DuPont and Toshiba take OLEDs further

17 Jun 2002

Displays giants invest millions in developing polymer displays.

US-based DuPont Displays will invest USD 15 million in polymer organic light-emitting diode (OLED) displays aimed at the European market. The display manufacturer will build a facility to produce polymer OLEDs at its UNIAX site in California. Du Pont bought the display company UNIAX just last year.

"The investment in the OLED plant is the next step in our strategy to make poly-OLED technology a commercial reality," said DuPont Display's OLED business and chief strategy officer Steve Quindlen. "The new facility will allow our engineers to mass produce prototypes and help us extend the technology for commercial use in everything from cell phones to hand-held devices."

DuPont should open the facility by September and will manufacture and deliver its first displays by the end of the year.

DuPont's announcement coincides with the release of Toshiba's latest display. The Japan-based display manufacturer claims to have built the world's first prototype of a 260,000 color polymer OLED display. Fabricated by depositing a light-emitting polymer film on a polysilicon thin-film transistor array, the display can be produced in a non-vacuum environment, which makes it suitable for mass production. Toshiba hopes to commercialize the display by April 2002 and will target the wireless phone and personal digital assistant markets.