Category Archives: Displays

Cambridge, UK — November 9, 2015 — Xaar plc, a world leader in industrial inkjet technology, and Lawter, along with its parent company Harima Chemicals Group (HCG), announced a collaboration to optimize the performance of a line of nanosilver conductive inks in the Xaar 1002 industrial inkjet printhead. The combined solution will be of particular interest to manufacturers of consumer electronics goods looking for a robust and reliable method for printing antennas and sensors with silver nanoparticle ink as part of their manufacturing processes.

Industrial inkjet offers significant advantages over traditional print technologies to manufacturers of consumer electronics products. Inkjet is a cleaner process than other methods of printing silver inks; this is especially relevant when printing onto a substrate, such as a display, in which any yield loss is very expensive. With inkjet, manufacturers can very precisely control the amount of ink dispensed in certain areas of a pattern so that the ink or fluid deposited can be thicker in some areas and thinner in others. Similarly, inkjet enables the deposition of a much thinner layer of fluids than traditional methods, which is significant for the manufacturers looking to produce thinner devices. In addition, inkjet is one of the few technologies able to print a circuit over a substrate that has a structured surface.

“This is an excellent opportunity to showcase our latest technological breakthroughs and demonstrate the unique value that our revolutionary nanoparticle inkjet solutions can play as part of an integrated system solutions in the PE world,” says Dr. Arturo Horta Ph.D., Business Development Manager for Lawter Innovation Group.

HCG pioneered the development and manufacture of silver nanoparticle conductive inks for the printed electronics industry over 20 years ago and has over 100 patents related to its nanoparticle dispersion technology. This line of nanosilver conductive inks for inkjet printing offers a unique combination of low temperature sintering and high circuit conductivity. In addition, Lawter’s novel inks are compatible with a range of photonic curing tools as well as a variety of substrates.  These value-added features, together for the first time in a single product, provide increased project efficiency, decreased raw material costs and finer line printing.  All of this adds up to significant, quantifiable benefits for the end-user.

Xaar, also a major player in industrial manufacturing applications, has been delivering inkjet technology for 25 years. Its leading printhead, the Xaar 1002 is particularly suitable for Lawter’s nanosilver conductive inks due to the printhead’s unique TF Technology™ (fluid recirculation) which ensures a continuous flow of the heavy particulate in the ink to deliver uninterrupted high volume production printing.

“The applications that will benefit from the combination of Lawter’s nanosilver conductive inks and Xaar’s 1002 printhead are exciting,” says Keith Smith, Director of Advanced Manufacturing at Xaar. “We are seeing more and more that the consumer electronics market is looking for a printing solution that provides the quality of the Lawter ink and production reliability of the Xaar GS6 1002 to allow designers to make thinner devices.  The printhead and ink combination, along with photonic sintering, is unlocking mechanical and electrical designs never thought possible before.”

 

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Silver nanowires hold promise for applications such as flexible displays and solar cells, but their susceptibility to damage from highly energetic UV radiation and harsh environmental conditions has limited their commercialization.

New research suggests wrapping the nanowires with an ultrathin layer of carbon called graphene protects the structures from damage and could represent a key to realizing their commercial potential.

“We show that even if you have only a one-atom-thickness material, it can protect from an enormous amount of UV radiation damage,” said Gary Cheng, an associate professor of industrial engineering at Purdue University.

The lower images depict how graphene sheathing protects nanowires even while being subjected to 2.5 megawatts of energy intensity per square centimeter from a high-energy laser, an intensity that vaporizes the unwrapped wires. The upper images depict how the unwrapped wires are damaged with an energy intensity as little as .8 megawatts per square centimeter. (Purdue University image)

The lower images depict how graphene sheathing protects nanowires even while being subjected to 2.5 megawatts of energy intensity per square centimeter from a high-energy laser, an intensity that vaporizes the unwrapped wires. The upper images depict how the unwrapped wires are damaged with an energy intensity as little as .8 megawatts per square centimeter. (Purdue University image)

Devices made from silver nanowires and graphene could find uses in solar cells, flexible displays for computers and consumer electronics, and future “optoelectronic” circuits for sensors and information processing. The material is flexible and transparent, yet electrically conductive, and is a potential replacement for indium tin oxide, or ITO. Industry is seeking alternatives to ITO because of drawbacks: It is relatively expensive due to limited abundance of indium, and it is inflexible and degrades over time, becoming brittle and hindering performance, said Suprem Das, a former Purdue doctoral student and now a postdoctoral researcher at Iowa State University and The Ames Laboratory.

