CDT and DuPont Sign Agreement for Color Ink-Jet Printing Mfg Process
Press release from the issuing company
CAMBRIDGE, U.K. --March 12, 2003-- Cambridge Display Technology (CDT), the owner and licensor of the fundamental intellectual property in light emitting polymer (LEP) OLED technology and DuPont Displays, a business unit of DuPont and a leading developer and manufacturer of OLED technology, have announced an agreement to provide CDT's full color ink-jet printing manufacturing technology to DuPont for use in their LEP OLED manufacturing.
Under the terms of the agreement, CDT will transfer proprietary full color manufacturing process knowledge to DuPont to accelerate DuPont's commercialization of LEP displays. The technology and process transfer agreement builds on the November 2001 LEP manufacturing and intellectual property licensing agreement between the two companies.
CDT's manufacturing process utilizes ink-jet technology developed by CDT on deposition tools supplied by its Litrex subsidiary. CDT currently manufactures LEP displays on 350mm by 350mm substrates at its Godmanchester, U.K. manufacturing technology development center and plans to shortly release the first commercially available LEP displays made using an ink-jet printing process.
LEP technology utilizes organic materials to generate light with an applied electric current. Because LEPs are a thin film, emissive technology, they eliminate the cost, space, weight and power consumption associated with backlights needed by LCD displays. The image produced by LEPs has higher contrast and faster image response than LCDs while offering an unlimited viewing angle. These features offer advantages for display product markets ranging from televisions to emerging portable products with high demands on imaging quality for multimedia applications.
Unlike other OLED materials, LEPs can be placed in solution to allow deposition by a variety of methods, including ink-jetting. Ink-jetting LEPs allows full color display pixels to be formed directly onto glass substrates, and may ultimately lead to the possibility of roll-to-roll manufacturing of full color displays on flexible substrates.
"The transfer of this manufacturing process technology to DuPont Displays continues our business relationship and technology support of their manufacturing plans," said David Fyfe, CEO of CDT. We are investing substantial human and capital resources to bring inkjet printing of LEPs into LEP display manufacturing.
"Litrex leads the design and commercialisation of the printers themselves and CDT is heavily involved in ink formulation, surface conditioning and manufacturing system development to allow high-resolution printing. We expect to transfer this know-how to other display makers in the near future."