World’s first flexible, plastic, organic AMOLED display revealed
Cambridge-based Plastic Logic, flexible organic electronics specialist, has partnered with Dresden-based Novaled, an organic electronic materials and technology for OLED applications to accelerate the market for flexible and wearable displays.
The Flextech deomonstration will be the first of a planned series of technology demonstrators during 2014, which will form part of each company’s development of partnerships to enable the market for truly flexible, unbreakable AMOLED displays.
The demonstrator heralds a breakthrough by combining for the first time a functional all-plastic AMOLED display with an industrialised turnkey manufacturing process for the backplane electronics. The combination marks the beginning of a new chapter for display makers searching for a path to ultra-flexible, ultra-thin, lightweight AMOLEDs, using a low temperature process which has a number of key industrial benefits, including superior uniformity, yield and hence ultimately a route to low cost solutions for volume manufacturing.
Novaled’s PIN OLED technology enables the use of non-standard electrode materials needed for the flexible AMOLED development. Plastic Logic’s fully industrialised plastic, flexible Organic Thin Film Transistor (OTFT) backplane and know-how enabled the world’s first fully organic, flexible display. The partners are looking for the truly flexible AMOLEDs, and the increased usable screen areas they make possible, to power the next generation of products for the wearables market.
Through the OTFT industrialisation process Plastic Logic has created IP and a transferable process-flow. With an entire supply chain in place, OTFT manufacturing has now reached a tipping point in performance with leading organic semiconductor (OSC) materials suppliers, including Merck whose OSC material was used in the demonstration, now showing mobilities required to drive OLED displays. The process is compatible with existing mainstream display manufacturing operations, underpinning a new technology licensing business model. Plastic Logic has already established a partner program to work with leading global display makers and consumer electronics companies to enable flexible, plastic AMOLED supply chains through licensing and technology transfer to mass volume producers.
Indro Mukerjee, CEO of Plastic Logic, said: "Flexible electronics is a reality, already proven through the development and manufacture of plastic, bendable displays and sensors. For the first time a fully organic, plastic, flexible AMOLED demonstration has been achieved with a real industrial fabrication process. This marks the start of a revolution in wearable products, the next frontier in consumer electronics – 2014 will be the year that wearable technology starts to go mainstream."
"Novaled has been developing its leadership in the doping of OLED devices," commented Gildas Sorin, CEO Novaled GmbH. "When applied to the OTFT Novaled technologies and materials will play a driving role in fully organic displays as well as in opening the fields of new organic devices."
Related articles and links:
News articles:
Novaled receives German-French-Economy Award for OLED technology developments
Novaled, Samsung Mobile Display sign strategic cooperation agreement
If you enjoyed this article, you will like the following ones: don't miss them by subscribing to :
