AMOLED nozzle-printing method tipped to reduce next-gen panel costs

DuPont and Dainippon Screen have announced a partnership deal to develop the next generation of AMOLED (active matrix organic light-emitting diode) display panels. The collaboration will see the latter’s unique nozzle-printing technology, in which AMOLED panels are printed at high-speed, used with the former’s small molecule-based OLED solution materials and proprietary process technology. Eventually, they aim to reduce production costs so that AMOLED manufacture is competitive with current LCD plants.

OLED displays are made up of very thin layers of emissive organic materials. For the past three years, DuPont and Dainippon Screen have been working on a way to produce those layers via a printing process, similar to an inkjet printer, based on DuPont’s organic solutions. Currently the double process of printing and then coating OLED panels makes them more costly than LCD production; the nozzle-printing would integrate these stages.

Currently one of the only commercially available OLED displays is Sony’s XEL-1, though this screen is not one of the newer “active matrix” panels. It is also only 11-inches and not quite full HD resolution. The DuPont and Dainippon Screen agreement will see cheaper manufacturing equipment made available, which they predict will accelerate AMOLED production and reduce end-cost.