Japanese polymer firm Nitto Denko is to develop plastics for organic electronics and optical waveguides.

Nitto Denko Asia Technical Centre (NAT), set up in Singapore with £4.3m, will co-operate with the local Data Storage Institute (DSI), Institute of Materials Research and Engineering (IMRE) and Nanyang Technological University (NTU).

"The R&D projects will fuse Nitto Denko's specialty knowledge and technology in polymer waveguides with DSI, IMRE and NTU's expertise in complex vibration numerical and experimental analysis, organic electronics and photonic research respectively," said Nitto Denko.

"We believe that the collaboration will lead to several technologies, especially in the field of organic electronics, which will allow for the development of novel, miniaturised, affordable and high-sensitivity sensor products."

NAT actually started operations in September, and now has seven engineers. "Over the next few years, NAT intends to increase its staff strength to 20-25 including intellectual property specialists to oversee the business and operational aspects of the research projects," said Nitto Denko.

The project with Nanyang Technological University involves creating micron-sized optical waveguides in NAT polymers using the university's patented laser technique.

"The optical waveguides that we are researching can be used in biosensor for early detection of diseases," said NTU researcher Tjin Swee Chuan.

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