New venture company, Polyink, will offer total solutions package that includes providing ink-jet printing machines and inks for LEP displays

TOKYO, Japan, and CAMBRIDGE, U.K.,  – Seiko Epson Corporation, Japan, and Cambridge Display Technology Ltd., (CDT), UK, have reached an agreement after several years of joint development to form a joint venture company to offer technologies and services using ink-jet deposition for manufacturing Light Emitting Polymer (LEP) displays.

LEPs, which are easily soluble in solvents, can be laid down in arrays forming Red, Green, Blue (RGB) pixels by ink jet printing. The drop sizes used to create pixels are extremely low volume, which has necessitated major development of printer head technology and ink jet formulations to match these heads. This ink jet printing method provides a high efficiency in utilization of the polymer materials, yields efficient devices, and holds the promise of low cost manufacturing of LEP displays.

Seiko Epson and CDT have worked jointly on these issues for several years, utilizing Seiko Epson’s ink jet printing technologies and CDT’s ink formulation technologies, and have reached the stage at which commercialization can take place. The two companies are moving into this commercialization to provide an ink jet printing machine with Epson’s print head and inks whose formulations have been specified by CDT especially for these heads.

Seiko Epson and others have already demonstrated ink jet printing as a route to high-resolution full color LEP displays. The new company, named “Polyink,” will be jointly established to offer a “total solution package” to, in particular, display makers making high resolution, active matrix displays. 

“Seiko Epson is clearly a world leader in the development and commercialization of ink jet technology,” said David Fyfe, CEO of CDT. “Our companies have been collaborating in this field for a number of years to apply its potential for lower cost, higher throughput manufacturing of LEP displays. The Polyink venture is the natural culmination of this substantial investment by our companies. We have put together a venture whose strategy fits well both with Seiko Epson’s business model as well as with CDT’s plan to provide open commercial solutions and critical technologies to our licensees.”

Note to Editors:
Cambridge Display Technology (CDT) is a privately held company leading the research, development and commercialization 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 commercialization 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 center in Godmanchester, U.K.