NEWS FROM SID CONFERENCE: Philips introduces new thin-film PolyLED technology

May 22, 2002
MAY 22--At the Society for Information Display conference and exhibition, Royal Philips Electronics of the Netherlands (www.philips.com/newscenter) will unveil a polymer-based organic light-emitting diode solid-state display module--reportedly the thinnest and most compact in the industry.

MAY 22--At the Society for Information Display conference and exhibition (through May 24 in Boston, MA), Royal Philips Electronics of the Netherlands (www.philips.com/newscenter) will unveil a polymer-based organic light-emitting diode (PolyLED) solid-state display module--reportedly the thinnest and most compact in the industry. Using a thin-film encapsulation process that requires fewer materials and components than existing manufacturing processes, Philips' thin-film PolyLED technology will enable the production of full-color displays less than 1 mm thick--making it ideal for a variety of mobile-device applications.

Commenting on the introduction, Peter Hopper, CEO for Philips' mobile-display-systems business group, said "The OLED market holds tremendous potential. This technology will offer a number of significant benefits geared toward enriching the end user's experience--including fast switching speeds, low power, compactness, and a wide viewing angle."

The new display technology uses a thin-film encapsulation process that applies a transparent coating of polymer stack to the display substrate, in this case, glass. This process reduces the thickness of the module to almost that of the substrate. No metal or glass cover is required, thus contributing to a thin profile for those applications that demand extremely compact form factors. Since no metal encapsulation is needed, fewer components are required. Moreover, the border width of the actual display can be significantly reduced, enabling more-compact product designs. All of this results in a super-thin profile that offers good reliability and easy fixation, and which is not pressure sensitive.

Philips' new thin-film PolyLED display technology will be important for active-matrix OLEDs with transparent cathodes because the pixel aperture can then be maximized, resulting in better resolution and lower power consumption. This encapsulation process will also prove important in the development of flexible OLEDs, and it will also enhance the production efficiency of future larger-sized OLED panels. Philips reports that this technology will become industrialized after 2005.

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