UK and US collaboration to create new e-reader demonstrator

Dan Rogers - 18 Feb 2010

The collaboration between the UK's Printed Electronics Technology Centre (PETEC) and the Flexible Display Centre (FDC) at Arizona State University will deliver a new e-reader demonstrator in Q2 2010.

The two organisations will use the demonstrator device as a proof-of-concept for materials, components and processing machinery that the UK and the US could provide to future display supply chains.

The two organisations announced their collaboration on organic thin-film transistors (OTFTs) for backplane fabrication at the beginning of February.

Supply

However, PETEC director Tom Taylor believes that the collaboration will be a vehicle for innovations in e-paper that could then be supplied and sold by companies from the two countries.

He states: 'We will produce a demonstrator system that is a proof piece in terms of what the technology is capable of. We will also work out economic means of manufacturing in the project.'

The arrangement will go beyond technology development and seek to rapidly integrate UK- and US-made components and machinery as keystones in the supply chain for the e-reader production industry.

Similar success could then be transferred to the promising OLED displays market.

Taylor adds: The steps we will use are in printed manufacture and scalable technologies. We want to show it can be done - then we've got to find someone to take the technology forward. This project ends at that point.'

Competition

While both the e-reader and OLED displays industries are already being populated by Asian companies such as Sony, Prime View International, Samsung and LG, Taylor believes the PETEC-FDC collaboration could compel industry bodies to invest in a particular element of the technology demonstrated by the two organisations.

He says: 'We want to take a material or process and get it adopted somewhere quickly. Then this would be a technology transfer arrangement where the value comes back to the UK. If we show the technology works then we can persuade firms that it's a realistic option.'

Once the e-reader project is completed in 2011 - work will continue after the demonstrator has been presented - the two organisations will move onto developing a demonstrator for 'another display format,' says Taylor. The second project is scheduled for March 2011 and will add to the collaboration with a consortium of partners.