Agreement covers Baytronâ products that enhance image quality in LEP displays

CAMBRIDGE, United Kingdom, – H.C. Starck, a wholly owned subsidiary of Bayer A.G (Leverkusen, Germany) and Cambridge Display Technology (CDT, Cambridge, U.K.), leading researcher, commercial developer, and owner of the fundamental intellectual property for light emitting polymer (LEP) technology, announced today that they have signed a commercial support agreement for the commercialisation of critical materials used in the manufacture of LEP displays.

Under the terms of the agreement, Bayer, a global leader in the health care, agriculture, polymers and chemicals industries, will manufacture, sell and market Baytronâ products to LEP display developers and manufacturers and CDT will provide technical support for their use. 

The agreement covers key jointly owned intellectual property by H.C. Starck and CDT for a high resistance version of polyethylene dioxythiophene polystyrene sulphonate (PEDOT/PSS), the critical charge transport material (hole transport layer, HTL) used in LEP display devices that has reduced crosstalk, which is vital for higher resolution and high pixel count displays. This agreement is the direct result of the successful co-development of these materials by the two companies, which took place under a joint development agreement in 2001.  

“We are pleased to put in place a commercial framework for the exploitation of these materials with Bayer,” said David Fyfe, CEO of CDT.  “This builds upon the very close technical relationship between our companies, which has harnessed Bayer’s highly-processable conductive polymer materials expertise with CDT’s LEP technology to produce this excellent product.”

"Two years ago Bayer entered into a joint development with CDT to tailor its materials for LEP applications,” said Dr. Aloys Eiling, Marketing Manager at H.C. Starck, a wholly owned subsidiary of Bayer AG.  “We see the cooperation with CDT as a major success factor in the development of the current material products as well as paves the way for future improvements of our product range."

The OLED display market has been forecast to grow as high as $2.5 billion in revenue by 2007. The OLED display market consists of a wide range of electronics products that includes mobile phones, PDAs, digital cameras, camcorders, microdisplays, and eventually personal computers and other consumer products.

About Bayer AG

One of the world's largest chemical companies, the Bayer AG group serves the global health care, agriculture, polymers and chemicals industries. Bayer employs more than 120,400 people among 350 affiliate companies located in virtually every country in the world. Bayer is headquartered in Leverkusen, Germany, with the majority of operations in Europe, the Far East and North America.