, Henrietta in the Rochester, New York, metropolitan area. The university offers undergraduate and graduate degree ...
. He joined Eastman Kodak in 1979 as a Research Scientist and, together with
Ching W. Tang, discovered key materials and thin-film device configurations leading to the demonstration of efficient Organic Light Emitting Diode structures. Van Slyke is now the Chief Technology Officer at Kateeva, responsible for the implementation of proprietary ink-jet printing technologies for more efficient manufacturing of OLED displays.
Van Slyke's career at Kodak led to the discovery of new organic material and layer structures providing efficient and stable OLED devices as well as to the development of novel methods for high volume manufacturing of OLED displays. In particular, Van Slyke identified metal chelate structures that provided emission with high durability across the visible spectrum, as well as key hole transporting materials useful for providing confinement of excited states within the OLED structure. Van Slyke and his teams also developed linear deposition sources that are now used in high volume manufacturing of full color OLED displays and also introduced the RGBW (four sub-pixel) display configuration found in OLED TV's. These accomplishments are described in over 40 U.S. patents and over 50 publications and presentations in the areas of electronic materials development, device architecture and manufacturing.
At Kateeva, Van