Flexible Organic Electronics: From Lab to Fab to the Next Wave of Products Mike Banach, Technical Director
FlexEnable at a glance Headquarters Cambridge, UK World s most experienced team of plastic electronics engineers with collective experience of over 700 engineering years, 140 patent families Lowest cost and most flexible platform for bringing surfaces to life Focused on mainstream applications LCD, OLED and sensor arrays for IoT Proven volume-production technology and experienced tech-transfer team 20 June 2017 2
Market & Applications OTFT brings access to applications not feasible with other flexible array technologies. For applications that require conformability, unbreakability, lightweight: Only OLCD can bring large area, long lifetime or high brightness Only OTFT sensor arrays offer ultra-low leakage and large area Automotive Displays Home CE, Wearable Displays Digital Signage Displays Fingerprint Sensors X-Ray Sensors A $30Bn end user market opportunity by 2020 20 June 2017 3
Partnering to bring OTFT Technology to displays and sensors FlexEnable OTFT platform Product Companies Production Display Makers 20 June 2017 4
Flexible Display means AMOLED, Right? For super-flexible, foldable displays, AMOLED will eventually be the answer Automotive needs conformed displays, with radius of curvature down to 3cm OLCD has significant advantages over AMOLED for conformed automotive requirements Automotive Requirement Flex OLED OLCD Reliability Still far away OTFT has proven reliability, LCD is dominant in automotive display Brightness Reliability gets 4 times worse with 2X brightness for automotive targets Backlight solutions with automotive brightness specs available no reliability impact Supply chain Few suppliers Can run on any a:si line with minimum modifications Cost Very high Close to glass LCD Scalability Yield a major issue for large displays OTFT has excellent uniformity and low-temp demount enables nearly 100% demount yield at any size 20 June, 2017 5
2015 Monochrome OLCD video 20 June 2017 6
2016 Full color 4.7 OLCD 20 June 2017 7
2017 12.1 Full Color OLCD 20 June 2017 8
OLCD: Low T drives low cost for flexible displays High yielding, production-proven low-temp process on low cost TAC film Low CAPEX required to convert a conventional a-si LCD line to OLCD Total Cost of Manufacture per Yield Unit 2017 2018 2019 2020 4.7" Flex AM OLED 4.7" FlexEnable OLCD Module 4.7" Glass LCD Display a-si LCD line to OLCD conversion OLCD significantly lower cost even when flexible OLED is scaled 20 June 2017 9
Automotive Displays Our vehicles were once our cocoons, insulating us from the world outside, but now we demand vehicles that include a host of new experiences and connectivity features. (WIRED) 20 June 2017 10
Macro trends drive demand for conformed and shaped displays With every passing car show, two things become glaringly obvious: 1) fully autonomous and sustainable automobiles aren t Hollywood pipe dreams anymore, they re inevitable 2) in anticipation of those same automobiles, interior design and use of space are overtaking exterior design in terms of automaker focus. Without the distractions of driving-as-we-know-it, our attention will almost be 100% focused on comfort, user interfaces and interior customization. (Gear Patrol) 20 June 2017 11
World first: A-pillar display in Yanfeng XiM17 concept car FlexEnable 12.1 glass-free, conformable organic liquid crystal display (OLCD) has been incorporated into a car s A-pillar to allow for greater visibility and safety. The demonstrator was included in YFAI s XiM17 autonomous concept interior that made its world debut at the 2017 North American Auto Show (NAIAS) in Detroit. http://www.yfai.com 20 June 2017 12
Flexible LCD is coming Source: http://www.j-display.com/english/news/2017/20170125.html Source: http://www.cdrinfo.com/sections/news/details.aspx?newsid=43719 Source: https://technology.ihs.com/588457/displaydynamics-jdi-to-start-mass-production-of-flexiblelcds-in-2018
OLCD vs PI : TAC film is the ideal substrate for flexible LCD Property Clear PI TAC Light Transmission (%) <90% >94% Birefringence R e (nm) 45 <2 Birefringence R th (nm) 135 <10 Cost, Supply Chain High Cost, not in MP ~$1/m 2, Ubiquitous TAC film is an ideal optical substrate for OLCD very high optical transmission, very low birefringence, very low cost. Excellent optical properties of TAC mean that no compensation film is required (unlike colourless PI film) Only OTFT enables the use of TAC for Flexible LCD substrates. Future innovations could have the LCD built directly onto the polarizer 20 June 2017 14
OLCD vs PI : Coat-Debond, versus Mount-Demount Typical low yield (De) bond process required for high temperature AM FlexEnable high yield (De)mount process used for low temperature OTFT TAC Film TAC Film Low-temp OTFT process enables maximum yield at the most critical release stage
Low T enables low cost, high yield mount/demount Enables unique (non-rectangular) display shapes to be easily cut High yield process for flex based OLCD and AMOLED displays Only possible with low-temperature OTFT processing 20 June, 2017 16
OTFT performance now exceeding a-si 10 EPD Focus Diverse Applications Mobility 1 0.1 0.01 a:si TFT Mobility In Production Next Generations 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016.. 2020 20 June 2017 17
Comparison with other FPD technologies OFF current @ Vds = 5V [A/um] 1.00E-13 1.00E-14 1.00E-15 1.00E-16 1.00E-17 ON-OFF ratio @ -5 to +10V 1.00E+09 1.00E+08 1.00E+07 1.00E+06 OTFT has lower fundamental off-current than both a-si and LTPS True on/off ratio in excess of 10 9, is better than a-si Assumption: linear dependency of OFF current on Vds 26th May 2017
Making very good progress on sensor applications Point of sale (PoS) Border control Banking and smartcards X-ray sensors Mobile devices Wearables 20 June 2017 19
Looking into BioFET applications Ion Sensitive Field Effect Transistor (ISFET) Flexible Organic Semiconductor Flexible Organic Dielectric Flexible/Stretchable Substrate Application demands OTFT because: Devices need to be embedded in body without rejection Devices need to very flexible and even stretch to form contact with nerves + organs 20 June 2017 20
Summary taking OTFT from Lab to Fab OTFT is becoming widely recognized as the best technology to enable fullyflexible, low-cost and ubiquitous displays and sensor arrays We have in production a mobility >1.5 cm 2 / Vs (well beyond a:si) and this is continually increasing OTFT has already been transferred from Lab to Fab FlexEnable s technology is the only OTFT technology used in display manufacturing, and commercial products, today. FlexEnable is very interested in partnering with like minded companies to create a larger ecosystem for flexible electronics. 20 June 2017 21
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