Sumitomo Claims Polymer Material Ready for MP Using IJP

July 17, 2017
​
Japan-based chemical giant Sumitomo Chemical has developed new technology to facilitate cost efficient OLED display manufacturing. The new materials and equipment could possibly bring down the current production cost of OLED panels by 50%, the company claims. Sumitomo Chemical has introduced macromolecular materials that can be used for emissive layers in OLED panels. With the macromolecular materials, OLED panels can be manufactured through efficient inkjet printing technology. As compared to small molecule organic LED (SMOLED), the new PLED technology integrates red, green and blue emissive layers into a single white emitter and helps simpler OLED printing processes. All OLED manufacturers use evaporation-based process, in which red, green and blue emitters get evaporated and deposited onto glass substrates under vacuum. However, it requires expensive equipment and has very low material utilization for the common layers and worse for the emitters. The chemical company will be able to print its single emissive layers onto glass substrates evenly. To put the PLED technology into practice, it also constructed new printing equipment. The new OLED technology will be co-developed by Sumitomo Chemical, JOLED, and other non-Japanese display makers. JOLED’s 21.6-inch OLED displays for medical monitors are expected to be shipped in fall 2017. LG Display is rumored to be testing the technology for its OLED TVs.

The first printed 4K OLED display has a size of 21.6 inches. It is designed for medical monitors, television, gaming and other uses. JOLED has already received orders from Sony. Japan Display Inc. said that the OLED printing technology is likely to be used in the production of mid-sized displays in the future. Sumitomo and its predecessor Cambridge Display have long claimed that their material and IJP has been ready for mass production, but each time their product fell short. However, this time they are aligned with a “real” display maker so their claims seem to be more acceptable.

Vertical Divider