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In a short term, UV curing will drive the UV LED market, announces Yole Développement (Yole) in its new LED report entitled UV LEDs: Technology, Manufacturing and Applications Trends.

But UVC LED’s recent price reduction will see the UV disinfection/purification market take over the UV curing market by 2019/2020. In this context, Yole’s analysts expect the UVC LED market to strongly grow from US$7 million in 2015 to US$610 million by 2021.

uv led curing

With an increased penetration rate in all applications, the UVA LED market will grow from US$107 million in 2015 to US$357 million by 2021. In addition to a moderated growth due to price pressure, Yole announces a very strong increase in number of devices.

Under this new UV LED report, 2016 edition, Yole details the latest technology and market trends. This comprehensive survey provides a deep understanding of the UV lamp business and its technological transition to UV LEDs. It is a thorough analysis of each UV lamp application (UVA/UVB/UVC) with a specific focus on UV curing, UV disinfection/purification and analytical instruments using UV light. Yole’s report highlights the global UV LED industry trends, from substrate to system and details the main challenges and axis of research.

“The UVC LED industry is still small but strong growth is expected in the next 18 months due to dramatic price reductions”, explains Pierrick Boulay, Market & Technology Analyst, LED & OLED at Yole. And he adds: “In 2016 prices are 1/8-1/10 of what they were in 2015.”
This has been triggered by the industry’s development, its transition to mass production and improved device performance. With most of the industry believing that US$1-US$4/mW is the price that would trigger mass market adoption we are getting close to a UVC LED market boom. Another positive sign is that most UVC LED manufacturers are now focusing on developing cost-effective solutions rather than improving device power output. In parallel, the UVC LED industry continues to work on increasing lifetime and developing lower wavelength devices, below 280nm.

In parallel, UVA LEDs continue to progress in the UV curing space. “Continuous improvement of device performance coupled with price reduction has allowed the technology to be increasingly adopted in UV curing applications”, asserts Pars Mukish, Business Unit Manager, at Yole. “Penetration of UV LEDs is increasing but we observe differences in adoption rates depending on application.” Small size and low speed applications like spot adhesive and digital inkjets have the highest adoption rate, and most new developments use UV LEDs. This is due to the small module size and low irradiance level needed that limits the extra cost of integrating UV LEDs compared to the total price of systems like inkjet printers. On the other hand, applications that need high speed processes and/or high levels of irradiance such as screen printing or coating applications have lower adoption rates. This is because UV LED performance is not yet good enough to fully replace traditional mercury lamps.

“Today UVA still represents the largest UV LED market but this trend could change in the future as UV LED performances increase,” announces Yole’ analysts. UV LEDs also enable new applications inaccessible to UV lamp. If these new applications take off, they could represent and additional revenue of nearly US$143 million in 2021.

Yole’s UV LED report highlights the market structure, UV LED market drivers and associated technical challenges, recent trends and new applications created by UV LEDs. It also includes UV LED market size split by application, and much more.

IHS Markit (Nasdaq: INFO) today released its annual 2015 revenue-share ranking of the top LED suppliers in backlighting, automotive, lighting and other applications.

According to the 2016 edition of the IHS Markit Packaged LED Report, Nichia led in both lighting and mobile applications for 2015, with 12.9 percent share of the total packaged LED market. Nichia was followed by Osram and Lumileds with a combined share of 14.7 percent.

“It’s not a surprise that Nichia led in more than one application,” said Alice Tao, senior analyst, LEDs and lighting for IHS Markit. “In 2015, Nichia overtook Cree, which led the lighting category in 2014. Nichia was also very strong in mobile phone LEDs, since the company is a major supplier for Apple’s iPhone.”

Samsung was the leading supplier in backlighting, which includes LEDs used in TVs, monitors, notebook PCs and tablet PCs. Nichia followed in second position and LG Innotek ranked third.

