Category Archives: Displays

October 12, 2011 — ITRI, Industrial Technology Research Institute of Taiwan, introduced i2R e-Paper, a re-writeable, re-usable, LCD-based electronic paper medium that can be manufactured in a variety of sizes.

The e-paper is a flexible cholesteric liquid crystal display (LCD) that uses heat to store and transit images. It avoids use of electronic inks. The product is very bendable. Because cholesteric liquid crystal is a reflective display technology, it uses ambient light rather than backlighting. No power is consumed to maintain a display. Colors are produced by adding different pitch spherical composite ion-exchangers.

i2R e-Paper delivers 300dpi resolution. The paper targets initial applications in advertising banners, corporate visitor ID badges, transit passes, etc. Follow-on applications include digital books and pictorials, wall banners, large-size electronic bulletin boards, etc.

Water-solvent marker pens can be used on the paper and easily washed off. To print and change content, users need a thermal printer fitted with a thermal head. Re-use erases the old image and prints a new one with no inks or toner. Production costs are low, ITRI says, and single units can be re-written up to 260 times. More development work is underway to increase this re-use factor.

ITRI is licensing and transferring i2R e-Paper technology to manufacturers producing consumer e-paper and thermal writer machines. Recently, ITRI completed an industry science and technology program with four material manufacturers and five equipment operators, and the technology has also been transferred to one of Taiwan’s top chemical engineering manufacturers for trial mass production.

ITRI has applied for 17 patents for i2R e-Paper, 8 of which have been granted. ITRI is in the process of licensing the technology in Taiwan and is currently in talks with US companies as well.

Watch a video on how e-paper differs from paper here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nur36P3fDYU

Also read: ITRI LCD polarizer film avoids toxic solvents, saves production costs

Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) is a nonprofit R&D organization performing applied research and technical services in 6 core laboratories, 3 focus centers, 5 linkage centers, and many labs and business development units. ITRI concentrates on Information and Communication; Electronics and Optoelectronics; Material, Chemical and Nanotechnologies; Biomedical Technologies and Device; Advanced Manufacturing and Systems; and Green Energy and Environment. Learn more at www.itri.org.tw/eng.

October 11, 2011 – Heading to the AVS Symposium later this month (Oct. 30-Nov. 4) in Nashville, TN? It’s a very broad event covering fundamental materials science, materials applications, manufacturing. We’ve scanned the program to pick out some of the sessions that might be of interest to our audience.

A few fast facts about the AVS 58th International Symposium & Exhibition:

~140 oral sessions, >1300 talks, >250 invited speakers, two evenings of poster presentations, 3000 attendees, >200 companies in the equipment expo.

– Thirteen focus topics, many are directly targeted at semiconductor manufacturing (e.g. nanomanufacturing, transparent conductors, printable electronics, electron transport, graphene), and some are further afield (biofabrication, marine biofouling, neutron scattering, tribology).

– Twelve tracks in the technical program with diverse yet complementary topics.

– A handful of special tutorials and workshops on energy storage, surface analysis, biomaterial interfaces, surface treatments for accelerators, and surface sciences.

– Thom Mason, director of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, giving the plenary lecture on "Scientific discovery and innovation for the energy challenge."

– Short courses on vacuum technology and equipment, Materials and interfaced characterization (e.g. XPS, AES, FIB, SIMS), energy storage, and materials processing (ALD, sputtering, PV solar cells).

– The 31st annual AVS 5K, "the oldest professional society run in the world"

– An "art zone" showcasing images with aesthetic qualities rivaling their scientific origins.

Here are some of the presentations in the technical program that caught our eye (with an emphasis on invited talks):

Nanomanufacturing: Challenges in nanomanufacturing (both technical and strategic); roll-to-roll atomic-layer deposition; sub-30nm material and tool design; memristors; metrology and environmental concerns

Lithography: A hard mask process for bit-patterned media; self-assembling block copolymers to augment and enhance current lithographic process in manufacturing (results, the presenters say, include improved line-edge and line-width roughness and resolution enhancement by factors of two to four); measured backscattered electron profile for OPC using a negative e-beam resist; Fabricating three non-planar multi-gate devices from SOI substrates (FinFET, trigate, and a gate-all-around nanowire transistor), with 14nm/10nm fabricated prototypes

