Technology News
Monday, Oct. 28, 2002
British Firms Join Up to Lead in Floppy TV Screens
AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Two British companies said on Monday
they would join forces to become a world leader in the
technology of glowing plastics, which by 2005 should yield the
first roll-up computer screens and TVs.
Cambridge Display Technology (CDT) announced the
acquisition of the Oxford-based research activities of rival
Opsys, giving it control of another major method to create
organic light emitting diodes (OLED). Financial details were
not disclosed.
The two unlisted companies sell their know-how to major
electronics manufacturers, such as Seiko Epson, Philips, DuPont
and Siemens-owned Osram, some of whom have just opened
factories for the first generation of monochrome OLED displays
used in cell phones and razors.
As the technology matures it will be used for full-color
screens. CDT is taking on U.S. photo giant Eastman Kodak,
which is one of the pioneers of OLEDs. The Cambridge University
spin-off claims to have found a more efficient production
method, which effectively prints a special type of OLED on a
surface.
The market for OLEDs is expected to rise from just $85
million this year to $3 billion by 2007, according to a recent
survey of U.S. market research group DisplaySearch.
Hopes for the technology are high because polymers that
emit light do not require a backlight used for the current
generation of flat screen liquid crystal displays (LCDs). It
makes them energy efficient and much thinner -- so thin they
can be folded. Opsys, spun out of Oxford and St Andrews
Universities in 1997, uses new polymers, called dendrimers,
which are brighter and more energy efficient than CDT's
light-emitting polymers (LEPs). The two companies hope to blend
their technologies to improve the lifetime of the dendrimers.
CDT Chief Executive David Fyfe said he expects that by 2005
the technology will be mature enough, and the price per display
competitive enough, so that OLEDs will start replacing current
LCD full-color flat screens, which recently started replacing
70-year old cathode ray tube technology.
"The attraction is that (OLEDs) are much more energy
efficient. It doesn't generate as much heat and the light goes
only in one direction," he said.
Editor's note: Another interesting benefit. When it is not on and
glowing, if light is shining on the OLED, it PRODUCES enough
electricity to charge batteries on portable devices.
Monday, Oct. 28, 2002
British Firms Join Up to Lead in Floppy TV Screens
AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Two British companies said on Monday
they would join forces to become a world leader in the
technology of glowing plastics, which by 2005 should yield the
first roll-up computer screens and TVs.
Cambridge Display Technology (CDT) announced the
acquisition of the Oxford-based research activities of rival
Opsys, giving it control of another major method to create
organic light emitting diodes (OLED). Financial details were
not disclosed.
The two unlisted companies sell their know-how to major
electronics manufacturers, such as Seiko Epson, Philips, DuPont
and Siemens-owned Osram, some of whom have just opened
factories for the first generation of monochrome OLED displays
used in cell phones and razors.
As the technology matures it will be used for full-color
screens. CDT is taking on U.S. photo giant Eastman Kodak,
which is one of the pioneers of OLEDs. The Cambridge University
spin-off claims to have found a more efficient production
method, which effectively prints a special type of OLED on a
surface.
The market for OLEDs is expected to rise from just $85
million this year to $3 billion by 2007, according to a recent
survey of U.S. market research group DisplaySearch.
Hopes for the technology are high because polymers that
emit light do not require a backlight used for the current
generation of flat screen liquid crystal displays (LCDs). It
makes them energy efficient and much thinner -- so thin they
can be folded. Opsys, spun out of Oxford and St Andrews
Universities in 1997, uses new polymers, called dendrimers,
which are brighter and more energy efficient than CDT's
light-emitting polymers (LEPs). The two companies hope to blend
their technologies to improve the lifetime of the dendrimers.
CDT Chief Executive David Fyfe said he expects that by 2005
the technology will be mature enough, and the price per display
competitive enough, so that OLEDs will start replacing current
LCD full-color flat screens, which recently started replacing
70-year old cathode ray tube technology.
"The attraction is that (OLEDs) are much more energy
efficient. It doesn't generate as much heat and the light goes
only in one direction," he said.
Editor's note: Another interesting benefit. When it is not on and
glowing, if light is shining on the OLED, it PRODUCES enough
electricity to charge batteries on portable devices.