Osram has been the leading supplier of automotive LEDs for many years. Its market share was 35 percent in 2015 for LEDs used in the total automotive market and 40 percent for those used in the automotive exterior market. It also led in the “other” application, which includes LEDs used for industrial, medical, security, projection, signage and off-specification applications.

Leading packaged LEDs suppliers
(Millions of Dollars)  
   
Category

Leading supplier
Lighting

Nichia
Backlighting

Samsung
Mobile phone

Nichia
Automotive

Osram
Other

Osram

 

The IHS Markit Packaged LED Report provides detailed quantitative market sizes and supplier shares by application, region and product type. For more information about purchasing IHS Markit information, contact the sales department at [email protected].

Although liquid-crystal display (LCD) has dominated mobile phone displays for more than 15 years, organic light-emitting diode (OLED) display technology is set to become the leading smartphone display technology in 2020, according to IHS Markit (Nasdaq: INFO). AMOLED displays with a low-temperature polysilicon (LTPS) backplane will account for more than one-third (36 percent) of all smartphone displays shipped in 2020, becoming the most-used display technology in smartphone displays, surpassing a-Si (amorphous silicon) thin-film transistor (TFT) LCD and LTPS TFT LCD displays.

“While OLED is currently more difficult to manufacture, uses more complicated materials and chemical processes, and requires a keen focus on yield-rate management, it is an increasingly attractive technology for smartphone brands,” said David Hsieh, senior director, IHS Markit. “OLED displays are not only thinner and lighter than LCD displays, but they also boast better color performance and enable flexible display form factors that can lead to more innovative design.”

Samsung Electronics has already adopted OLED displays in its smartphone models, and there is also increasing demand from Chinese Huawei, OPPO, Vivo, Meizu and other smartphone brands. Apple is also now widely expected to use OLED displays in its upcoming iPhone models.

At one time, OLED displays were entirely glass-based and in terms of performance, there was little difference between LCD and OLED displays. Now, flexible OLED displays made from thinner and lighter plastic are enabled and have drawn Apple’s attention. “Apple’s upcoming adoption of OLED displays will be a milestone for OLED in the display industry,” Hsieh said.

Samsung Display, LG Display, Sharp, JDI, BOE, Tianma, GVO, Truly, and CSOT are also starting to ramp up their AMOLED manufacturing capacities and devote more resources to technology development. Samsung Display’s enormous sixth-generation A3 AMOLED fab, for example, will enable even more AMOLED displays to reach the market. Global AMOLED manufacturing capacity will increase from 5 million square meters in 2014 to 30 million square meters in 2020.

“Many display manufacturers were investing in LTPS LCD, thinking it would overtake a-Si technology,” Hsieh said. “However, many of the fabs under construction, especially in China, have had to change their plans to add OLED evaporation and encapsulation tools, because OLED penetration has been more rapid than previously expected.”

A collaboration of researchers from Kumamoto, Yamaguchi, and Osaka Universities in Japan have discovered a new method of drastically changing the color and fluorescence of a particular compound using only oxygen (O2) and hydrogen (H2) gases. The fully reversible reaction is environmentally friendly since it produces only water as a byproduct. Rather than using electrical or photo energy, the discovery uses energy from the gases themselves, which is expected to become a future trend, to switch the color and fluorescence properties. The technique could be used as a detection sensor for hydrogen or oxygen gases as well as for property controls of organic semiconductors and organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs).

An efficient chemical synthesis method for picene-13, 14-dione. Credit: Dr. Hayato Ishikawa

An efficient chemical synthesis method for picene-13, 14-dione. Credit: Dr. Hayato Ishikawa

Polyaromatic compounds (PACs) are widely used in fluorescent materials, semiconductor materials, organic EL devices, and organic solar-cell devices. The research performed at Kumamoto University focused on using energy from gases to trigger a molecular switch in a PAC. In particular, focus was placed on H2 as a reductant and O2 as an oxidant.

“We tried to determine the most attractive compounds that could freely and dramatically change the optical properties of the PAC with a redox reaction,” said Associate Professor Hayato Ishikawa from Kumamoto University. “Specifically, we introduced an orthoquinone moiety to the PAC that possessed the most ideal switching properties under a redox reaction with hydrogen and oxygen gases.”