MEMS and NEMS: Scallop-free TSV etching for 3D LSI; deep silicon etching with STiGer process; alternative passivation chemistries for TSVs; wafer-scale hermetic packaging for MEMS; Plasma etch challenges (profile control, feature level uniformity, plasma microdamage); a dry etching process for phase-change memory; selective etch processes for magnetic materials (Ni, Co, Ta)

High-k dielectrics (two parts): High mobility channel materials beyond Si; bilayer high-k gate stacks on Ge and InGaAs; post-deposition anneal on InP MOS capacitors; surface roughness effect on electron mobility in InGaAs surface-channel MOSFETS; III-V and Ge MOS/MOSFETS beyond Si CMOS

Memory (nonvolatile and ultradense): Oxides for spintronics; charge-trap memories and 3D approaches; phase-change memory advances; ALD/PEALD CMOS-compatible oxides for RRAM; resistive switching in hafnium-oxide RRAM; embedded HfO2-based cells for RRAM; Process characterization for PCM and ST-MRAM

Nanowires/nanoparticles assembly and devices: ZnO nanowires with two-gate electrode; growth of 3D III-nitride heterostructures; III-V nanowire MOSFETs; Quantum dot display efficiency; Deterministic nanowire assembly for Si CMOS

Graphene: Graphene growth on Ni (111), Au (111), Cu(111), and SiC; graphene p-n junction device fabrication and characterization; large-scale graphene; metallic nanowire-graphene hybrid nanostructures; graphene/semiconductor junctions; graphene-line defects; graphene surface properties; graphene optoelectronics; magnetic impurities; graphene atomic membranes ("patchwork quilts to atomic drums"); chemically modified graphene synthesis/characterization;

Transparent/printable electronics (two parts): Materials modeling for transparent conducting oxides; hybrid organic/inorganic materials and devices; ZnO-based Schottky diodes; amorphous oxide thin-film transistors

Vacuum: Measurement and calibrations; gas permeation of seals; vacuum system designs and modeling

October 11, 2011 — Taiwan’s R&D-focused ITRI (Industrial Technology Research Institute) developed an environmentally friendly polarizer protective film, HyTAC, for consumer-sector LCD displays.

The materials and production process cut down on pollutants and environmental harm by 50%, ITRI reports. This also makes LCD manufacturing safer for human operators. HyTAC eliminates dichlormethane and methanol from TAC film production.

LCD transparency and stability are improved with HyTAC, and production costs are lower. The organic and inorganic silicon dioxide nano hybrid material replaces toxic production solvents. Avoiding diclormethane reduces the production equipment required, especially exhaust recycling installations. The result is a highly transparent polarizer film with a zero retardation optical property that suits new-generation IPS Mode LCD displays.

ITRI has licensed this technology to domestic manufacturers for mass production process development. ITRI is transferring the technology to TacBright Optronics Corp. (Taiwan) for exclusive distribution. HyTAC technology may be licensed out in the future.

ITRI has applied for six patents for HyTAC, three of which have been granted.

Watch how the TAC works in this YouTube video from ITRI: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5k0KEosYeQ

Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) is a nonprofit R&D organization performing applied research and technical services in 6 core laboratories, 3 focus centers, 5 linkage centers, and many labs and business development units. ITRI concentrates on Information and Communication; Electronics and Optoelectronics; Material, Chemical and Nanotechnologies; Biomedical Technologies and Device; Advanced Manufacturing and Systems; and Green Energy and Environment. Learn more at www.itri.org.tw/eng.

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October 10, 2011 — Several speakers at the recent OLEDs World Summit 2011 (9/26-28 in San Francisco) discussed the appeal of organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs) for large-format image displays, rising in appeal over liquid-crystal displays (LCD).

James Lee, research fellow at LG Display, made the case for using soluble technology for OLED fabrication, a technology the company has been developing. Though there are remaining challenges that have to be addressed, e.g., soluble material performance, particularly for blue CIE Y, Lee noted that substantial cost reductions can be achieved using this technology because of the simple OLED device structure and the simple bill of materials (BOM) associated with OLED displays (OLED displays require no backlight, just one sheet polarizer, and no C/F) and the simple mura-free process LG Display is developing with a printing partner. The company is confident its printing partner will solve the mura-free printing challenge within the next two years. Still-to-be-addressed system requirements include low power consumption (compensation circuitry), continued cost reduction for competitiveness (e.g., going from FMM to FMM-free patterning technology) and design differentiation (e.g., face-seal encapsulation).

