Category Archives: Displays

December 9, 2011 — Printed electronics materials and equipment suppliers, as well as academics and industry, were honored with annual awards at the IDTechEx Printed Electronics USA 2011 in Santa Clara, CA.

Also read: Printed Electronics 2011: Chips, inks, tissue boxes, and apps in between

Judging panel: Professor Malcolm Keif, California Polytechnic State University Prof Yang Yang, UCLA – University of California, Los Angeles Joshua Windmiller, University of California, San Diego

Best Technical Development Manufacturing Award – Coatema
Coatema’s Smartcoater is a roll-to-roll (R2R) lab unit with a working width starting at 100mm and a wide range of coating applications and production speed. Complex products can be produced with a minimum use of substrate and chemistry. The base unit offers a 5-in-1 coating module including slot die, knife, dipping, micro-roller and engraved roller application functions. There is no need to purchase individual modules for each of these applications. In addition other modules are being added rapidly including: screen printing; flexo printing; UV spraying and others necessary for producing all layers of a product.

Best Technical Development Materials Award – Opalux Inc.
Opalux develops active photonic crystal materials addressed by stimuli such as pressure, heat, shear and chemical activation to effect a color change. Photonic Ink (P-Ink) — the award-winning material — is electrically tuned to reflect any desired spectral color and can also be tuned to provide UV and IR reflection. Activation at voltages of less than 1.5V and microampere currents gives bright, highly saturated and bistable color states that can be switched at high speeds. The power and current requirements are compatible with standard consumer electronics devices.

Academic R&D Award – Stevens Institute of Technology and US Army ARDEC
A team of researchers from Stevens Institute of Technology and US Army ARDEC have been exploring the evaporative assembly of graphene oxide (GO) nanosheets during inkjet printing, as a transformative means of producing 2D and 3D graphene micropatterns for a variety of flexible electronics applications. The ability of producing graphene oxide supercapacitor electrodes by inkjet printing and subsequent thermal reduction was demonstrated by the researchers. This approach provides a scalable manufacturing platform to fabricate economically viable supercapacitor electrodes particularly for miniaturized flexible supercapacitor applications.   

Best Product Development Award – Vorbeck and MWV
Vorbeck and MeadWestvaco (MWV) won this award for the new anti-theft retail package product. Vorbeck’s Vor-ink has provided the enabling technology for the development of the MWV package product. This new printed graphene ink technology, called Siren, is part of MWV’s Natralock product line, and will be on store shelves at major retailers including Home Depot in early 2012.

Best Commercialization Award – Peratech
Peratech is the inventor of Quantum Tunnelling Composite (QTC) technology. QTC’s are electro-active polymeric materials made from metallic or non-metallic filler particles combined in an elastomeric binder. These enable the action of ‘touch’ to be translated into an electrical reaction, enabling a vast array of devices to incorporate very thin and highly robust ‘sensing’ of touch and pressure.  QTC’s unique properties enable it to be made into force sensitive switches of any shape or size.  QTC switches and switch matrices can be screen printed allowing for development and integration of switches that are as thin as 75um. Peratech uses IP licensing to commercialize the technology, researching and tailoring it for a customer, then licensing the solution along with supplying the required form of QTC. The first major successes are two license deals worth several million dollars.

Exhibitor awards also went to Novacentrix and PST Sensors (voted by attendees). Printed Electronics USA attendees also named the best poster, created by Stéphanie Dupont, PhD Candidate Materials Sc&Eng., Stanford University.

The next IDTechEx Printed Electronics awards will be held at the European event, in Berlin, Germany on 3-4 April 2012. For more details see www.IDTechEx.com/peEUROPE.

December 7, 2011 – The IDTechEx combined Printed Electronics USA 2011 and Photovoltaics USA 2011 event opened November 30 in the Santa Clara, CA convention center with 1200-1250 registered and walk-in attendees, comparable to 2010 attendance.

A morning of keynote addresses filled the large auditorium to about 90% capacity before the crowd split up for the parallel tracks. The speakers in this opening track personified the notion of customer pull, presenting a variety of new applications that have been or are being brought to market, as well as a wish list of things they wish they had. Technical content was hard to find; this market is all about the marketing. Technology is tolerated to the extent that it is indispensable.