However, a major factor limiting commercial applications for silver nanowires is their susceptibility to harsh environments and electromagnetic waves.

“Radiation damage is widespread,” said Das, who led the work with Purdue doctoral student Qiong Nian (pronounced Chung Nee-an). “The damage occurs in medical imaging, in space applications and just from long-term exposure to sunlight, but we are now seeing that if you wrap silver nanowires with graphene you can overcome this problem.”

Findings appeared in October in the journal ACS Nano, published by the American Chemical Society. The paper was authored by Das; Nian; graduate students Mojib Saei, Shengyu Jin and Doosan Back; previous postdoctoral research associate Prashant Kumar; David B. Janes, a professor of electrical and computer engineering; Muhammad A. Alam, the Jai N. Gupta Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering; and Cheng.

Raman spectroscopy was performed by the Purdue Department of Physics and Astronomy. Findings showed the graphene sheathing protected the nanowires even while being subjected to 2.5 megawatts of energy intensity per square centimeter from a high-energy laser, which vaporizes the unwrapped wires. The unwrapped wires were damaged with an energy intensity as little as .8 megawatts per square centimeter. (The paper is available at http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acsnano.5b04628.)

“It appears the graphene coating extracts and spreads thermal energy away from the nanowires,” Das said. The graphene also helps to prevent moisture damage.

The research is a continuation of previous findings published in 2013 and detailed in this paper: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/adfm.201300124/full. The work is ongoing and is supported by the National Science Foundation and a National Research Council Senior Research Associateship.

While conventional thin film transistor liquid crystal (TFT LCD) displays are rapidly trending towards commoditization and currently suffering from declining prices and margins, China is quickly adding capacity in all flat-panel display (FPD) manufacturing segments. Supported by financial incentives from local governments, Chinese TFT capacity is projected to grow 40 percent per year between 2010 and 2018. In 2010 China accounted for just 4 percent of total TFT capacity. However by 2018, China is forecast to become the largest FPD-producing region in the world, accounting for 35 percent of the global market, according to IHS Inc., a leading global source of critical information and insight.

While Chinese capacity expands, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan have restricted investments to focus mainly on advanced technologies. TFT capacity for flat panel display (FPD) production in these countries is forecast to grow on average at less than 2 percent per year between 2010 and 2018.

Based on the latest IHS Display Supply Demand & Equipment Tracker, BOE Technology Group stands out as the leading producer of FPDs in China. With a capacity growth rate of 44 percent per year between 2010 and 2018, BOE will become the main driver for Chinese share gains. By 2018, the company will have ramped up more FPD capacity than any other producers, except for LG Display and Samsung Display.

IHS FPD_capacity_table“Despite growing concerns of oversupply for the next several years in most parts of the display industry, there is still little evidence that Chinese makers are reconsidering or scaling back their ambitious expansion plans,” said Charles Annis, senior director at IHS. “On the contrary, there continues to be a steady stream of announcements of new factory plans by various regional governments and panel makers.”

In China the central government has generally encouraged investment in FPDs, in order to shift the economy to higher technology manufacturing, to increase domestic supply and to support gross domestic product (GDP) growth. Provincial governments have become the main enabler of capacity expansion through product and technology subsidies, joint ventures and other direct investments, by providing land and facilities and through tax incentives. In return, new FPD fabs increase tax revenue, support land value appreciation, increase employment and spur the local economy. The economic benefits generated from the feedback loop between local governments, panel makers and new FPD factories are still considered sufficiently positive in China to warrant application of significant public resources.

