FlexTech announces a multiple phase project with HP Labs

The FlexTech Alliance, focused on developing the electronic display and the flexible, printed electronics industry supply chain, today announced a multiple phase project with HP Labs to develop a process for creating imprinted and jetted color filters for reflective displays.

 

Color filter technology is a key element of both emissive and reflective displays, and is an area of significant interest within the flexible display and printed electronics industry. Methods for extending color filter technology to flexible substrates, as well as lowering the manufacturing costs, are crucial elements to be addressed for successful product commercialization, especially for roll-to-roll (R2R) electronics manufacturing.

 

"This new process is expected to offer more benefits than current all-ink jet methods being used today" remarked Michael Ciesinski, CEO of FlexTech Alliance. "HP's imprint method should provide a lower cost and higher quality product, as filtered ink jetting is only used to dispense, not to precisely pattern the filter pixels. Additional cost reductions are anticipated through HP's use of the additive application of inks, only where required."

 

Other benefits of this development are expected to include higher resolution and wider availability of inks.The objective of the project is to produce a 6.4" QVGA flexible color demonstrator using the new method.

 

"Our approach to addressing industry's need for roll-to-roll manufacturing of color filters is to imprint a template and then fill the cells with color dyes via an inkjet process that combines the economics of additiv

×

e ink

is presenting at

Printed Electronics & Photovoltaics Europe 2010

Dresden, Germany

13 - 14 Apr 2010

e inkjet dispensing with the high speed and high resolution of roll-to-roll imprinting" explained Carl Taussig, director of HP Labs in Palo Alto, Calif. " This process can also be used to add additional features, such as embedded electrical bus-bars, optical structures, i.e., diffusers, polarizers and waveplates, and surface features for alignment of liquid crystal structures."

 

HP has considerable experience in the development of color filter dyes for various printing platforms, including piezo-electric inkjet, thermal inkjet, and liquid electro-photographic.

The FlexTech Alliance is the only organization headquartered in North America exclusively devoted to fostering the growth, profitability and success of the electronic display and the flexible, printed electronics supply chain.

 

Leveraging its rich history in promoting the display industry as the U.S. Display Consortium, the FlexTech Alliance offers expanded collaboration between and among industry, academia, government, and research organizations for advancing displays and flexible, printed electronics from R&D to commercialization. To this end, the FlexTech Alliance, based in San Jose, Calif., will help foster development of the supply chain required to support a world-class, manufacturing capability for displays and flexible, printed electronics.

 

More information about the FlexTech Alliance can be found at the industry portal: www.flextech.org .