UK-based SmartKem develops a new class of flexible high-mobility OTFT display backplane technologies. The company provides customized solutions involving molecular synthesis, electronic prototyping and on-site technology transfer support.

As Smartkem is developing new backplane materials for OLEDs, ePaper and mini-LED devices, we discuss its technology and business with the company's CEO and chairman, Ian Jenks.

WiseChip Semiconductor, based in Taiwan, is one of the world's leading PMOLED maker (in fact in 2015 Wisechip said it's the world's second largest). Wisechip is developing next-generation PMOLED displays, including flexible panels, transparent panels and Hyperfluorescence/TADF PMOLEDs.

WiseChip recently announced its first, and the world’s first, Hyperfluorescence display, using TADF materials provided by Kyulux. Can you tell some more about this display and its properties?

This 2.70 128x64 product is adopted mostly in industrial products. The size matters in such market but the main problem was to increase the brightness due to the limited efficiency of the fluorescence emitters. The Hyperfluorescence technology helps to settle the problem and can reach up 2.5 times brighter. It performs much better readability so users do not have to stand right in front of the device. This feature adds to the value of the end product.

OLED material developer Cynora recently announced its first commercial product, the cyBlueBooster fluorescent blue emitter that is 15% more efficient that current fluorescent blue emitters on the market.

This was a very interesting announcement, and Cynora's CEO Adam Kablanian was kind enough to answer a few questions we had to help understand the new material and Cynora's current business and latest technology.

The SID DisplayWeek 2020, the premier event for the display industry, will take place in San Francisco (June 7-12). The OLED-Info team will attend this event, and we are happy to present this interview with Sri Peruvemba to discuss the upcoming event. Sri is a good friend and a board director and VP at SID.

Thanks for your time Sri - as Chair of Marketing at SID, please can you tell us a bit about DisplayWeek 2020?

I am proud to say that SID’s DisplayWeek is still the world’s most respected show on electronic displays, touchscreens and related materials. Everyone in the industry has a presence. The show has been growing for the past few years and last year we had a record attendance of over 8,000 people from all over the world. Factoring in global business and political environment, we expect DW2020 to be another record year evidenced by paper submissions, awards submissions, over 90% of the floor space sold out (we had expanded both floor space and meeting rooms), offers to sponsor various events and other factors.

SID DisplayWeek, the world's premier display industry event will take place this year in San Jose, California on May 12-17. We discussed the event and the display industry at large with Sri Peruvemba - a dear personal friend and a Vice President at the SID organization.

Q: Hello Sri - thanks for your time! SID DisplayWeek has always been our favorite display industry event. Can you tell us what to expect from the 2019 edition? Any new planned event features?

Thank you, its my favorite event as well. In 2019, we can expect over 200 exhibitors showing all the latest display tech and applications in AR/VR, automotive, OLED, AMOLED, micro-LED, LCDs, quantum dots and more.

German TADF developer Cynora presented its latest blue TADF material in May 2018 - with a CIEy of 0.14, EQE of 20% and a lifetime of 20 hours LT97 at 700 nits. Cynora expects to have blue material in the mass production by 2020.

Cynora's Chief Marketing Offer, Dr. Andreas Haldi was kind enough to answer a few questions we had regarding TADF emitters, the differences between next-generation emitter technologies, lifetime, color points and more.

SID's DisplayWeek, the industry's leading trade show, is taking place in less than two months. The OLED-Info team will attend this event, and my good friend Sriram Peruvemba, SID's marketing chief, was kind enough to discuss the upcoming event with us.

Hello Sri, thanks for your time with this interview. SID's DisplayWeek has always been the world's leading display trade show. What can you tell us about the upcoming 2018 edition?

Ron - yes SID Display Week is the the world’s leading display trade show, but Display Week is so much more than a trade show. It is the world’s leading technical learning, sourcing and buying event focused on emerging electronic display technologies, their advancement, commercialization, and growth.

UK-based SmartKem is developing a new class of flexible high-mobility p-type semiconductor inks for flexible displays. The company recently made headlines as it started its commercialization phase and announces advances in its collaboration projects with OLED producers in Asia.

SmartKem's CEO and founder, Steve Kelly, was kind enough to answer a few questions we had on SmartKem's technology and business. Steve is an international business professional with more than 20 years’ experience specializing in technology ventures, particularly early stage. He has extensive experience in Intellectual Property exploitation, VC funding and launching new technology to market.

Q: Steve, thank you for your time and for this interview. Can you first give us an overview of SmartKem’s OTFT technology?

SmartKem’s organic thin film transistor (OTFT) backplanes are designed for both glass and flexible displays. They are compatible with electronic paper displays (EPD), liquid crystal displays (LCD) and organic light-emitting diode (OLED) technologies. Through our sophisticated modelling and simulation, they have sufficient driving capability for OLED and potentially, microOLED displays which offer increased contrast, response times and energy efficiency.

OrelTech is an Israeli-based early stage company that commercializes a unique printed electronics technology based on novel conductive ink and production process.

OrelTech's Head of R&D, Konstantin Livanov, was kind enough to explain the company's technology and business. Dr. Livanov received his PhD in chemistry from Weizmann Institute of Science, and his expertise is in surface chemistry, nanomaterials, composite materials and electron microscopy.

Q: Hello Dr. Livanov, thank you for your time. First, can you explain ORELTech's process and technology?

Sure. We are doing conducive ink for advanced applications in printed electronics. The advantages of printed electronics are obvious: drastically reduced manufacturing costs due to simpler equipment, fewer fabrication steps and shorter throughput time. However, most organic devices, including OLEDs, are not printed. We could however print them if we could print metal layers at low temperatures. Right now most of them are assembled or deposited in high vacuum.

In May 2017 Cynora announced a new blue TADF emitters that achieves a 15% EQE at 1000 nits with an emission peak of 470 nm and a LT97 of > 90 hours (at 700 nits) on a device level. Cynora has stated several times that it aims to commercialize its first highly efficient blue TADF emitter by the end of this year.

According to Cynora, the performance requested from customers is an EQE (at 1000) of over 15%, a lifetime (LT97 at 700 nits) of over 100 hours and a wavelength of 460 nm (color purity FWHM 60 nm).