According to Lee, 2012 is the first year that OLED TVs will penetrate the premium TV market. LG sees the market share of LED TVs increasing dramatically from 32% to 93% as the price premium narrows down to 20% from 53% in three years. Volume production of OLED TVs is expected to occur in 2013. "The OLED TV market will start to grow substantially in 2015 once the price premium will be reached at 50% like LED TVs," said Lee.

John Richard, VP, DuPont Displays, spoke about the appeal of OLEDs for large-format image displays. They offer visually compelling images with high contrast, large color gamut and rapid response time, he explained. There are also equipment cost and design advantages because of their very thin format, improved power efficiency, and simple panel structure.

However, he noted that three barriers must be overcome to successfully produce OLED TV:

  1. Material performance has to meet the thresholds for TV,
  2. OLED material deposition waste must be significantly reduced, and
  3. OLED material application equipment must scale to the size and productivity of its LCD counterparts.

Continuing the discussion about using solution OLED fabrication, Richard detailed the key materials challenges that are holding up progress:

  1. Being able to coat the blanket layers,
  2. Being able to contain the printing inks in the active subpixel area,
  3. Keeping successive layers from mixing with each other,
  4. Being able to clean the coated materials before encapsulation/bonding,
  5. Being able to print at high speed without visual defects, and
  6. Keeping atmospheric conditions during printing/coating from degrading the organic materials.

To tackle the challenges, DuPont teamed up with Dainippon Screen (DNS) to address nozzle printing for solution OLED patterning. In 2008, the collaboration resulted in a Gen 4 production-scale printer installed for 730mm

September 29, 2011 — Berliner Glas and system elektronik will share their glass processing, bonding, display, and touchscreen technologies to develop OEM human machine interface (HMI) assemblies. The team will investigate new methods for optical bonding of viewing panes and touchscreens.

Recent optical bonding advances in touchscreen HMIs include new screens from the consumer space that enable better visualization and operating technology on capital equipment and instrumentation. This includes multi-touch and gesture recognition as well as exceptional visibility under bright light conditions. Front panels made entirely of glass allow hygienic surfaces for medical and clinical applications. Advanced technologies and manufacturing methods improve touchscreen robustness and readability without increasing energy usage. These improvements make touchscreen use possible in harsh industrial environments.

system elektronik and Berliner Glas will develop these products by sharing technical knowledge, supplier networks, manufacturing conditions including a clean room environment. The initial projects will start a collaboration that will "go far beyond the current decade," according to the companies.

In the first stage diagonals from 4.3" to a maximum of 32" are to be offered for industrial automation, medical technology, automotive, and POS/POI HMI display applications. Berliner Glas believes there are opportunities to achieve decisive competitive advantages for the optical bonding of premium flat screen displays in the television market sets as well.

The Berliner Glas Group provides refined technical glass and optical components, assemblies, and systems. Berliner Glas develops, manufactures, and integrates optics, mechanics, and electronics into innovative systems for the semiconductor industry, medical technology, metrology, laser and space technology, analytics, defense, or the display industry. Learn more at www.berlinerglas.de

system elektronik GmbH creates HMI assemblies and automotive industry products. Learn more at www.systemelektronik.de.

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September 28, 2011 — Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have failed to meet commercial expectations set a decade ago, and another carbon nano material, graphene, is being considered a viable candidate in the same applications: computers, displays, photovoltaics (PV), and flexible electronics. CNT and graphene transistors may be available commercially starting in 2015, according IDTechEx’s report, "Carbon Nanotubes and Graphene for Electronics Applications 2011-2021".

Printed and potentially printed electronics represent the biggest available market for these transistors: the value of devices incorporating CNT and/or graphene will top $44 billion in 2021.

Graphene materials have become commercially available in a short time, prompting application development and processing advances, notes Cathleen Thiele, technology analyst, IDTechEx. Graphene is a fraction of the weight and cost of CNTs, and could supplant it, as well as indium tin oxide (ITO) in some applications. Graphene has no band gap, and therefore must be modified (stacking layers of graphene in certain patterns, for example) to act as an electronic switch.

OLED and flexible PV cells will make up a $25 billion market in 2021, says Thiele, and some of these products will use graphene combined with other flexible, transparent electronic components

Graphene-based transistors are demonstrating high performance and lower cost, thanks to new graphene production methods. Graphene transistors are a potential successor to certain silicon components; an electron can move faster through graphene than through silicon. Tetrahertz computing is a possible application.

