Wednesday, March 25th, 2009
Novaled, the provider of Organic Light Emitting Diode (OLED) technology and materials, and Holst Centre, an independent R&D centre developing generic technologies for Wireless Autonomous Transducer Solutions and for Systems-in-Foil, have decided to collaborate on the development of organic thin film transistor (OTFT) technologies under a joint development agreement. Novaled will provide its organic dopants to the Holst Centre for applications as displays and circuits.
CMOS organic TFT (OTFT) cross-sectional schematic (source: Novaled)
Novaled’s doping technology contributes to very high power efficiencies and long lifetimes in OLEDs by improving charge carrier injection and transport in the organic layers. These effects are also relevant for OTFT devices, as the carrier injection from drain and source into the organic material has a major influence on the device performance. Novaled currently develops dopant and host materials which can be processed both in vacuum and in solution.
”In the future, OTFTs can be integrated in display backplanes and other driving electronics like organic RFID (radio-frequency identity) tags,” said Jan Blochwitz-Nimoth, CTO of Novaled. With the potential for easy and low-cost manufacturing, OFTF could change the way we use electronics today. The challenge has been in finding the right combination of specialty materials that can be printed across large areas.
Gerwin Gelinck, Program Manager Organic Circuitry at Holst Centre, commented, “It is our strong believe that only through this type of collaboration, cutting edge processes and prototypes are developed that will accelerate introduction of organic transistor products to the market place. For the other Holst Centre partners in our Shared Program the joint development project with Novaled offers a unique opportunity to evaluate the potential of this approach at first hand.” More on OTFT in the next BetaSights Newsletter. -E.K.