Printed Electronics in Korea

Korea has a huge display business to protect and enhance, not least because this is a key enabling technology for the consumer goods industry and Samsung is the world's largest producer of OLED displays. Work on printing OLED displays has therefore received huge investment in Korea, as in Japan, though this country has also largely ignored the lesser opportunities in other forms of printed and potentially printed display. Work on other forms of printed electronics has been modest but there is now a realisation that an important race has commenced.

 

The Korean situation is particularly driven by the major industrial programs such as the Ubiquitous Sensor Networks project and the creation of "electronic cities". These projects combine government and industrial finance and just happen to need advances in electronics that only printing can provide.

 

Others working on OLEDs in Korea include Advanced Neotech Systems, Hong-ik University, Hyundai, Korea Institute of Science and Technology, Korea University, Kwangwoon University, Kyung Hee University, Kyungpook National University, LG, LG Philips LCD, Modistech, Pusan National University and Sunchon National University. Interestingly, many of the projects involve lighting not just displays.

 

Beyond this, Korea is a leader in the development and sale of printed sensors, advanced concepts and trials for Ubiquitous Sensor Networks USN and laminar batteries. There is much work on alternatives to indium tin oxide for transparent electrodes in OLEDs, photodetectors, ac electroluminescent displays and other applications. Some, including Kookmin University, study PEDOT for this and others develop carbon nanotubes for this purpose.

 

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