Dutch flexible display firm Polymer Vision has chosen the UK for
its first manufacturing fab, aiming to be in production this
year.
This constrasts with the recent decision of Cambridge-based
flexible display firm Plastic Logic to choose Dresden rather than a
site in the UK for its $100m production facility which uses similar
technologies.
DTI funding failure loses UK Plastic Logic fab
According to Polymer Vision chief operating officer, Guido Aelbers,
Southampton-based manufacturer Innos has the capability of scaling
up the technology to a level that can be used to ship volumes to
customers.
“We aim to produce 100,000 to 200,000 displays in Southampton in
the first year, depending on the market,” Aelbers told
EW.
Polymer Vision, a Philips spin-out, has been developing its plastic
displays in Eindhoven for a decade. “Innos in Southampton has a
higher specification cleanroom which will make sure there are no
small defects and will give us high yield,” said Aelbers.
The initial product is to be a monochrome 16 grey level 125mm
diagonal QVGA display using electrophoretic materials from both E
Ink and Sipix.
Innos built its fab last year following the fire in the
Optoelectronics Research Centre at the University of Southampton,
which wiped out the facility.
“Our original idea was to set up the Southampton cleanroom for our
own activity,” Innos business development director Dr Alec Reader
told EW. “Obviously when Polymer Vision came to us and
said we want to make loads of displays, it was a very interesting
financial offer, the emphasis of the cleanroom changed.”
Innos 800m2 class 100 cleanroom has been built in the old Philips
factory near Southampton docks, in a building that included a fab
15 years ago.