27 Apr 2005
Innoled will start pilot production of OLED displays in The Netherlands next month.
Singapore-based Innoled, a licensee of Cambridge Display Technology’s light-emitting polymer technology, is set to commence pilot runs of its OLED production line next month. According to Peter Karlsson, Innoleds's Managing Director, pilot production will take place in The Netherlands at the facilities of Innoled's display equipment provider, OTB Engineering.
“The pilot production will aim to improve yield from the processes, and produce some engineering samples for our customers,” said Karlsson. "We want to ensure that we have sorted out the yield before we move the production line to Singapore.”
The company plans to start commercial production in Singapore by the end of this year, Karlsson added. The products will be marketed under the Nuovio brand name.
At full capacity, with a tack time of about 2 minutes and using a 14 x 14 –inch glass substrate, the line should be able to produce about 1.5 million hand-phone displays. Starting with 1.7-inch monochrome displays with a resolution of 128 x 64 pixels, Innoled plans to make active matrix full colour displays by 2007.
Karlsson predicts that 2005/2006 will see the commercial breakthrough for OLEDs. “The second half of last year witnessed lots of MP3 players coming out with OLED displays, and many more applications are beginning to use OLEDs,” he said.
“A lot of work is being done to improve the energy efficiency and the lifetime of the display, but it will be some time before we can see OLED displays for televisions or computers. The automotive sector will be a big market in the future, not only because of the higher brightness that OLEDs offer, but also due to the ability to withstand temperature variations, especially the cold.”
Innoled is a joint-venture between Eastgate Technology and Inline Display Technologies Europe BV of The Netherlands, with Eastgate holding a 70 percent stake. The fledgling unit received about $7.5 million in funding from a local financial institution in November last year.
Author
Manoj Aravindakshan is director of On Target Media, a Singapore-based provider of technology news.
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