organic
semiconductor
analyst direct
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organic
semiconductor |
| Monday, 24 November 2003 | |
Researchers Princeton University and Hewlett-Packard have discovered a previously unrecognised property of a conducting polymer that has led to the invention of a simple memory device. The results of which are reported in a recent edition of Nature (Nov. 13 2003).
The research was conducted at Princeton University by former postdoctoral researcher Sven Moeller, who is now at HP in Corvallis, Ore. Moeller found that PEDOT conducts electricity at low voltages, but permanently loses its conductivity when exposed to higher voltages (and thus higher currents), making it act like a fuse or circuit breaker.
This finding led the researchers to use PEDOT as a way of storing digital information. A PEDOT-based memory device would have a grid of circuits in which all the connections contain a PEDOT fuse. A high voltage could be applied to any of the contact points, blowing that particular fuse and leaving a mix of working and non-working circuits. These open or closed connections would represent zeros and ones and would become permanently encoded in the device. A blown fuse would block current and be read as a zero, while an unblown one would let current pass and act as a one.
This grid of memory circuits could be made so small that, based on the test junctions the researchers made, 1 million bits of information could fit in a square millimetre of paper-thin material. If formed as a block, the device could store more than one gigabyte of information, or about 1,000 high-quality images, in one cubic centimetre, which is about the size of a fingertip.
Stephen Forrest, Princeton professor of electrical engineering, said -- "We are making a device that is organic (the plastic polymer) and inorganic (the thin-film silicon) at the same time."
According to Stephen Forrest developing the invention into a commercially viable product would require additional work on creating a large-scale manufacturing process and ensuring compatibility with existing electronic hardware, a process that might take as little as five years.
The Dow Chemical Company business - Advanced Electronic Materials (AEM) - and MicroEmissive Displays Ltd. (MED) announced last week that they have signed an agreement for the supply of commercial quantities of LUMATION (TM) Light-Emitting Polymers (LEP) for pLED (polymeric light0emiting diode) based microdisplay modules developed by MED.
Although the agreement's specific terms were not made public, the multi-year deal provides a simple and beneficial pricing structure wherein Dow receives a percentage of MED's display module sales in exchange for LEP material supply.
Rob Spurling, business director of AEM Display Technologies Group, said -- "This supply agreement, with its novel pricing mechanism, is a major milestone for our LUMATION LEPs business." He added -- "Opening more applications to pLED displays requires continued developmental expenditures to extend LEP materials performance. However, because very little LEP material is required per display, and this volume decreases as fabrication processes improve, a non-traditional pricing approach is required."
Bill Campbell, CEO, said -- "This pricing model squarely aligns Dow's focus with MED's market success, providing our company several benefits." He added -- "It allows us to address supply chain pricing pressure as our end markets become more competitive. By automatically adjusting our polymer pricing as changes occur in the market pricing of our display products, it will free us to pursue a variety of market opportunities and applications to further build our microdisplay products and technology."
www.dowlumation.com www.microemissive.com
Universal Display Corp. (UDC) has been awarded a $730,000 Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II contract by the U.S. Army Communication Electronics Research and Development Engineering Center (CERDEC) to further the development of its flexible, phosphorescent OLED (PHOLED(TM)) display technology on durable metal foil for use in military applications.
This program, entitled -- "Flexible Color Phosphorescent OLED Displays" -- is a continuation of an SBIR Phase I program that was successfully completed earlier this year. During this program, Universal Display will use its proprietary PHOLED, transparent/top emission OLED (TOLED(TM)) and flexible OLED (FOLED(TM)) technologies to design and develop a flexible active-matrix OLED (AMOLED) display on flexible thin metal foil.
Steven V. Abramson, President and Chief Operating Officer of Universal Display Corporation, said -- "We are very pleased to receive continued support from the U.S. Army." He added -- "The government's sustained interest of our proprietary technologies validates our belief that OLED displays will provide critical new performance and design features leading to tremendous new product opportunities for next-generation military and commercial applications."
An article on Digitimes.com website --- has cited Dona Flamme, president display and components division, as saying that Kodak is planning to accelerate the licensing of its active matrix organic light-emitting diode (AM-OLED) technology to more display companies around the world.
To help drive AM-OLED technology into the market, Flamme said that Kodak has discussed licensing agreements with a number of display companies, including Taiwanese ones. Kodak is expected to announce the newly licensed companies in the near future, Flamme said, but did not elaborate any further.
Kodak has so far licensed the AM-OLED technology to only two companies
However, there is much interest and activity by many other companies including - AU Optronics (AUO) and Chi Mei Optoelectronics (CMO). Both of these companies have already developed and shown AM-OLED based displays over the past year.
Kodak has already licensed its passive matrix organic light-emitting diode technology to 13 companies worldwide, including Teco Optronics, Opto Tech and RiT Display in Taiwan.
www.kodak.com www.digitimes.com
Seiko Epson Corp. (Epson) has developed the industry's first, based on the company's own research, controller chip for organic light-emitting diode (OLED) displays geared toward the developing market for car electronics and amusements with OLED displays.
Known as S1D13701, the design is based on one of the company's existing display control chip series platform. It has been optimised for OLED based displays and is equipped with 5V full-swing signal output that connects directly to an OLED panel. The controller chip is targeted at 256 dot x 64 line (16 gray levels) displays. Epson plans to begin shipping samples shortly with volume production probably in 1st quarter 2004.
Researchers involved in ground breaking collaboration on polymer light emitting diodes have been honoured at the 2003 Descartes prize ceremony in Rome.
The PLEDD (polymer light emitting diodes for displays) project, which scooped 700,000 euro of the total prize money, is based on a chance fundamental discovery made by project coordinator Professor Richard Friend and colleagues at the University of Cambridge, UK, in 1989.
They found that certain plastic polymers emitted light when subjected to an electrical current, and immediately recognised the potential for innovative products. Through the initial research of a consortium of partners
the first commercial application to use the polymer displays, an electric shaver from Philips, was developed.
When asked what it meant to win such an award, Professor Friend said -- "It feels very good! Especially because it is a team prize, which is much more in the spirit of how research works now, and there still aren't many prizes that honour teams." He went on to explain that the team would use the prize money to fund 'blue skies research'.
www.cordis.lu www-oe.phy.cam.ac.uk
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