The UK's national printable electronics manufacturing centre PETEC is to develop flexible displays with Arizona State University (ASU).
Sedgefield-based PETEC has an 800m2 clean room and specialises in developing processes to print thin-film transistor (TFT) arrays for backplanes, as well as printing plastic solar cells and plastic light sources.
"The university is bringing expertise in integrating backplanes with front planes and drive electronics," PETEC director Tom Taylor told EW. "PETEC joins the university's Flexible Display Center with a goal of better understanding the process requirements for organic TFT backplane fabrication for both reflective and emissive displays."
PETEC was set up with UK government funding to become a self-supporting business unit of the Centre for Process Innovation (CPI). Continued funding comes from commercial process development contracts with companies worldwide.
Due to the commercial nature of its contracts, Taylor cannot put numbers on the performance of organic transistors developed on-site. "We can make transistors backplanes with mobility higher than amorphous silicon that are big enough to drive OLED displays. We have uniformity across our backplanes that is as good as anywhere else," he said.
ASU's Flexible Display Center is funded by the US government and one of its main stakeholders is the US military, which is looking for ePaper display technology. ●