“China currently produces only about a third of the FPD panels it consumes. However, by rapidly expanding capacity, panel makers and government officials are expecting to double domestic production rates in the next few years and are also looking to export markets,” Annis said. “How excessive global supply, falling prices and lower profitability will affect these plans over time is not yet exactly clear. Even so, there is now so much new capacity in the pipeline that China will almost certainly become the top producer of FPDs by 2018.”

According to a new market report published by Transparency Market Research “LED Driver and Chipset Market – Global Industry Analysis, Trend, Size, Share and Forecast, 2015 – 2021“, the global LED Driver and Chipset market was valued at US$2.80 billion in 2014 and is expected to reach US$11.99 billion by 2021, growing at a CAGR of 23.2% from 2015 to 2021.

The global LED Driver and Chipset market is primarily driven by increasing demand among the consumers for efficient power solution both in terms of display and lighting. LEDs outperform the traditional Cold Cathode Fluorescent Lamps (CCFLs) and Liquid Crystal Displays (LCDs) in term of size, energy efficiency, reliability and mechanical ruggedness both for displays and lighting applications. LEDs generate 100% of the National Television System Committee (NTSC) colors plus some extra colors in comparison with LCDs which generates only 70-80% of the NTSC colors. In addition, the operating cost of LEDs is low as compared to other lighting and display devices as LEDs produce more lumen per watt. Thus, more consumers are inclining towards the usage of LEDs which in turn is driving the growth of LED drivers and chipset market. Moreover, increasing awareness among the consumers regarding carbon footprints is also expected to fuel the demand of eco friendly LED devices which in turn is expected to boost the demand of LED Drivers and Chipsets offered by different LED product’s manufacturers. LEDs result in less carbon dioxide and Sulphur oxide emission (451 pound/ year) and help to keep the environment pollution free. Moreover, LEDs produces 90% less heat than incandescent and. CCFL bulbs.

The LED Driver and Chipset market is segmented on the basis of application and geography. The application segment is further bifurcated into display and lighting. By display, LED Driver and Chipset market is classified into: mobile phones, digital camera, television and navigation devices, medical devices, computer/laptop peripherals and others. Gaming devices, digital photo frames and MP3 players are included in the others segment. By lighting, the market can be segmented into outdoor areas and traffic signals, automotives, indoor lighting and commercial lighting among others. Geographically, the LED Driver and Chipset market has been segmented into North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific and Rest of the World (ROW).

Among the different applications, lighting segment was the fastest growing market in 2014. The market is predicted to grow at a CAGR of 24.1% from 2015 to 2021 and accounted for 20.1% of the overall revenue share of LED Driver and Chipset market. By geography, Asia Pacific held the largest market share and is expected to be the fastest growing market expanding at a CAGR of 23.4%. Asia Pacific is mainly driven by China and Japan. The government in this region has taken several steps to phase out the usage of conventional lighting and display technology to reduce carbon footprints. This in turn is expected to increases the sale of LED appliances and is predicted to drive the growth of LED Driver and Chipset market during the forecast period. Advanced Analogic Technologies Inc, Diodes Inc, Exar Corp and Ixys Corp among others are some of the major players operating in LED Driver and Chipset market.

by Dr. Guillaume Chansin, Senior Technology Analyst, IDTechEx

Quantum dots have been developed since the early 80’s but it is only recently that they made an appearance in consumer products such as TVs and tablet computers. IDTechEx Research has published a new market report on quantum dots titled “Quantum Dots 2016-2026: Applications, Markets, Manufacturers”, and as part of this study we have looked at their impact on the display industry. Is this the technology that will enable LCD to rival OLED?

Expanding color gamut

The key selling point for quantum dots is that they enable a much wider color gamut with minimal re-engineering of the LCD panels. They do this by modifying the backlight (and to some extent the color filters) inside the LCD stack.

A conventional LCD backlight uses ‘white LEDs’ which are really blue LEDs with a yellow phosphor. As a result, the white light that is produced has a strong blue peak and much weaker red and green components.

