US start-up Cambridge Nanotech has won support from the FlexTech Alliance, to commercialise its thin-film process for flexible electronics and displays.
The FlexTech Alliance contract will be used to fund Cambridge NanoTech's development of its Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) coating system for fabricating plastic electronics over large-area and flexible substrates for making solar cells, biomedical devices, displays and other devices.
Since 2008 Cambridge NanoTech has been supplying its ALD processing equipment to silicon semiconductor and photonics research groups in Asia and the US. The technique has been developed as an alternative to evaporation, sputtering and chemical vapour deposition (CVD) and can be used to apply materials in and around 3D objects.
Roll-to-roll
The high-speed ALD system will be able to operate at the high volumes needed for commercial roll-to-roll production.
The technology is able to produce very thin-films scalable to large-area substrates using low temperature processing.
The engineering team at Cambridge NanoTech is focusing on reducing cycle time of the system. This will help to reduce the costs of producing thin films for flexible and organic electronic applications.
A beta system will be installed at the Flexible Display Centre at Arizona State University in 2012. In addition to designing and building the high-speed ALD system, Cambridge NanoTech is developing film processes that are applicable to electronics and display manufacturers.
Funding
Since 1994, the FlexTech Alliance (originally the US Display Consortium) has funded projects in display R&D. Typically funding is structured as a 50/50 cost share with the industry participant.
The Army Research Laboratory (ARL) contributes to the alliance's funding pot for allocation to technical projects, which it may benefit from exploiting for military applications as well as consumer.
Materials and precursors designed for the ALD thin-film process at Cambridge NanoTech include metals, semiconductors, insulators, oxides, nitrides, dielectrics, magnetic and refractive coatings. They have been developers by Strem Chemicals and Sigma-Aldrich.
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Cambridge NanoTech
Cambridge NanoTech is developing film processes that are applicable to electronics and display manufacturers
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Flexible Display Centre
The technology development organisation is based at Arizona State University
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