Kenneth McGuire, principal scientist at Proctor & Gamble, opened the conference with a presentation on packaging applications for consumer products. Watch your store shelves for a Puffs tissue box with a Christmas EL lighting display, powered by two AA batteries. Since most applications require the integration of logic, memory, display, and power with the overriding constraint of low cost, there is still a lot of development needed before every package on the store shelf is literally shouting for your attention. Expect broad market introduction to be slow.

Michael Londo, director of open innovation at MWV Packaging, discussed the search for matches between available technology and market needs. Collaboration with the printed electronics program at Western Michigan University and with Vorbeck Materials has played a critical role in bringing some new consumer product security systems to market.

Warren Kronberger, R&D director for The Marketing Store, showed several commercial packaging campaigns from other parts of the world that make US marketing look just a tad primitive. Integration of PV power supplies in locations where plug-in power is not readily available is relieving some pressure on developing inexpensive battery technology.

Andrew Ferber & John Gentile, co-chairmen of T-Ink, spoke of the company’s evolution in printed electronics from toys to aerospace over the past decade. Their strategy of using low-tech products to seed discussions for products now being implemented in automobile overhead consoles and smart wear has provided them with steady growth in both market penetration and product complexity. Their touch panel design places the capacitive layers much closer to the panel surface, resulting in a higher s/n and 10

December 5, 2011 — Applied Materials Inc. debuted its defect review scanning electron microscope (DR-SEM) Applied SEMVision G5 system to image and analyze 20nm yield-limiting defects in a semiconductor production environment without manual intervention. Identifying and imaging relevant defects with 1nm pixel size, the SEMVision G5 system allows logic and memory makers to pinpoint the root cause of defects faster and more accurately, Applied reports.

The SEMVision G5 system is capable of identifying, analyzing and finding defects in challenging patterning layers with increased throughput. AMAT reports that it is highly accurate in separating real from false alarm "nuisance defects," beating a human operator in comparisons.

The SEMVision G5 system is an open architecture platform that dynamically combines data received from a wafer inspection system with a library of predefined review strategies. The system automatically creates new review recipes, targeting foundry users with thousands of new chip designs to manufacture each year.

"We’ve already shipped multiple SEMVision G5 systems to customers, including repeat orders," said Itai Rosenfeld, corporate vice president and general manager of Applied’s Process Diagnostics and Control business unit.

Applied Materials will exhibit at SEMICON Japan, December 7-9 in Chiba, Japan at Booth 3D-1001.

More SEMICON Japan products:

Applied Materials, Inc. (Nasdaq:AMAT) provides equipment, services and software to enable the manufacture of advanced semiconductor, flat panel display and solar photovoltaic products. Learn more at www.appliedmaterials.com.

November 30, 2011 — Ultrasonic Systems Inc. (USI), maker of high-performance ultrasonic spray coating, released the MAX-800-FP precision spray coating system with nozzle-less ultrasonic spray head technology. The system applies thin, uniform coatings used in the flat panel display (FPD) manufacturing process. 

Designed for high throughput production requirements, the MAX-800-FP features a high speed, fully programmable X-Y-Z gantry and usable spray area of up to 780 x 780mm. The system also features substrate transport automation: a walking beam conveyor transports uncoated substrates from the system

November 25, 2011 – Marketwire — JUSUNG Engineering Co. Ltd. (KOSDAQ: 036930), a leader in semiconductor, display and solar cell manufacturing technologies, released a pioneering deposition technology that enables flat panel display (FPD) makers to dramatically enhance high definition resolution in the next generation displays.

The new product utilizes a metal organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) technology to apply the critical transparent semiconductor oxide material for use on flat panels. This new material, IGZO – Indium, Gallium, Zinc, Oxygen, replaces the traditional amorphous silicon based active layer. IGZO has an electron mobility 40 times greater than traditional materials such that a display’s reaction speed can be more swiftly controlled. In doing so, panel makers will be able to offer screen resolutions higher than the current Full High Definition. JUSUNG is the only company in the World that offers this MOCVD IGZO capability for 8th Generation sized panels.

MOCVD offers significant benefits over conventional deposition methods. Specifically, it allows panel makers to fine tune the composition of the IGZO material to customize it for their application. This is a significant step in the application of the new material because previous conventional deposition methods such as sputtering limit the composition to fixed ratios. By improving upon these shortcomings, JUSUNG expects this new MOCVD technology to gain market acceptance as panel makers seek to expand their product offerings.

