Tokyo, Japan, November 11, 2010 – Tokyo Electron Limited (TEL) and Seiko Epson Corporation (Epson) announced the conclusion of a joint development agreement for organic light-emitting diode (OLED) display manufacturing technology.
Processes for forming a uniform film of organic material on substrates are essential in the manufacture of OLED displays, and the technique currently in general use is vacuum thermal evaporation (VTE), which uses masks in a vacuum to form the film on the substrate. However, manufacturers must improve productivity and develop efficient manufacturing technologies, such as those incorporating next-generation inkjet methods for film formation, before volume production of OLED displays can become a reality.
Epson established organic material uniform film forming technology using the inkjet method and possesses many technologies central to the manufacture of OLED displays. Epson has also accumulated expertise in industrial inkjet technologies including the development and sale of large-size application devices for LCD TV color filter coating applicators.
TEL develops and sells products including etch/ash systems and coater/developers for state-of-the-art ultra-large substrates in its flat panel display (FPD) production equipment business. TEL also has service bases around the world to enable provision of a range of high-quality services.
This joint development project will make use of the strengths of each company to integrate OLED display manufacturing technologies using Epson's inkjet method with TEL's production equipment technology. The two companies will undertake the joint development with the aim of creating next-generation OLED display manufacturing technologies as a total solution package.