fantastic plastic

Polymer Vision (Eindhoven, NL) has announced its cooperation with Innos (Southampton, UK) to manufacture rollable displays:

Following 10 years of research, Polymer Vision has spent the past three years processing displays in its own pilot facility in Eindhoven to develop the technology to maturity. Polymer Vision and Innos will together transfer the process technology and finalise qualifications in Southampton, UK, where Innos has already started installing equipment in its newly built cleanroom. In line with their strategy to use mainstream Thin Film Transistor (TFT) equipment, Polymer Vision is confident that they will rapidly scale up to commercial volumes in 2007.

According to CNET, Cyberlux are developing white LEDs combining an inorganic semiconductor with an organic phosphorescent layer:

In conventional white-light LEDs, a semiconductor emits blue light. The blue light passes through the phosphor and becomes white light. The phosphor is thin film on a substrate; the substrate has to be placed in intricate proximity to the semiconductor. Positioning the phosphor is one of the more expensive steps in creating an LED, Schmidt said.
In the coming prototype, the conventional phosphor is replaced with a sheet of polymer, which sort of applies itself to the LED, almost like a layer of shrink wrap. The technology was invented by UC Santa Barbara’s Steven DenBaars, who has been a big advocate of LED lighting as a way to increase energy efficiency and reduce greenhouse gases, and Nobel Prize winner Alan Heeger. Heeger also helped found solar-technology company Konarka Technologies.

According to their press release, MicroEmissive Displays (MED, Edinburgh, UK)

will start commissioning and qualification of its new production plant in the Fraunhofer IPMS in Dresden early in 2007. The move comes following the on-time handover of the purpose built cleanroom and delivery of the tool set from ANS Korea.

The 350 m² purpose built cleanroom is state of the art and is located within the substantial facilities of the Fraunhofer IPMS campus. Construction of the cleanroom was completed on time; equipment is in place and installation is already underway. The tool set, delivered from ANS Korea in December, comprises polymer OLED based deposition and thin film
encapsulation equipment for mass production.

At the same time MED has announced that

it has received a £2m order for its new polymer-OLED eyescreen™ microdisplay. The order, from a manufacturer of consumer products in the Far East, will also be the first to ship from the company’s new manufacturing facility in Dresden.

The order relates to MED’s new eyescreen™ ME3204 microdisplay. The new device is a compact 6 mm (0.24”) colour P-OLED QVGA display. The P-OLED technology is emissive and so does not require a backlight; as a result eyescreen™ ME3204 is ideal for portable applications such as video glasses or head-mounted displays, electronic view finders and night vision systems. The microdisplay can be combined with magnifying optics to produce a large virtual image that appears to the eye to be equivalent in dimensions to the picture on a TV screen or computer display.

In addition eyescreenâ„¢ ME3204 features a digital video interface together with an integrated display driver eliminating the need for additional driver ICs. This design feature saves space and reduces both power consumption and BoM costs.

OTB Display announced

that it is able to produce thin film encapsulated OLED devices that meet the shelf-life requirements for commercial use. Not only are these displays manufactured on OTB’s in-line mass manufacturing equipment, but also the deposition of the thin film encapsulation has been proven to render the same optical performance as the conventional, more expensive glass-can encapsulated devices. […]
Bas van Rens, CEO of OTB Display, explains: “Our integrated in-line mass manufacturing equipment now routinely produces displays which pass the accelerated shelf life of 504 hrs at 60oC / 90% humidity. In our development program we observe rapid progress and we expect to be able to announce shelf lifes exceeding 1000 hours at 85 oC/ 85% this year”

With a contrast ratio of greater than 1,000,000:1 (not a misprint) to go with its 1080p resolution, and >100% NTSC color reproduction.

The Register has more details

The two displays, bevels included, were just 5mm thick.

The first display is a compact, 11in model with a native resolution of 1,024 x 600. [..] It uses eight-bit per channel RGB colour and offers a contrast ratio greater than a million-to-one contrast. Its all-white brightness is 200cdm², peaking at more than 600cdm²
The second display is a larger model. With a resolution of 1,920 x 1,080, the 27in, 16:9 panel will be capable of displaying a 1080 HD image. The bigger screen has the same contrast and brightness as the small model, but it can display colurs defined using ten bits per channel.
Both screens are based on what Sony calls its ‘Super Top Emission’ technology.

More on Sony’s “Super Top Emission” technology: press release (2004), Japanese Journal of Applied Physics (2006).

Polymer Vision, who presented the first functional device with a rollable display at IFA 2005, have announced their spin-out from Philips:

Philips™ Incubator activity Polymer Vision will become an independent company – Polymer Vision Ltd., focusing on products for the rollable display market. Technology Capital has invested €21 million in the company and will become the major shareholder. Philips will retain a 20% stake in the new company.

The transaction will allow Polymer Vision to push ahead with its commercialization plans to meet strongly growing market demand from the mobile device industry. Volume production of its 5-inch monochrome rollable display will start this year in cooperation with existing partners. The company will continue to operate from its location at the High Tech Campus Eindhoven, the Netherlands.

Plastic Logic announced that it has raised $100 million to build a factory for flexible active matrix display modules in Dresden (Germany).

To fund this comprehensive commercialization program, Plastic Logic has completed a first closing of $100 million of equity finance led by Oak Investment Partners and Tudor Investment Corporation. Existing investors Amadeus, which led the seed financing of Plastic Logic, Intel Capital, Bank of America, BASF Venture Capital, Quest for Growth and Merifin Capital also participated. The financing is one of the largest in the history of European venture capital. […]
The facility will produce display modules for portable electronic reader devices – a product category that is predicted to grow to 41.6 million units in 2010. It will have an initial capacity of more than a million display modules per year and production will start in 2008. Dresden in the ‘Silicon Saxony’ region of eastern Germany has been chosen as the facility location following an extensive worldwide site selection process.