In this week's issue:

• That Eureka moment >
  
• Konarka opens world's largest roll-to-roll thin film OPV manufacturing facility with one gigawatt capacity >
  
• Top organisations recognised with Organic Semiconductor Industry Awards 2008 >
  
• Rohm demonstrates 100,000cd/m² OLED flash >
  
• Liquavista participates in £12 million project to create next generation flexible, full colour, video displays >
  
• MED announces interim results for the six months ended 30 June 2008 >
  
• Organic semiconductor industry market watch >
  

That Eureka moment

CRAIG CRUICKSHANK, CINTELLIQ CEO, WRITES: It is not too often that I'm at a loss for what to say but occasionally it happens. Such a time was during my presentation at OSC-08. I had been working late the previous evening on finishing my presentation—not a strategy I would generally recommended—and had combined some previously used slides along with some new thoughts. During the early part of my presentation things just didn't seem to flow as expected. I then arrived at a slide that shows a simple graphical representation of a value-chain for the industry. Although I had presented this slide on previous occasions I stalled, and couldn't gather my thoughts.

As stood there looking at the slide, and then audience, I realised that this no longer reflected my view of the industry. My thoughts were racing ahead, formulating a very different picture of where the emphasis should be. In all my previous discussions on the evolution and pace of the organic semiconductor industry my view had been that it was largely driven by device companies. My view now is that the evolution and pace of the organic semiconductor and the organic electronics industries will be set largely by the chemical companies.

Why have I changed my view? It is simple: there are too few device companies active at the moment to make a difference, and this is particularly true for organic photovoltaic devices and organic transistor devices. To turn this emerging industry into one that has the potential to grow and blossom requires more companies to develop more products than is currently envisaged or planned.

It is my belief that the future of the organic semiconductor and organic electronics industries has to be developed and coordinated by the materials suppliers, in this case the chemical companies such as BASF, Merck, Evonik, Sumitomo and others. This has not passed unnoticed and already we see the chemical companies acquiring, investing and partnering with technology developers and device companies. While this is commendable, it is my belief that it is insufficient on its own to move the industry forward. Consequently, for the foreseeable future, the chemical companies need to play an even greater role in the development of the industry. This may mean in some cases funding more university researchers and in other cases making more funds available for investing in more start-ups. It may also include developing a range of business models and partnerships that encourage greater participation across the whole industry.

At first glance the chemical companies all seem to be following a similar strategy and focus. However closer examination reveals subtle differences between them. These small differences will mean that some companies will have a central role in the development of the industry while others are destined to have only a peripheral role. It will be interesting to see how each of the chemical companies contribute to the developmentof the industry.

www.cintelliq.com    

Konarka opens world's largest roll-to-roll thin film OPV manufacturing facility with one gigawatt capacity

Konarka Technologies has opened what it claims is the largest roll-to-roll, flexible thin film solar manufacturing facility in the world, preparing for the commercialisation and mass production of its thin film solar material, Power Plastic®. Located in New Bedford, Massachusetts, USA, the 250,000 square foot building was previously the location for Polaroid Corporation's most advanced printing technologies.

With this US-based manufacturing location, Konarka is accelerating its plans to develop and commercialise its polymer-based OPV technologies worldwide. In addition to acquiring the fully automated roll-to-roll manufacturing line, the company has also hired the leading technology and process engineering teams from Polaroid, with plans to hire over 100 additional employees as production increases toward capacity over the next two to three years.

Konarka's New Bedford facility has been retrofitted to immediately begin initial production of Power Plastic. Using multiple in-line processing stations with precision multi-layer manufacturing processes that are adaptable to a variety of printing and coating technologies, the facility will enable the company to further develop its polymer photovoltaic materials. The facility has the capacity to produce in excess of 10 million square metres of material per year.

