London, UK,  - Plastic  TV screen pioneers receive the MacRobert gold medal HRH Prince Philip, Senior Fellow of The Royal Academy of Engineering, today presented the £50,000 MacRobert Award for innovation in engineering to a team of five engineers from Cambridge Display Technology (CDT) at Buckingham Palace. Dr David Fyfe, Professor Richard Friend FREng FRS, Dr Jeremy Burroughes, Dr Karl Heeks and Dr Carl Towns are honoured for their ground-breaking development of light-emitting polymers (LEPs), which open the way to a true flat-screen TV or computer display. An exhibit showing the impact of their breakthrough opens in the Wellcome Wing at London’s Science Museum this week.

The Royal Academy of Engineering MacRobert Award is Britain’s biggest and most prestigious engineering prize, given annually since 1969 to a product or project with the potential to change the world and to generate economic success for the UK.

LEP displays give a picture as good as the cathode ray tubes in conventional televisions without all the bulk and complexity. Displays can be created on one sheet of glass or, ultimately, plastic so they could be rolled up. CDT’s vision of the future of colour imaging has captured imaginations worldwide, and the company has licensed its technology to display manufacturers Delta Optoelectronics, DuPont Displays, MicroEmissive Displays, Osram, Philips and Seiko Epson. The first consumer products are already in development and the first colour mobile phone screen, made possible through CDT technology, should be with us by 2004.

Professor Richard Friend (CDT’s co-founder and Chief Scientist) and Dr Jeremy Burroughes (Chief Technology Officer) and colleagues at the Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge discovered in 1989 that they could make polymers that emitted intense light under an electric current – and that changing the polymer compositions produced different colours of light. Realising that this breakthrough opened the way to high-quality displays, the researchers formed Cambridge Display Technology Ltd in 1992 to exploit the discovery – it was the university’s first spin-out company. Ten years on, CDT now employs over 120 people in and around Cambridge and has recently invested £25 million in a technology development pilot plant at Godmanchester.

“We at CDT are honoured to receive this year’s MacRobert Award,” says CDT’s CEO David Fyfe. “It recognises not only the skills and dedication of our scientists and engineers over the past ten years but the tremendous support the company has received, and continues to receive, from its licensees, partners and investors who have made it possible,”
Competition is now openfor next year’s award, with the closing date for entries 31 January 2003. For application details see www.raeng.org.uk/prizes/macrobert

Notes for editors
1. Britain’s biggest engineering prize, the Royal Academy of Engineering MacRobert Award, is worth £50,000 and the MacRobert gold medal to the ultimate winner.

CDT was one of four finalists for this year’s MacRobert Award. The others three were: BP Chemicals for Innovene, a new high-productivity polyethylene technology; Mott MacDonald for tunnel jacking on the Boston Central Artery, USA; and Surface Technology Systems plc for the advanced silicon etch process.

2. Cambridge Display Technology (CDT) is a privately held company leading the research, development and commercialisation of polymer technology for flat panel displays, lighting, and photovoltaics. CDT’s light emitting polymer (LEP) technology is targeted for use in a wide range of electronic display products used for information management, communications and entertainment. Features include reduced power consumption, size, thickness and weight, very wide viewing angle, superior video imaging performance and the potential to produce displays on plastic substrates. To date, licenses have been granted to Delta Optoelectronics, DuPont Displays, MicroEmissive Displays, OSRAM, Philips, and Seiko-Epson.

CDT is promoting LEP technology development and speeding its commercialisation through a global business strategy including co-developments with leading companies in a wide range of display and related technology areas. Founded in 1992, the company is headquartered in Cambridge, U.K. and has a LEP manufacturing development centre in Godmanchester, U.K. More information about CDT is available at: www.cdtltd.co.uk

3. The Royal Academy of Engineering honours the UK's most distinguished engineers and aims to take advantage of the enormous wealth of engineering knowledge and experience that its one thousand Fellows possess. It exists to pursue, encourage and maintain excellence in the whole field of engineering to promote the advancement of the science, art and practice of engineering for the benefit of the public.