Manufacturing equipment

"The flat panel display market is about $100 billion annually and growing. DuPont is applying its science to make possible more vivid displays that are lower cost than current LCD displays," said David B. Miller, group vice president, DuPont Electronic & Communication Technologies. "We are excited to combine our strengths with Dainippon Screen's unique printing technology to bring to market the core technology that will enable improved high definition televisions and other flat panel displays."

“OLEDs have better color and flexibility and the capability of larger displays, but companies still need an inexpensive encapsulation method that can be used to mass produce organic electronics that don’t allow moisture in,” said Wusheng Tong, a senior research scientist at the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI).

NexTech FAS' Advantage Series coating systems offer high performance extrusion (spinless) coating of liquid materials onto substrates during the manufacture process of Flat Panel Displays. The systems, which are currently supplied for Gen 2 through Gen 8 panel sizes, are capable of coating a wide variety of process chemistries, including tough-to-coat OLED materials which are often deposited at submicron thicknesses with stringent uniformity and environmental requirements.

The pilot fabrication system consists of clusters combining thermal evaporation and organic vapor phase deposition (OVPD®) modules. The usable substrate size is 370 x 470 mm² on glass substrates and foils. The targeted tact time is three minutes, resulting in an annual capacity of approximately 13,000 m². The system is designed for efficient materials usage and flexibility in substrate format and organic stack. It is one of the worlds first pilot production systems for OLED lighting and organic based solar cells.

OTB Display today announced that it received an order from Universal Display Technology (Jilin) for in-line equipment for the manufacturing of full color OLED displays. The fully integrated OLED production system is based on solution-processed polymers and OTB's thin-film encapsulation technology, making it one of the world's first production lines that integrates the complete display cell manufacturing process.

Universal Display Technology (Jilin) Co., Ltd. acquired an OLED manufacturing turn-key solution including equipment, related services and process know-how. OTB Display will build up mass production capabilities at Universal Display Technology (Jilin) Co., Ltd manufacturing facility, which is located in the Changchun National High-Tech Industries Development Area in the Jilin Province of the People's Republic of China. The Universal Display Technology (Jilin) Co., Ltd. will commence mass production of OLED displays in 2008.

Digitimes reports that CMEL got orders for 300,000 monthly units of AMOLED displays for mobile phones, from Sharp. CMEL currently has a capacity of 200K-300K units, and has placed orders for new equipment.

Synova today announced tool orders from a Korean organic light-emitting diode (OLED) manufacturer and a leading U.S.-based semiconductor manufacturer's Korean facility. The first order was placed for Synova's Laser Stenciling System, LSS 1200, for OLED mask manufacturing, and the second for the company's Laser Grinding System, LGS 200A, for thin-wafer edge grinding. Both orders mark Synova's penetration into the Korean market, and ultimately, the increased adoption of its Laser MicroJet® for leading-edge electronics manufacturing.

Vitex Systems together with Advanced Neotech Systems (ANS), Pyungtaek, Korea, today unveiled a lower cost version of its proven Guardian™ thin-film encapsulation system, the G200E. Designed to extend the company’s reach into markets where price may be a gating factor, the G200E will enable institutions, universities and industrial development groups to also explore the myriad benefits associated with Vitex’s proprietary Barix™ encapsulation process. Based on Vitex’s flagship Guardian System, the G200E can provide basic thin-thin encapsulation capabilities without sacrificing the quality and performance that has become a trademark of the Guardian platform.

Thin-film encapsulation is a fundamental technology that can be used in the production of OLEDs, photovoltaics, thin-film batteries, organic semiconductors, bio sensors, etc. Specifically, Vitex’s Barix technology—applied via the Guardian tool—can eliminate the packaging components used within the manufacture of these devices by delivering the moisture/oxygen protection, or barrier, necessary to ensure integrity. It also offers added flexibility and enables new design opportunities. Since different applications (e.g. cell phone vs. photovoltaics) have different lifetime requirements, they require different barrier properties. Vitex’s unique ability to customize its technology to address various barrier requirements opens up a number of new markets. At the same time, Vitex and ANS recognized early on that the extensive capital required for thin-film encapsulation made it difficult for some organizations, such as universities, to procure the necessary equipment needed for further research in this area. This prompted the development of the low cost G200E—thereby, expanding the company’s potential customer base.