Startup printer development makes bendable displays commercially viable
Kateeva has pioneered an inkjet printing manufacturing equipment solution enables OLEDs to be produced over large areas and in high volume – with longer lifetimes, higher yields and lower costs. The startup’s approach claims to solve key manufacturing challenges that previously prevented the well-proven inkjet technique from scaling to perform reliable, high-volume OLED printing.
The development should enable OLED producers of curved, bendable, and flexible displays, as well as large displays like 55-inch TVs to use economically viable and production-worthy inkjet printing for low-cost mass-production of OLED displays.
In January 2013, Samsung demonstrated a flexible screen at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, USA which promised the potential for smart watches with displays that wrap around your wrist, or portable devices that can be folded up and popped in a pocket.
Subsequent to the event the prototypes did not prove durable enough to commercialize because of difficulties with sealing the OLEDs used in the display from water vapor and oxygen.
Kateeva has developed an inkjet printing process that claims to be to apply a protective coating to OLEDs far faster than previous methods. The development promises to cut manufacturing costs in half, and make it possible to integrate the process into existing production lines more easily.
Related articles and links:
kateeva.com
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