Quantum dots can be used as “downconverters”, the same way that phosphors convert blue wavelength to longer wavelengths. They key difference is that quantum dots have very narrow emission spectra and the wavelength can be tuned by changing the size of the dots. In other words, with quantum dots it is possible to have strong emission peaks in all three primaries: red, blue, and green.

The ideal solution would be to deposit the quantum dots directly on the LED (“on-chip”). But the current generation of materials degrade quickly at high temperature so they need to be physically separated from the chip (future generation materials may enable ‘on-chip’ thanks to high heat and moisture resistance).

Two workarounds are currently available. The first one is to place a tube filled with quantum dots between the LEDs and the light guide plate. QD Vision is the company commercializing this solution. While the tube can be fitted in large displays, it is not the best solution when it comes to mobile displays. The picture below shows an iMac retrofitted with a tube by QD Vision.

Source: IDTechEx Research.

Source: IDTechEx Research.

Back in 2013, QD Vision partnered with Sony to launch the first quantum dot LCD TV. QD Vision has now found more partners, including TCL launching a range of TVs and Philips commercializing the first quantum dot monitor this year.

The other integration option is to add the quantum dots as a film, an approach designed by Nanosys. The company has partnered with 3M to offer a diffuser sheet loaded with quantum dots. Because the diffuser sheet is part of a conventional backlight anyway, the display manufacturers do not need to change anything in the design of the backlight: the 3M solution is a direct drop-in replacement. Amazon was the first customer when it launched tablets with premium displays (the Kindle HDX).

The cadmium question

Quantum dots appear to offer a simple way to dramatically improve the performance of LCD panels. But there are some challenges to get the technology adopted.

First, the cost. A quantum dot film can add a significant cost to the display panel. Using tubes from QD Vision is probably more cost effective which is probably why several Chinese TV manufacturers are adopting this solution.

Second, consumers will have to be convinced that it will be worth paying a premium. Supporters of quantum dots say that it is currently the only way to obtain TV displays that are compliant with the Rec. 2020 standard. But while the specifications are impressive, it is worth noting that most consumers are not aware of the limitations of their existing LCD devices (whether TV, laptop, or tablet).

Third, the best quantum dots are made with Cadmium, an element which is usually banned in the European Union under the RoHS regulations. QD Vision and 3M have requested an exception to introduce cadmium in TVs because of the benefits in terms of lower energy consumption (thereby reducing carbon emissions). But some organizations, including Nanoco, are calling for the exception to not be extended. Nanoco supplies indium based quantum dots so would benefit from a complete ban on cadmium. Some are quick to retort that Indium is a potential carcinogen and might also be banned in the future.

While this debate is much needed to fully assess the risks, there is no denying it has also been damaging to the whole industry. Giving quantum dots a bad reputation is not the best way to get the technology widely accepted.

Nanoco has licensed their cadmium-free quantum dots to Dow Chemicals. But the optical performance of these quantum dots is not on par with the ones made with cadmium. The company believes that eventually they will be able to offer a similar level of performance. Meanwhile, Nanosys has also started to produce cadmium-free quantum dots and has licensed their technology to Samsung.

QLED as the next generation OLED?

While the main focus is currently on enhancing backlights for LCD panels, some are already looking beyond. Quantum dots can also be used to make emissive displays. So-called quantum dot LED (QLED) are similar to OLED with an active layer made with quantum dots.

Market forecast for quantum dot devices and components (Source: IDTechEx report “Quantum Dots 2016-2026: Applications, Markets, Manufacturers”)

Market forecast for quantum dot devices and components (Source: IDTechEx report “Quantum Dots 2016-2026: Applications, Markets, Manufacturers”)

This technology is still in very early stage but promises to offer the same benefits in terms of color gamut to OLED technology. QLED will in theory provide better colors and efficiency than OLED because of the narrower emission peaks. QLED can be considered as the next generation OLED.

Whether it is for downconversion or ultimately QLED, quantum dots have the potential to significantly disrupt the display industry. IDTechEx Research forecasts that quantum dots will enables a market of devices and components worth over $11bn by 2026, with a large chunk of the revenues in display applications. Quantum dots have already made serious inroads in the industry; don’t be surprised to find them in your next TV. For more information, read the full global analysis of the technology and application landscape in the report “Quantum Dots 2016-2026: Applications, Markets, Manufacturers” at www.IDTechEx.com/qd.