To determine the candidates with the best switching properties, researchers screened several orthoquinone-containing aromatic compounds in a computational study. The ideal molecules clearly showed switching between fluorescence emission and quenching, and between a colored and colorless state.

Picene-13, 14-dione was nominated as the most promising candidate from the computational analysis. The researchers then developed an original protocol to efficiently synthesize the compound from commercially available petroleum raw materials. The key steps for the synthesis were the transition metal-catalyzed coupling reaction and the ring construction reaction by an organocatalyst. This synthetic methodology is also applicable to the synthesis of various other similar compounds or derivatives.

A palladium nanoparticle catalyst was added to the synthesized picene-13, 14-dione and then H2 gas was bubbled into the solution. As predicted by the computational study, a dramatic change in color and fluorescence of the solution was observed; its color and fluorescence changed from yellow to colorless, and from non-fluorescent to blue fluorescent respectively. The subsequent reverse oxidation proceeded smoothly when H2 gas was exchanged for O2 gas, and the solution reverted back to its original state.

“When we performed a detailed analysis, it was revealed that the resultant changes in color and fluorescence were caused by two different molecular states. The prediction of these states, and our ideas about this phenomenon, were strongly supported by both the computational analysis and the experimental results,” said Associate Professor Ishikawa. “This molecular switching technology of an aromatic compound using an orthoquinone moiety is a new insight that appears to have been reported first by our research team.”

An important advantage of this technology is that it is environmentally friendly since the byproduct of the reaction is simply water. Additionally, the synthetic PACs don’t experience very much damage after each reaction meaning that the molecular switch has excellent reusability.

“We have considered a wide range of future applications for this molecular technique,” said Associate Professor Masaki Matsuda, a research collaborator from Kumamoto University. “For example, we can put this molecular sheet into a package of food filled with an inert gas to check whether oxygen, which promotes the spoilage of food, has entered the package. All that would be required is a simple check under a UV light; the package wouldn’t even have to be opened. Organic semiconductors and OLEDs could also benefit from the ability to control optical properties using energy from gases. For example, organic semiconductors could be made to change their electrical properties, and OLEDs could show on/off switching characteristics by using the energy from gas that is supplied to it. The applications for this technology are numerous.”

The findings of this research were published in the Angewandte Chemie International Edition, online edition, on May 4th, 2016.

By Shannon Davis, Web Editor

Kateeva is out to change the way displays are being made, and during Tuesday’s Silicon Innovation Forum keynote, Kateeva President and COO Conor Madigan, PhD, laid out how their YIELDJet inkjet system is making that happen.

In recent years, OLED displays have captured the imagination of the industry because of the materials’ capability to enable new kinds of form factors, specifically flexible displays. One of the compelling characteristics of OLED is designers can make a display on a thin piece of plastic, freeing them from rigid glass.

Another compelling aspect, Madigan explained, is that OLED displays have fewer subcomponents than their LCD counter parts, so manufacturing cost can be lower. And he believes inkjet technology will play a key role in making OLED more affordable. His company, Silicon Valley-based Kateeva, has focused their efforts on developing an inkjet platform for OLED manufacturing called YIELDJet, a completely different style of inkjet system.

Kateeva’s YIELDJet inkjet printing platform.

Kateeva’s YIELDJet inkjet printing platform.

When the concept of flexible OLEDs was first catching on, designers had some significant manufacturing obstacles to overcome, Madigan explained. Designers in R&D were using vacuum-based technique for depositing the films in the OLED structure.

“It was very slow; it required planarization to make a smooth surface, and this didn’t do that well,” said Madigan. “There were many particle defects, and the cost was high.”

Kateeva worked with adapting inkjet technology to this process. Madigan explained that YIELDJet uses individual droplets of ink in a pattern, merges that ink together, and then uses UV lights to cure into a single layer, which has improved the quality of the films.