Howard Berke, executive chairman and co-founder of Konarka, said, "This facility has state-of-the-art printing capabilities that are ready for full operation, with the future potential to produce over a gigawatt of flexible plastic solar modules per year."

www.konarka.com    

Top organisations recognised with Organic Semiconductor Industry Awards 2008

The Organic Semiconductor Industry Awards (OSIA), sponsored by cintelliq and in association with OSA Direct, were presented by Craig Cruickshank, CEO of cintelliq and chairman of the awards panel, at the OSC-08 Networking Dinner in Frankfurt, Germany last week.



The winners of OSIA 2008, selected by the independent panel of judges, were as follows:

Start-up of the Year award
Soligie, a developer of printed electronics products, won the Start-up of the Year award. The judges felt that Soligie stood out from the other nominations in this category because it has:

• Made great technical and commercial progress throughout the past year
• Developed a business model that encourages partnerships
• Provided a means for companies without their own production facility to enter the market
• Attracted lead customers
• The potential to become a market and/or process technology leader

Runner up: Unidym (manufactures and licenses carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and related technology).

Research and Development award
The Olla project won the Research and Development award for developing and promoting OLED technology for lighting applications on a global scale The judges were particularly impressed by the Olla project because it:

• Showed pioneering commitment to the continual promotion of OLED technology for lighting applications - a catalyst for global research and development on OLED lighting
• Developed innovative solutions to a range of challenging problems for developing a large area white OLED with 50.7 lumen per Watt, > 10,000 hrs lifetimes, that included: encapsulation, ITO-free white OLEDs, light out-coupling, OLED modelling, and proposing standards
• Demonstrated that it is possible to successfully deliver results within a multi-partner project

Runners up: Add-Vision Inc. for developing a low-cost, flexible P-OLED technology which has high functionality, uses print-based toolsets, and offers early commercialisation opportunities; and PARU Co. for using an R2R gravure printer, pad printer and inkjet printer to completely print antenna, rectifier and ring oscillators and then successfully demonstrating a 13.56MHz operated 1-bit RFID tag

Product of the Year award
DuPont Teijin Films (UK) Ltd won the Product of the Year award for a range of PET and PEN flexible substrates. The judges selected DuPont Teijin Films over the other nominations in this category because it has:

• Developed innovative solution to a challenging problem
• Provided a key component tha has enabled the commercialisation of early products based on organic electronics
• Made commitment in investment and scale-up in support of a young industry

Runner up: BIOIDENT Technologies Inc. for PhotonicLab™ Platform.

Best Peer-Review Paper award
The award for the Best Peer-Review Paper at OSC-08 was won by Mária Péter, François Furthner, Bas van der Putten, Gerwin Gelinck, Erwin Meinders, from the Holst Centre, Tom Geuns from Philips Research Europe, and Wim de Laat from ASML, for the paper "Advances in lithographic patterning of micron-sized features on flexible substrates".

The OSC-08 Peer Review Committee selected the paper by Mária Péter et al from all those submitted to the peer review track at OSC-08 because it demonstrated a major contribution to the on-going development of organic electronics on flexible substrates; and demonstrated that it was possible to achieve better than 0.5um resolution on flexible substrates by lithographic patterning.

Runners up: PE Khokhlov, A Krivoschepov, Pavel Lazarev, and V Utochnikova from Carben Semicon Ltd for the paper "Ribtan - a new graphene-based material for electronics"; and Prof Dr Meinhard Knoll, from the Institute of Physical Chemistry, University of Muenster for the paper "A Self-writing Smart Label".

Craig Cruickshank said, "This year's award winners are each playing an important role in the development and commercialising of organic semiconductor technologies. Their efforts will lead to new and exciting applications." He added, "Each of this year's winners has achieved their success through the development of valuable partnerships and collaborations, an encouraging approach to building a new industry that others may be inspired to follow."

www.cintelliq.com/osia    

Rohm demonstrates 100,000cd/m² OLED flash

Tetsuo Nozawa writes in Nikkei Electronics that Rohm exhibited a prototype OLED shadowless lamp and an OLED flash at CEATEC JAPAN 2008.