CNTs are still a strong research area, Thiele notes. They can be used in transistors and conductive layers in touch screens, and as a replacement for iTO. The cost of CNTs is dropping from prohibitively high levels seen a few years ago. Chemical companies are ramping manufacturing capacity. Carbon nanotubes face challenges related to separation and consistent growth. Electronics applications require CNTs of the same size, as size affects CNT properties.

For more information on “Carbon Nanotubes and Graphene for Electronics Applications 2011-2021,” contact: Raoul Escobar-Franco at [email protected], +1 617 577 7890 (USA), or visit www.IDTechEx.com/nano.

Printable CNT inks and graphene-based inks are beginning to hit the printed electronics market. IDTechEx will host the Printed Electronics & Photovoltaics USA conference & exhibition in Santa Clara, CA, November 30-December 1, www.IDTechEx.com/peUSA, with talks on both nanomaterials.

Graphene:
Dr Narayan Hosmane from Northern Illinois University will share how he almost by accident produced high-yields of graphene instead of the expected single-wall carbon nanotubes using the Dry-Ice Method. He will discuss synthetic methodologies for producing large volumes of graphene.

Kate Duncan from CERDEC, the U.S. Army Communications-Electronics Research, Development and Engineering Center, will present on direct write approaches to nanoscale electronics.

Prof Yang Yang, head of the Yang Group at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), will give a brief summary on olymer solar cells and UCLA developments with G-CNTs, a hybrid graphene-carbon nanotube material.

Dr Sanjay Monie, Vorbeck Materials, will give the latest R&D news on the Vor-ink line of conductive graphene inks and coatings for the printed electronics industry.

Carbon nanotubes:
Stephen Turner, Brewer Science, will talk about Aromatic Hydrocarbon Functionalization of carbon nanotubes for conductive applications. Brewer Science’s CNTRENE carbon nanotube material was developed for semiconductor, advanced packaging/3-D IC, MEMS, display, LED, and printed electronics applications.

Dr Philip Wallis, SWeNT, will discuss proprietary V2V ink technology and how SWeNT fabricates and tests TFT devices.

Dr Jamie Nova, Applied Nanotech (ANI), will cover CNT field emission.

September 14, 2011 – BUSINESS WIRE — MicroVision Inc. (Nasdaq:MVIS) secured a committed equity financing facility, wherein it can sell Azimuth Opportunity Ltd. up to $35 million of its shares of common stock over a 24-month period.

The facility enables MicroVision to "raise money to progress the development of the next-generation high-definition PicoP display engine" for pico projectors, vehicle displays, and wearable displays, commented Jeff Wilson, MicroVision CFO.

MicroVision may not issue more than 22,030,737 shares in connection with the facility, which is less than 20% of MicroVision’s outstanding shares of common stock on September 8, 2011.

Details: MicroVision is not obligated to use the facility and remains free to enter into and consummate other equity and debt financing transactions. MicroVision will determine, at its sole discretion, the timing, dollar amount and floor price per share for any draw under this facility, subject to certain limitations. When and if MicroVision elects to use the facility, the number and price of shares sold in each draw will be determined by a contractual formula and the investor will purchase shares at a pre-negotiated discount to either the volume-weighted-average price of MicroVision’s common stock over a multi-day pricing period or the floor price determined by MicroVision. The actual amount of funds that can be raised under this facility will depend on the number of shares actually sold under the agreement and the market value of MicroVision’s stock during the pricing period of each sale.

The shares of MicroVision common stock offered and sold to Azimuth have been registered on its existing registration statement on Form S-3 (File No. 333-175419). The registration statement also covers the sale of those shares from time to time by Azimuth to the public.

Reedland Capital Partners, an Institutional Division of Financial West Group, member FINRA/SIPC, will act as placement agent and receive a fee for its services at the time of any draw under the facility.

MicroVision makes the PicoP display technology platform, which uses highly efficient laser light sources that can create vivid images with high contrast and brightness. For more information, visit www.microvision.com.

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September 14, 2011 – PRWEB — Using a microreactor and control software, Quantum Materials Corporation (QMC) and the Access2Flow Consortium of the Netherlands achieved a continuous flow process to mass produce quantum dots.

With mass production, Quantum Materials Tetrapod Quantum Dots will be available in materials quantities needed for high-volume electronics products, such as solid-state lighting, quantum-dot light emitting diode (QLED) displays, nano-bio apps, etc. This process will also be used for QMC’s subsidiary, Solterra Renewable Technologies, for quantum dot solar cells and solar panels.