JUSUNG’s new MOCVD IGZO is compatible with next-generation LCD TVs, OLED TVs, and mobile displays. As such, the company will focus on proliferating this technology to secure additional share in the flat panel deposition market.

A JUSUNG Engineering representative explained, "The display companies of the world have set out to transition high-speed display technology through utilizing IGZO materials." He added, "By being the first to market with this enabling technology, JUSUNG Engineering will also accelerate its increasing market influence as a leading global capital equipment manufacturer."

JUSUNG Engineering provides manufacturing technologies for the global marketplace.

November 24, 2011 — Qualcomm MEMS Technologies Inc. (QMT), a wholly owned subsidiary of Qualcomm Incorporated (NASDAQ:QCOM), and Kyobo Book Centre of Korea launched the first e-reader using mirasol display technology. The touch display features vibrant color in bright sunlight and power management enables weeks of reading (under typical usage).

Qualcomm MEMS Technologies Inc.’s mirasol display technology uses interferometric modulation (IMOD); a micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS)-based technology capable of creating color from ambient reflected light. Qualcomm’s mirasol displays are bi-stable, energy efficient, offer refresh rates to support interactive content and are highly reflective.

The Kyobo e-Reader features a 5.7" XGA format (1024 x 768 pixels) mirasol display (screen resolution of 223 ppi) and Qualcomm’s 1.0 GHz Snapdragon S2 class processor. Kyobo’s custom application interface sits atop an Android 2.3 base.

Also read: Reader me this: The evolution and future of e-reader technology

The Kyobo e-Reader includes access to Kyobo’s 90,000 ebook library, notably including early rights from Korean publisher Minumsa for the much-anticipated Steve Jobs’ exclusive biography, a full one-month before any other Korean digital outlet. Additionally, the device features: video lecture content exclusive to EBS, a leading Korea-based provider of educational material; content sharing through Korean social networking services; English language text-to-speech capabilities; and searchable content through the popular Diotek dictionary application.

Kyobo Book Centre distributes books and services in Korea. Learn more at http://www.kyobobook.co.kr

Qualcomm Incorporated (NASDAQ: QCOM) creates 3G and next-generation mobile technologies.

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November 22, 2011 — DuPont Microcircuit Materials (MCM), a business unit of DuPont Electronics & Communications, introduced a screen-printable silver conductor material for the printed electronics market, DuPont 5064H. The silver conductor ink provides resistivity ≤6milliΩ per square per mil. 

DuPont 5064H can be printed onto substrates including Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET), Polyethylene-Naphthalate (PEN), DuPont Kapton polyimide films, paper, and more.  The composition is solvent-based and was designed to be screen printed in semi-automatic or high-volume reel-to-reel (R2R) applications.

The new product aims to allow printed electronics manufacturing with less material but high performance, said Scott Gordon, market segment manager — DuPont Microcircuit Materials.  “DuPont 5064H can reduce silver cost by providing higher conductivity with thinner prints of conductor traces.” Gordon adds that high-current application that previously required double print steps can go down to one print step with the 5064H material.

See the new material at the Printed Electronics USA trade show, November 30-December 1, 2011, in Santa Clara, CA.

DuPont MCM is a high-volume supplier of electronic inks and pastes, offering many printed electronic materials for electronic applications in the automotive, display, photovoltaic, biomedical, industrial, military and telecommunications markets.  For more information on DuPont Microcircuit Materials, visit http://mcm.dupont.com.

DuPont (NYSE: DD) is a science and engineering company with products, materials, and services. For additional information, please visit http://www.dupont.com.

November 21, 2011 — In an IHS iSuppli Teardown Analysis, IHS found that Amazon is using previously unknown Jorjin and Ilitek for its WLAN module and touchscreen controller IC, respectively, in the new Kindle Fire media tablet. Other teardown findings? TI is all over the new product, and a Kindle Fire costs more than its price.

Amazon

November 15, 2011 — Shipments of large-area TFT LCD panels were 185.5 million in Q3 2011, unchanged from Q2, but up 12% Y/Y. Revenues reached $19.2 billion, down 2% Q/Q and 11% Y/Y. According to the DisplaySearch Quarterly Large-Area TFT LCD Shipment Report, panel makers are targeting a very modest 2% growth in shipments for Q4