DuPont and Dainippon Screen to Develop Printed OLED Technology for Growing Flat Panel Displays Market

DuPont and Dainippon Screen Manufacturing Co Ltd have announced their intention to form a strategic alliance to develop integrated manufacturing equipment for printed organic light emitting diode (OLED) displays. The companies also have signed an agreement relating to their intention to bring together the elements needed – materials, technology and equipment – to mass produce OLED displays, delivering higher performance at a lower cost.

According to the companies, OLEDs are displays in which pixels are created using thin films made of emissive organic materials. Compared with liquid crystal displays (LCDs), OLEDs can have much higher contrast ratios, lower power consumption (because pixels draw power only when they are in use), faster response time, and eliminate the need for the backlight and color filter. Small-size active matrix OLED displays have recently become available from several manufacturers, but the current high-cost of manufacturing limits market adoption, and constrains OLED manufacturing for large size displays.

"The flat panel display market is about $100 billion annually and growing. DuPont is applying its science to make possible more vivid displays that are lower cost than current LCD displays,” said David B Miller, Group Vice President, DuPont Electronic & Communication Technologies. “We are excited to combine our strengths with Dainippon Screen’s unique printing technology to bring to market the core technology that will enable improved high definition televisions and other flat panel displays."

The companies are developing integrated coating and printing equipment for the fabrication of OLED displays from solution, an approach which, according to the companies, is unique in the industry and can significantly reduce manufacturing costs for OLED displays. DuPont brings to the alliance its distinctive small molecule-based OLED solution materials and proprietary process technology from which excellent performance has been obtained in testing. Dainippon Screen has developed a printing technology, called nozzle printing, in which the OLED materials can be printed accurately at very high speed. The goal of the alliance is to develop integrated OLED printing and coating equipment that will significantly reduce the production costs of flat panel displays, with the aim of extending OLED technology to large size displays and making them cost-competitive with LCDs.

The companies have been working together over the past three years to jointly develop nozzle printers as an efficient method for printing OLED displays from solution. The first production scale printer is currently being constructed.

“We were interested in extending our deep LCD equipment experience into the OLED marketplace and we felt that DuPont had developed a much needed, viable approach to OLED materials and technology that could expedite the commercialization of cost-effective OLED manufacturing,” said Yoshinari Yaoi, Corporate Senior Executive Officer and President, FPD Equipment Company, Dainippon Screen. “We believe that this alliance could be the key for manufacturers to be able to produce affordable, high-quality larger sized OLEDs using our unique nozzle printer technology.”

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