LONGMONT, Colo., March 29 -- COLED Technologies Inc., a Colorado startup developing a new material and process for manufacturing LEDs, said it has achieved "breakthroughs that will unlock new possibilities for electronic displays on devices such as smart phones, flat panels and handheld PCs." The company also announced a Series A investment from ITU Ventures, of Colorado, that it said will be used for research and development. COLED, formed in 2003 with seed funding from ITU Ventures and HCF Partners LLP, of Houston, said its innovations are in "electrode modification, which improves the charge injection characteristics of electrodes used in the construction of organic LED (OLED) devices." This approach will increase the efficiency of small molecule fluorescent OLED and light-emitting polymer-based technologies, it said. "Put in simplest terms, OLEDs are one of the most promising next-generation display technologies that will eventually replace liquid crystal displays (LCDs), enabling manufacturers to produce smaller, more powerful and feature-rich display devices. However, a few barriers are keeping OLEDs from the mainstream," according to the company. Neil Gough, president and CEO of COLED, said, "If OLED technologies are to proliferate, we must first address issues related to charge injection, which affect device efficiency, luminance and lifetime. Our company has recently secured several patents to address these issues, and were are now in the process of expanding the company to bring new OLED technologies to market."