FlexEnable, a leader in the development and industrialization of flexible electronics, has successfully validated a new class of high performance organic semiconductors in a million pound project funded by Innovate UK. It combined materials developed by Flexink with FlexEnable’s proprietary industrial process for making flexible electronics and culminated in a proof of concept plastic LCD display.

The project, Printable Organic Semiconductors for Highly Enhanced Displays (PORSCHED), is part of the UK government’s bid to inspire technological innovation in the areas of electronics, photonics and electrical systems. FlexEnable collaborated with partners Flexink, Imperial College London, and the University of Cambridge, each bringing expertise in the area of organic semiconductors, from materials to device testing and optimization.

The main objective was to create an organic semiconductor that would ensure excellent film uniformity for large-area, flat panel displays. Proof of the performance of this semiconductor is seen in the plastic LCD display demonstrator fabricated at FlexEnable.

Chuck Milligan, CEO of FlexEnable said: “Cutting edge organic semiconductors combined with our industrially proven process and toolkit for flexible electronics have resulted in a high performance transistor platform – as demonstrated by its ability to drive full color video rate plastic LCD. High volume manufacturing for flexible electronics requires semiconductors not only with sufficient mobility, but also with uniformity over large areas and electrical stability. Organic Semiconductors processed at low temperatures enable the use of ultra low cost plastic substrates — even cheaper than glass — and make conformable, flexible, thin and light weight displays possible — transforming where and how we use electronics in our daily lives.”

FlexEnable has developed a complete set of processes to manufacture flexible organic thin film transistor (OTFT) devices and arrays. This has led to the successful volume production of thin, lightweight, and robust backplanes for flexible displays. FlexEnable’s process is very low temperature (<100°C) which opens up a host of manufacturing and cost benefits.

A maximum processing temperature below 100°C brings manufacturing advantages by allowing for the use of lower cost plastic substrates (e.g. PET), minimizing distortion (to improve yield) and enabling low cost mount and demount. However, implementing such a low temperature process presents significant challenges, for example in low temperature deposition and patterning of materials. These challenges have been addressed by FlexEnable’s low temperature process technology for flexible electronics.

VeriSilicon Holdings Co., Ltd. and Vivante Corporation today announced a definitive merger agreement under which the companies will be combined in an all-stock transaction. The combined company, to be called VeriSilicon Holdings Co., Ltd., will offer robust IP-centric, platform-based custom silicon solutions and end-to-end semiconductor turnkey services.

Highlights of the transaction include:

  • Revenue for the combined company of more than $180 million for the year ended December 31, 2014;
  • Expected to be accretive to VeriSilicon’s non-GAAP earnings;
  • Establishes richer IP portfolio with the addition of licensable graphic cores (GPU);
  • Expands opportunities in the automotive market with established top OEM customers;
  • Increases exposure and content in IoT applications, as well as mobility applications, including smartphones, tablets, and connected TVs;
  • Leverages VeriSilicon’s extensive IP portfolio, design services capabilities and established direct sales channels worldwide;
  • Expands Tier 1 customer base

With the addition of Vivante’s GPU and vision image processing solutions, VeriSilicon continues to build out its Silicon Platform as a Service (SiPaaSTM) offering. Vivante has an established global customer base of over 50 licensees and has shipped more than 300 million units. Additionally, Vivante is a recognized industry leader in GPU solutions for automotive display, visualization and vision processing as well as mass market IoT applications. The combined company will hold a patent portfolio of more than 75 issued and pending U.S. patents and maintain operations in eight countries.

