OLED for solar

Plextronics announced a $14 million Series B-1 financing round, led by Solvay North American Investments. Plextronics' President and CEO Andy Hannah said that the financing will allow the company to continue to grow its research, development and pilot manufacturing programs, all of which are aimed at the commercialization of its technology - used for OLED displays and lighting and also organic solar cells.

Organic Solar Cell Module, by Plextronics

Hannah also indicated that the affiliation with Solvay has gone very well since the two companies began working together in 2007.

Plextronics has installed a new, 6M$ manufacturing line (they call it  the 'D' line). The new line will be operated by 10 employees and can turn out 6-inch square solar panels or OLED displays. They are also trying bendable OLED TVs and other interesting new displays.

Organic Solar Cell Module, by Plextronics

This is not really a production line, but more of a pilot line for research and fine-tuning of processes.They hope that by the end of 2009 they'll be able to know what will it require to have a full-scale commercial production line, what will be the capacity, etc.

Researchers at Sumitomo Chemical and Mitsubishi Chemical are working on "spreadable" OLED displays, that will also double as solar-panels - they might be self powered in this way. The displays can be "painted" on any material, creating a 100nm thin display.

The companies actually claim to work towards prototypes in 2 years.

Read more here (TechRadar)

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Read more here