“Nowadays, we’re focused on broadly enabling low cost, mass production OLEDs with inkjet printing,” Madigan said. “What we’re working on now is a general deposition platform for putting down patterned films at high speed over large areas, realizing the full potential of inkjet technology for the display industry.”

In developing Kateeva’s YIELDJet, Madigan said they focused on how the glass would be handled, how to perform maintenance on a printer system that would be completely enclosed in a nitrogen environment, and managing particle decontamination.

YIELDJet employs a technique that floats a panel of glass on a vacuum and pressure holds, holding it at the very edge, which significantly reduces the size of the system when compared to conventional system which requires glass be moved on a large, often bulky holder. To address accessibility of their complicated system, Kateeva engineers made the system fully automated and able to recover quickly if it needed to be opened up to air.

“It was a new thing to make a printer that was low particle contaminating,” said Madigan. “In one of these printers, you have about ten thousand nozzles, to do fast coating.”

Kateeva was able to develop techniques to monitor all of these nozzles simultaneously, resulting in completely uniform coatings and films.

“The analysis that we’ve done with our customers is that, once they can move to inkjet printing, then you’ll quickly see OLED come down to cost parity and even be below LCD in cost,” Madigan concluded.

Let there be light


June 17, 2016

University of Utah materials science and engineering associate professor Mike Scarpulla wants to shed light on semiconductors — literally.

Scarpulla and senior scientist Kirstin Alberi of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colorado, have developed a theory that adding light during the manufacturing of semiconductors — the materials that make up the essential parts of computer chips, solar cells and light emitting diodes (LEDs) — can reduce defects and potentially make more efficient solar cells or brighter LEDs. The role of light in semiconductor manufacturing may help explain many puzzling differences between processing methods as well as unlock the potential of materials that could not be used previously.

Scarpulla and Alberi reported their findings in a paper titled “Suppression of Compensating Native Defect Formation During Semiconductor Processing Via Excess Carriers,” published June 16 in the journal, Scientific Reports. The research was funded by grants from the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Basic Energy Sciences.

Semiconductors are pure materials used to produce electronic components such as computer chips, solar cells, radios used in cellphones or LEDs. The theory developed by Scarpulla and Alberi applies to all semiconductors but is most exciting for compound semiconductors — such as gallium arsenide (GaAs), cadmium telluride (CdTe), or gallium nitride (GaN) — that are produced by combining two or more elements from the periodic table. GaAs is used in microwave radios in cellphones, CdTe in solar panels, and GaN in LED light bulbs.

The fact that compound semiconductors require more than one chemical element make them susceptible to defects in the material at an atomic scale, says Scarpulla, who also is a University of Utah electrical and computer engineering associate professor.

“Defects produce lots of effects like difficulty in controlling the conductivity of the material, difficulty in being able to turn sunlight into electricity efficiently in the case of solar cells or difficulty in emitting light efficiently in the case of LEDs,” he says.

For nearly a century, researchers have usually assumed that the numbers of these defects in semiconductors were uniquely defined by the temperature and pressure during processing. “We worked out a complete theory that couples light into that problem,” Scarpulla says.

The team discovered that if you add light while firing the material in a furnace at high temperatures, the light generates extra electrons that can change the composition of the material.

“We ran simulations of what happens,” Scarpulla says. “If you put a piece of a semiconductor in a furnace in the dark, you would get one set of properties from it. But when you shine light on it in the furnace, it turns out you suppress these more problematic defects. We think it may allow us to get around some tricky problems with certain materials that have prevented their use for decades. The exciting work is in the future though — actually testing these predictions to make better devices.”

The team is working to apply their theory to as many semiconductors as possible and testing the real world results. For example, the team believes this could improve the efficiency of solar panels that use thin films of cadmium telluride and even those made from silicon.

“It’s really cool to be working on this fundamental problem in semiconductors,” says Scarpulla. “Most of the ideas were worked out decades ago, so it is really exciting to be able to make a contribution to something fundamental. It feels like we have shined light onto a new path and we don’t know how far it will take us.”