“This transaction creates an extensive semiconductor IP portfolio that will now include GPU cores, vision image processors, digital signal processors, video codecs, mixed signal IP and foundry foundation IP,” said Wayne Dai, VeriSilicon chairman, president and chief executive officer. “We expect our combined technology and scale will enable us to further extend our franchises in the automotive, IoT, mobility, and consumer market segments. Additionally, we share a strong culture of innovation and creativity that will provide significant benefits to our semiconductor, system and Internet platform customers by delivering best-in-class IP, design services and turnkey ASICs. This Silicon Platform as a Service (SiPaaSTM) model enables our customers to deliver high-quality, differentiated products in the fastest and most cost-effective way possible.”

“Together, VeriSilicon and Vivante will be well positioned to achieve even greater success,” said Weijin Dai, Vivante chief executive officer. “Our technology has been instrumental in providing PC-quality performance and experience at mobile power levels to create life-like graphics across a number of key end market segments and applications. VeriSilicon shares our vision for providing exceptional technology solutions that meet the unique requirements of automotive and IoT customers, as well as mobility, consumer and gaming customers. Our complementary products and capabilities will enable the combined company to pursue significant new growth opportunities, while delivering even greater value to customers, employees and shareholders.”

The Centre of Process Innovation (CPI) has announced that it is part of a UK based collaboration to develop the next generation of ultra-barrier materials using graphene for the production of flexible transparent plastic electronic based displays such as those required for the next generation of smartphones, tablets and wearable electronics.

The UK is a world leader in the field of graphene innovation and the market is predicted to be worth more than £800m by 2023. The graphene market could transform the manufacturing landscape in the UK if new materials, processes, equipment and metrology can be developed effectively in concert. The project combines the skills from each of the partners (University of Cambridge, FlexEnable Ltd, the National Physical Laboratory, and the Centre for Process Innovation) and expects to deliver a feasible material and process system. It builds upon significant existing investments by InnovateUK and the EPSRC in this area. The resulting ultra-barrier material can be potentially used in a wide range of novel applications by the lead business partner, FlexEnable.

The twelve month project titled “Gravia” funded under the Innovate UK “realising the graphene revolution” call will investigate the feasibility of producing graphene-based barrier films for next generation flexible OLED lighting and display products. However current commercially available barrier layers used to protect the electronics in display screens have limitations with regards to flexibility. In order to realize the commercialization of such applications, display manufacturers have to be able to source flexible barrier platforms such as graphene on which they can fabricate their displays.

The incorporation of graphene interlayers offers great potential for flexible displays. Its gas blocking properties will enable barrier materials that are not only flexible, but also transparent, robust, and very impervious to many molecules. Gravia will seek to accelerate product development, improving upon current ultra barrier performance and lifetimes by producing consistent barrier materials and processes on large area substrates by utilizing specialist growth techniques. The key challenge will be to develop large-area poly-crystalline graphene films which maximize performance whilst mitigating process imperfections. In this way, solutions can be produced at scale and economically viable in the future.

The demonstration of feasible working prototypes will represent a significant achievement in the race to bring wearable electronics and plastic displays to the mass market. The project is exploring the necessary industrial process parameters to ensure that the barriers produced are not only of high performance but also at a price point that allows market adoption. Measuring barriers at very low levels of permeability requires sensitive and accurate tests. Collaborating with the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) will ensure that the data claims are correct and meaningful comparisons can be made in the future with the very latest and most sensitive equipment. Future development work will focus on transferring the technology from proof of concept to pilot production scale.

James Johnstone, Business Development Manager at CPI, said: “The collaboration brings together world class supply chain expertise across the UK to bridge the gap from Graphene research to the manufacturing of commercial flexible display screens. The Hofmann group at the Department of Engineering in Cambridge is a key innovator in the growth and processing of graphene films. NPL are experts in the traceable measurement of water transfer characteristics and FlexEnable brings an industrial focus to the project with their extensive expertise in the manufacture of flexible electronics and flexible display screens in particular. CPI’s role in the project is to use roll-to-roll atomic layer deposition technologies to scale up, test and fabricate the ultra barrier materials.”

Chuck Milligan, CEO FlexEnable adds: “Graphene and other 2D materials are extremely relevant for the flexible electronics industry, with the potential for broad usage from conductors to semiconductors, insulators and even barriers. Building on FlexEnable’s previous leading-edge work with graphene, our involvement will enable the accelerated integration of these game-changing materials in a new generation of ultra-flexible end-user applications with innovative form factors.”