The continuous flow process claims yield and conversion improvements over batch quantum dot synthesis. QMC’s goal is 100kg/day production “with a 95% or greater yield,” explained Stephen Squires, founder and CEO of Quantum Materials Corporation. The inherent design of the microreactor allows for commercial-scale parallel modules to achieve large production rates at low cost in a regulated, optimized system. Materials choice for QD production is flexible, enabling work on heavy-metal (cadmium) free quantum dots and other biologically inert materials. Adaptability to other inorganic metals and elements is as important as the scaleability achieved in the process flow, said QMC CTO Dr. Bob Glass.

Also read: E beam litho, etch make identical quantum dots

While quantum dots offer performance improvements for products from LED displays to energy storage systems, lacking high-volume manufacturing methods have limited quantum dot integration into commercial products, say the Quantum Materials representatives. The continuous flow manufacturing process is meant to eliminate the difficulty in manufacturing quantum dots, the lack of quality and uniformity of quantum dots, and the corresponding high cost (average $2500-$6000/gram).

Quantum Materials Corporation uses volume manufacturing methods to establish a growing line of quantum dots. Learn more at http://www.qdotss.com.

Solterra Renewable Technologies Inc develops sustainable and cost-effective solar technology by replacing silicon wafer-based solar cells with Quantum Dot-based solar cells. Solterra is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Quantum Materials, Inc. Go to http://www.solterrasolarcells.com.

Access2Flow is a consortium of FutureChemistry, Flowid and Micronit Microfluidics based in the Netherlands. Access2Flow produces technology for converting small laboratory processes or “beaker batches” to full scale optimized "continuous flow chemistry."

September 14, 2011 – BUSINESS WIRE — 3M, via the 3M New Ventures organization, invested an undisclosed sum in Pixel Qi Corp., an LCD panel developer with operations in Taiwan and California. The funding led by 3M New Ventures concludes Pixel Qi’s series B investment round.

The 3 yr. old company designs LCD screens that can be read in sunlight and consume less power than traditional LCD panels. They target mobile device integration.

3M expects "new opportunities for both companies" to emerge from the partnership, "combining Pixel Qi’s disruptive display technology with [3M’s] technology platforms," said Stefan Gabriel, president of 3M New Ventures. Pixel Qi will leverage the investment to accelerate adoption of its full function color LCD screen for indoor/outdoor use, said Dr. Mary Lou Jepsen, co-founder and CEO of Pixel Qi. The funding will enable Pixel Qi to develop its product offerings into volume consumer markets, as well as digital signage and touch applications; it also will support Pixel Qi’s build up of engineering and sales capabilities.

3M’s Optical Systems Division makes the specialized films used in LCD displays to optimize light throughput.

3M New Ventures identifies highly innovative companies and future technologies. These opportunities include investments in the strategic sectors of display, energy, water, architecture, media, healthcare and safety and security, with linkages to 3M.

Pixel Qi Corporation designs innovative LCD screens and operates as a fabless display house. Pixel Qi designs all layers of the LCD, including every mask, the liquid crystal mode and material, the optical films, the driving scheme and the backlight. Pixel Qi, is a spinoff of One Laptop Per Child, the creator of the $100 laptop, where Pixel Qi CEO and founder Mary Lou Jepsen was chief architect and chief technology officer. For further information, visit www.pixelqi.com.

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September 9, 2011 – BUSINESS WIRE — QD Vision Inc., nanotechnology-based optical product developer, relocated to a new, high-volume production facility in Lexington, MA, gearing up for new product launches in 2012.

The Lexington building houses QD Vision’s global headquarters and production and development facilities. The company makes quantum dots via a precisely controlled chemical synthesis process. The manufacturing process requires a skilled, educated workforce, said Jason Carlson, QD Vision CEO. The Lexington, MA, site will produce quantum dots in high volume.

QD Vision has partnerships for its Quantum Light optics deploying in consumer electronics products. For displays, quantum dot technology expands the color gamut and reduces manufacturing and operating costs and power use. Solid state lighting companies are using QD Vision products to make warm white high-efficiency LEDs. In August, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) of the US Department of Defense (DoD) awarded QD Vision Inc. $900,000 to advance their QD-based infrared materials and deliver two prototype devices over the next 12 months.

QD Vision is a quantum dot (QD) product company serving display and lighting markets. Learn more at www.qdvision.com.