Almost two years after GTAT’s bankruptcy, the sapphire industry is still there. Its decor and characters have, of course, changed but the story is still unfolding. Survival strategies, emerging applications and niche markets, mergers and acquisitions. All the protagonists are contributing to altering the landscape, trying to identify new business opportunities to absorb the sapphire overcapacity. China is a major contributor to the story with new investments and emerging companies in this already saturated industry. What is the impact on the sapphire supply chain? What are the strategies to be adopted to succeed? What are the long-term perspectives?

Figure 1

Figure 1

In this tense economic environment, Yole Développement (Yole) and its partner CIOE are organizing a 1.5 day conference to learn more about the status of the sapphire industry. The event will provide an opportunity for all the participants to discuss the future of this industry and to find answers. Sapphire is now more affordable than ever and new capabilities have enabled the manufacturing of components for very diverse applications. The 2nd International Forum on Sapphire Market & Technologies is the place to be to understand today’s economic and technical challenges and build tomorrow’s industry.

The Yole & CIOE Forum will take place from September 6 to 7 in Shenzhen, China, alongside the 18th China International Optoelectronic Expo 2016. To find out more about this event, visit: Sapphire Forum Agenda – Sapphire Forum Registration.

Figure 2

Figure 2

 The LED sector still has the highest demand for sapphire, but the expected volumes cannot sustain the one hundred or so sapphire producers currently competing in the industry.
Some sapphire companies are leaving the most commoditized markets and shifting their development strategies toward niche markets with higher added-value such as medical, industrial and military applications. Other business opportunities could materialize, including microLED arrays and other consumer applications.

Most sapphire companies are chasing any opportunity to survive and optimize their cost structure within a market which is currently characterized by a relentless price war. In Q1- 2016, the sapphire price plunged to its lowest ever level and most companies experienced a drastic decrease in revenue.

In this highly competitive market with significant economic constraints, Yole and CIOE are organizing the 2nd International Forum on Sapphire Market & Technologies (Shenzhen, China – September 6&7, 2016).

“The Sapphire Forum is an opportunity for the entire supply chain to come together to assess the current status of the industry, understand what lies ahead and determine the best strategies to make it through the crisis”, comments Dr. Eric Virey, Senior Technology & Market Analyst, Yole.

Today, SEMI announced that 19 new fabs and lines are forecasted to begin construction in 2016 and 2017, according to the latest update of the SEMI World Fab Forecast report. While semiconductor fab equipment spending is off to a slow start in 2016, it is expected to gain momentum through the end of the year. For 2016, 1.5 percent growth over 2015 is expected while 13 percent growth is forecast in 2017.

Fab equipment spending ─ including new, secondary, and in-house ─ was down 2 percent in 2015. However, activity in the 3D NAND, 10nm Logic, and Foundry segments is expected to push equipment spending up to US$36 billion in 2016, 1.5 percent over 2015, and to $40.7 billion in 2017, up 13 percent. Equipment will be purchased for existing fabs, lines that are being converted to leading-edge technology, as well as equipment going into new fabs and lines that began construction in the prior year.

Table 1 shows the regions where new fabs and lines are expected to be built in 2016 and 2017. These projects have a probability of 60 percent or higher, according to SEMI’s data. While some projects are already underway, others may be subject to delays or pushed into the following year. The SEMI World Fab Forecast report, published May 31, 2016, provides more details about the construction boom.

new fab lines

Breaking down the 19 projects by wafer size, 12 of the fabs and lines are for 300mm (12-inch), four for 200mm, and three LED fabs (150mm, 100mm, and 50mm). Not including LEDs, the potential installed capacity of all these fabs and lines is estimated at almost 210,000 wafer starts per month (in 300mm equivalents) for fabs beginning construction in 2016 and 330,000 wafer starts per month (in 300mm equivalents) for fabs beginning construction in 2017.