Applied Materials, Inc. today unveiled two new systems that enable the volume production of high-resolution, thin and lightweight flexible OLED displays for mobile products and TVs. The Applied AKT-20K (TM) TFE PECVD (thin-film encapsulation; plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition) and Applied AKT-40K (TM) TFE PECVD tools deliver breakthroughs in materials engineering to deposit thin-film encapsulation barrier layers that are crucial for protecting extremely sensitive OLED devices. These systems allow display makers to replace the rigid insulating front glass on the devices and bring to market bendable and curved displays for a new generation of consumer products.

The vibrant color and low power consumption of OLED displays have driven their rapid adoption in smartphones, with flexible OLED now the fastest growing display segment in the mobile industry. The new TFE systems (20K for 925 x 1500mm and 40K for 1250 x 2200mm) address different display market segments to meet the growing demand for more versatile, thinner and lighter small- and large-area flexible OLEDs.

“The advances in size, resolution, picture quality and form factor creates considerable market opportunities for display makers to bring new flexible products to market,” said Dr. Brian Shieh, vice president and general manager of Applied’s Display Products Group. “Flexible OLEDs must be robust enough to meet the real-life demands of consumers, and the Applied AKT-20K TFE system, already in production, allows panel makers to accelerate the introduction of flexible and curved mobile applications that will change the shape of the screens we use every day.”

Key to the Applied AKT TFE product line is the capability to extend the lifetime of flexible OLEDs by offering diffusion barrier films with very low water and oxygen penetration. These high-performance films, deposited at low temperatures of <100°C, address the susceptibility of OLED material to degrade when exposed to environmental elements. In addition, the systems’ unique vision alignment technology ensures accurate and precise mask positioning and deposition, allowing display manufacturers to eliminate photolithography and etch process steps and reduce production costs.

DuPont Displays today announced the opening of a state-of-the-art, scale-up manufacturing facility designed to deliver production scale quantities of advanced materials that enable large-format, solution-based printed Organic Light Emitting Diode (OLED) displays. These materials are designed to help manufacturers develop OLED displays that are brighter, more vivid, longer lasting and significantly less expensive than the OLED TVs on the market today. The facility is located at the DuPont Stine-Haskell Research Center (Stine-Haskell) in Newark, Del., near DuPont’s global headquarters in Wilmington.

“Materials are critical to the performance of an OLED TV and we are confident that DuPont has the best performing solution OLED materials available in the market today,” said Avi Avula, global business director, DuPont Displays. “Our vision is that OLEDs will become the display standard and to make that vision a reality, we are focused on helping our customers bring the cost of large sized OLED TVs down to less than $1000 by 2020.”

DuPont’s new scale-up facility is sized to meet the future growth expectations of the OLED TV industry, which analysts predict will increase by over 70 percent for the next several years and will require large quantities of highly sophisticated OLED materials. DuPont has been developing its suite of advanced OLED materials for the last 15 years. These materials are highly regarded for both solution and evaporative applications due to their long lifetime and deep color. In addition to its recently announced collaboration with an inkjet equipment maker to advance solution printed displays, DuPont is actively engaged with the leading OLED display manufacturers to bring solution printed OLED technology to market as quickly as possible.

DuPont’s new OLED facility at Stine-Haskell has large-scale formulation systems and can support simultaneous production of multiple product lines. It was designed with a focus on employee safety, environmental responsibility and producing superior quality materials with the highest possible purity. The project was partially funded by a grant from the state of Delaware in 2012, with DuPont investing more than $20 million in the facility.

DuPont Displays brings more than 15 years of experience in enabling evaporative and solution-based OLED technologies through advanced materials that deliver the color, efficiency and lifetime performance that display manufacturers and consumers demand. DuPont offers highly engineered, next-generation OLED materials as well as solution process know-how that makes the promise of lower cost OLED technology commercially feasible for TVs and other large-format displays.