Organic displays on a roll

December 13, 2007

Polymer Vision this week has reported its first rollable displays from its recently acquired manufacturing facility in Southampton, UK, are ready for production-level manufacture.

The company, based in Eindhoven, The Netherlands, is a developer of a rollable display technology that enables mobile devices to incorporate a display larger than the device itself.

The first batch of rollable displays produced has delivered functional displays and from December onwards volumes will ramp up to meet growing customer demand. The company claims to have at least a one-year lead over other companies trying to produce flexible or rollable displays.

In less than a year the clean room facilities have been completed, the first complete manufacturing tool set has been installed and the process has been successfully transferred from Eindhoven to the Southampton facility. From this month onwards, rollable display volumes will ramp up to meet growing customer demand.

“Our strategy to use standard semiconductor infrastructure has helped us to successfully and quickly start up production in Southampton“, says Guido Aelbers, COO of Polymer Vision. The company uses organic polymer transistors for an active-matrix TFT (OTFT) to address an E-Ink display system, which can therefore be processed at low temperature.

Demand for larger mobile displays is accelerating as telecom players push mobile content and mobile advertisements to compensate for shrinking growth in voice revenues, the company reports. Polymer Vision’s solution is to unroll the display when needed and simply store away when not in use.

Historic limitations to this technology have included poor carrier mobility as compared to amorphous silicon-based devices. But the advantages in cost, streamlined production, and greater flexibility have spurred development of OTFTs.

Samples of Polymer Vision’s first commercial product, the Readius, will be shipped to customers before the end of 2007. The Readius is a pocket sized device which combines a large 5-inch rollable display with 3G high-speed connectivity for true mobility and instant access to personalized news and information. The Readius is the first member of a family of future Polymer Vision products that will offer consumers large rollable displays (5 inches and larger) in small pocket size devices.

Polymer Vision, a spinoff from Koninklijke Philips Electronics NV, bought Innos Ltd., then the manufacturing subcontractor of the company's rollable displays, for an undisclosed sum in October 2007.

"Our strategy to use standard semiconductor infrastructure has helped us to successfully and quickly start up production in Southampton," said Guido Aelbers, chief operating officer of Polymer Vision. Polymer Vision is expecting to supply mobile phone manufacturers with rollable displays and Polymer Vision s first commercial product, the Readius e-reader with a 5-inch diagonal screen, will be shipped to customers before the end of 2007.

SOURCES: EETimes, Polymer Vision