In addition to announced and planned new fabs and lines, SEMI’s World Fab Forecast provides information about existing fabs and lines with associated construction spending, e.g. when a cleanroom is converted to a larger wafer size or a different product type.

In addition, the transition to leading-edge technologies (as we can see in planar technologies, but also in 3D technologies) creates a reduction in installed capacity within an existing fab. To compensate for this reduction, more conversions of older fabs may take place, but also additional new fabs and lines may begin construction.

For insight into semiconductor manufacturing in 2016 and 2017 with details about capex for construction projects, fab equipping, technology levels, and products, visit the SEMI Fab Database webpage and order the SEMI World Fab Forecast Report. The report, in Excel format, tracks spending and capacities for over 1,100 facilities including over 60 future facilities, across industry segments from Analog, Power, Logic, MPU, Memory, and Foundry to MEMS and LEDs facilities.

The car is not a simple mode of transportation anymore. In addition to security and autonomous driving features, car manufacturers are considering more and more functionalities to propose vehicles as custom and fashion item.

During the last few years, electronic, optoelectronic, software and various digital technologies along with societal changes are increasingly pressuring the automotive players in transforming offerings and business models faster than ever before. Under this context, automotive OEM firms remain focused on core competencies and also develop new ones. Lighting technologies are part of them.
The lighting market for automotive applications should reach a 23.7% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) 2015-2121 reaching a US$27.7 billion market in 2021, announces Yole Développement (Yole) in its latest LED report entitled “Automotive Lighting: Technology, Industry and Market trends”. The increasing role of design and the introduction of new functionalities including ambient light, rear light, turn signal, parking & day ruing lights, fog light, low/high beam light and more are the reasons of this success. But what are the companies behind this impressive growth? What will be the impact on the supply chain? LED, OLED – which technologies are today able to answer to the market needs? The market research and strategy consulting offers today its vision of this industry.

With this new technology & market analysis, the “More than Moore” company, Yole investigates the attractive world of lighting solutions for automotive applications. The automotive lighting report from Yole analyzes the status of the market and its applications. It reviews the structure of the automotive lighting industry and details the market and technology trends. Under this new analysis, Yole’s experts present the main lighting technologies developed for automotive applications and propose valuable roadmaps until 2021. They cover the whole supply chain from devices to systems and give market insights between 2013 and 2021.

With the recent integration of LED technology, lighting has evolved from a basic, functional feature to a distinctive feature with high-value potential in automotive. Indeed, LED technology has given manufacturers the opportunity for strong differentiation via lighting design and additional functionalities. This is particularly true for exterior lighting, but it is also spreading to interior lighting. These changes are heavily impacting the supply chain, with new suppliers and a new value chain emerging.

In 2015, the automotive lighting market totaled nearly US$22.4 billion, up 5.4% from 2014. “This growth was driven by increased lighting system content per vehicle and a more favorable product mix driven by strong adoption of LED-based front lighting systems,” says Pars Mukish, Business Manager, LED, OLED and sapphire activities at Yole. Indeed, headlamp and DRL systems represented 43% and 28% of total 2015 revenue, respectively. Other lighting systems including rear combination light/center high-mounted signal light, interior light, and side turn-signal light comprised the remaining 29% of 2015 revenue. According to Yole’s analysts, the automotive lighting market will continue growing, reaching a market size of almost US$27.7 billion by 2021 – +23.7% compared to 2015, and driven by different growth areas:
• Short-term: increased LED technology penetration rate into different automotive lighting applications/systems, and increased lighting content per vehicle.
• Middle/long-term: potential integration of new lighting technologies like OLED and laser, development of AFLS and other security functions, and incredible developments employing lighting as a new design feature.

automotive lighting industry

“From a geographic point of view, Asia is the largest market for automotive lighting systems, reflecting the trends in term of vehicle production location but with higher share of revenue from Europe due to more favorable product mix in this area,” explains Pierric Boulay, Technology & Market Analyst at Yole. However European and Japanese companies dominate and supply together 81% of the market:
• Koito, Stanley and Ichikoh capture 40% of the revenue
• From an European side, Yole’s analysts announce 13-14% market share for each key European players: Magneti Marelli, Hella and Valeo.

