May 18 2010
The Flexible Display Center (FDC) at Arizona State University today announced that Sunic System, Ltd. (Sunic) has become an industry partner of the FDC and the two companies will jointly pursue the development of flexible organic light emitting diode (OLED) and electronics technologies.
As part of the agreement, the FDC has purchased a Gen-II OLED SUNICEL Plus 400 vacuum evaporation and encapsulation process tool from Sunic for its Tempe development facility. The companies will collaborate to improve the processes and tools related to the manufacture of flexible displays and electronics.
"Bringing in Sunic as a member of the Flexible Display Center gives us a unique capability in the United States by enabling our partner companies to pursue the implementation of novel materials into OLED devices on the Sunicel Plus system," said Nick Colaneri, director of the FDC. "This capability will advance development of flexible OLED displays, flexible OLED solid-state lighting as well as plastic electronics such as RFID and sensors, enabling these applications to be more rugged, lightweight and thin while delivering higher performance, vibrant colors and video capabilities, all improved features for flexible OLED technology."
The SUNICEL Plus system is designed to simplify OLED technology development and manufacturing, and is equipped to handle plastic substrates without interrupting the vacuum process. The system enables full color active matrix OLED (AMOLED) and mono-color panel production with high electro luminescence (EL) performance and long lifetime. The FDC's bond-debond process allows the flexible displays to be processed on rigid substrates so no tool reconfiguration is required, while the fact that OLEDs can be manufactured at close to room temperature makes it an ideal technology for implementation on plastic substrates.
"We have joined with the FDC as we see an opportunity to accelerate the advancement of flexible OLED devices because of the unique nature of the Center," said Hoon Lim, president of Sunic. "Flexible display technology is rapidly moving from the development phase towards becoming a manufacturing technology and our tool offers an ideal stepping stone for this migration. We envision that flexible OLED production could become a reality within the next few years and expect our work with the FDC and its partner companies to offer significant contributions towards meeting this target."
The two companies are already actively engaged in research and development activities. The deposition tool will be installed at the FDC facility in Tempe in the fall of this year with prototype devices anticipated in the first quarter of 2011. To support the partnership, Sunic will also open a U.S.-based office onsite at the FDC.