• The shadowless lamp uses an OLED lighting device with a cover that diffuses light in a complex manner so that the objects illuminated by the light have no shadow.
  
  
• The flash can instantly emit light with a luminance of 100,000cd/m². When not used as a flash, it can be used as an OLED light with a luminance of 3,000-4,000cd/m² or higher.

The OLED flash is composed of 40mm-square OLEDs arranged in six rows and eight columns. Rohm demonstrated that the luminance of the flash can be controlled across a wide range, from dim to several thousand candelas per square metre. During the demonstration the flash emitted light with a luminance of 100,000cd/m² three times.

However Rohm explained that the light and flash were presented only for reference, and that they could not specify details such as the operating current and voltage.

Lumiotec, a recently formed joint venture between Rohm, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Toppan Printing, Mitsui and other companies, demonstrated its OLED light at Rohm's booth. Called 'Fenalene', the light reportedly has a luminance of 5,500cd/m² and a life of 10,000 hours.

www.rohm.com     www.nikkeibp.com    

Liquavista participates in £12 million project to create next generation flexible, full colour, video displays

Liquavista (UK) Ltd has announced a three-year £12 million cooperative research program to develop next generation flexible electronic displays that support full colour and video. Half of the project cost is being funded by the UK government-backed Technology Strategy Board. The remaining cost will be shared between Liquavista and Plastic Logic.

The project will use Liquavista's electrowetting technology to create screens capable of displaying bright, colourful images, which show video content with very low power consumption, as well as being thin, flexible and light. Liquavista's mobile device displays use patented electrowetting principles to switch light extremely efficiently. It is the only display technology apart from LCD that can be used in transmissive, transflective or reflective modes, which means it has very broad markets, also like LCD.

As a result of the successful launch of the project, Liquavista is expanding its team of skilled scientific and engineering staff by building a presence in the Cambridge, UK, area.

www.liquavista.com     www.plasticlogic.com     www.innovateuk.org    

MED announces interim results for the six months ended 30 June 2008

MicroEmissive Displays (MED) has announced its unaudited results for the six months ended 30 June 2008.

MED interim results for the half year to 30 June 2008, (£ thousands)
	6 months to 30 June 2008	6 months to 30 June 2007	Year ended 31 December 2007
Revenue	377	-	65
Operating expenses	(4275)	(3116)	(7375)
Operating loss before financing costs	(3,898)	(3,116)	(7,097)
Net finance income/(expense)	54	6	(12)
Loss before income taxes	(3,844)	(3,110)	(7,109)
Income tax credit	580	883	883
Loss for the period attributable to equity holders of the Company	(3,264)	(2,227)	(6,226)

The six months to June saw good progress at MED's manufacturing facility and increased activity in developing partner and potential customer relationships. However, the company experienced slower than anticipated development of the market for consumer head mounted displays. The Board is reviewing its strategic options for the financing of the Company, which may include considering proposals for an offer for the Company.

• Volume manufacturing has been achieved at MED's production facility in Dresden, Germany, with the quality of yields at the site outperforming original estimates. Over 100,000 units have now been shipped.
• MED achieved nine design wins for its eyescreen® product. These agreements involve working with partners to design the component into a range of different electronic products.
• Encouraging discussions continue with global digital camera manufacturers, where eyescreen® can be used as an electronic viewfinder for the next generation of cameras for the global market.
• Since the end of June MOU's have been signed with Kaga Components and Universal Scientific Industrial Co. Ltd.
• Cash and Cash equivalents as at 30 June 2008: £2.1 million (2007: £3.3 million). Cash and cash equivalents as at 29 September 2008 was £1.3 million.
• The Board is looking at options for refinancing the company. Although the directors are in discussions with interested parties, there can be no certainty that a transaction will occur, and should it not go ahead, the Group's existing cash resources are likely to be exhausted by mid-December 2008.

www.microemissive.com    

Organic semiconductor industry market watch

Week ending 3 October 2008

Thin Film Electronics priced in Norwegian Kroner

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