Yole’s report presents all automotive lighting applications and the associated market revenue for the period 2013 – 2021, with details concerning drivers and challenges, integration status of different lighting technologies and systems, recent trends, and market size per application

Kateeva today announced that it has closed its Series E funding round with $88 million in new financing.

The Silicon Valley technology leader disrupted the flat panel display industry when it launched a breakthrough equipment solution to mass-produce flexible Organic Light Emitting Diodes (OLEDs). Flexible OLED technology gives limitless stretch to new product design innovation by liberating panel manufacturers from the constraints of glass substrates. It enables ultra-thin, feather-light displays that are bendable, roll-able, and even fold-able. Kateeva’s solution, known as the YIELDjet™ platform, leverages inkjet printing with novel innovations to perform critical steps in the OLED manufacturing process. Today, YIELDjet tools are helping to accelerate the adoption of OLED technology — a trend that’s taking the global display industry to exciting new heights.

The new Kateeva investors are: BOE, Cybernaut Venture, GP Capital Shanghai, Redview Capital, and TCL Capital, all located in China. They join existing investors that include: Samsung Venture Investment Corporation (SVIC), Sigma Partners, Spark Capital, Madrone Capital Partners, DBL Partners, New Science Ventures, and VEECO Instruments, Inc.

The company has raised $200 million since it was founded in 2008.

New Board seats will be filled by an executive from BOE, Redview Capital, and TCL Capital respectively.

The funds will accelerate new product development. The money will also help Kateeva expand manufacturing capacity at its Silicon Valley headquarters, where production systems are being built. In addition, the funds will strengthen Kateeva’s customer satisfaction infrastructure in Asia, and support continued R&D.

The round closes as demand for flexible OLED displays soars. This year, the market for plastic and flexible OLED displays will reach $2.1 billion, says Guillaume Chansin, Ph.D., Senior Technology Analyst at research firm IDTechEx. By 2020, it will surpass $18 billion. While mobile phones and wearables are currently the two main applications, Chansin expects that the technology will be found in tablets and automotive in the coming years.

The market trajectory is due to the confluence of two trends: first, voracious demand for flexible devices made possible by the enabling advantages of OLED technology; and second, the introduction of manufacturing tools like Kateeva’s YIELDjet platform that provided a pathway to cost-effective mass-production of flexible OLEDs for the first time.

Kateeva Chairman and CEO Alain Harrus, Ph.D. noted how OLED technology first transformed the viewing experience by giving spectacular color quality and brightness to rigid displays on mobile phones. “Now, it’s giving extraordinary new shape, lightness and thinness to those products and others that have yet to be invented,” he said. “Kateeva started enabling this “freedom from glass” display innovation in 2008 when our founders began pioneering a superior mass-production equipment solution for OLEDs. Today, Kateeva tools are positioned in top OLED manufacturing fabs. Our investors were stalwart partners along the way. We’re grateful for their support, and we welcome our new investors.”

Flexible OLED is the first major application for Kateeva’s YIELDjet platform, according to President and Co-Founder Conor Madigan, Ph.D. “Next up is OLED TV,” he said. “Having mastered the technical challenges of mass-producing Thin Film Encapsulation (TFE) — the layer that gives thinness and flexibility to the OLED device, we’re now applying YIELDjet technology to help display manufacturers mass-produce the OLED RGB layer, which enables OLED TVs. The new funds will accelerate new product development, and support ongoing R&D.”

Kateeva executives will be present at Display Week 2016. The premier international symposium for the display industry will be held May 22-27 at the Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco, Calif. President and Co-Founder Conor Madigan, Ph.D. will present on Kateeva’s technology on Monday, May 23. Chairman and CEO Alain Harrus, Ph.D. will speak at the Investors Conference on Tuesday, May 24.