The University of Hull has spun out Polar OLED, an OLED display firm which claims to have materials that allow significant cuts in display manufacturing costs.
Its intellectual property is based around polymerisable liquid crystaline organic semiconductors, which are distinct from conventional small molecule and polymer OLED materials, company co-founder Professor Steve Kelly told Electronics Weekly.
"We process at room temperature and without a vacuum," he said. "We form insoluble polymer networks, which means you can use standard [LCD fab] photo-lithography to make nice uniform rectangular pixels."
The materials are fluorescent, which means they are fast enough for display use.
However, they cannot compete with the slower, more efficient, phosphorescent OLED materials in lighting applications.
High brightness has already been demonstrated. "We can produce thousands of cd/m2. A laptop only averages about 100," said Kelly, adding: "We can do red green and blue: the colour gamut is pretty good."
Lifetime and efficiency have yet to be measured, which is where development partners will come in.
Potential partners are already in discussions, said Kelly, who will not say who they are.
One unusual characteristic of the material is that, as well as normal light, it can be deposited to produce linearly-polarised light. "This would be attractive to LCD makers because they could get rid of one polariser," said Kelly.
And two orthogonally polarised OLED displays of this type could be used to produce a 3D image.
The Hull materials can be deposited on glass or on plastic, said the University, but like all OLED materials so far discovered, plastic substrates can only be used of appropriate barrier layers are applied to prevent water and oxygen ingress.
Funding for the start-up has come partly from IP Group.
"We look forward to working closely with major strategic players to attract further interest and investment," said IP Group investment manager Danny Lynham.
Kelly comes from the University's chemistry department where he worked with Professor George Gray who pioneered liquid crystal research - the first stable liquid crystals were invented at the University in 1971.
Alongside Kelly is Professor Mary O'Neill from the University's physics department with whom he shares the University's interdisciplinary team investigating photonic and optoelectronic applications for liquid crystals.
Polar OLED's lead scientist is Dr Stuart Kitney.