Last night at the Printed Electronics USA conference in Santa Clara, Calif., Kateeva’s YIELDjet™ FLEX inkjet printing system was named the winner of the prestigious Technical Development Manufacturing Award. Presented annually by conference organizer IDTechEx, the award honors the most significant development of a manufacturing device process or production plant in the printed electronics industry over the previous 24 months. In particular, manufacturing developments that optimize the process of lab-scale or mass-scale production by improving productivity, quality, reliability, uniformity, or scale.

Since its debut in late 2014, Kateeva’s YIELDjet FLEX system has become the leading high-yield mass-production tool for the key organic layer deposition step in the OLED Thin Film Encapsulation (TFE) market. Customers include the world’s largest flat panel display manufacturers located in Asia. With its novel features and capabilities, it solves critical technical problems that previously made it economically impractical to mass produce flexible OLEDs.

Raghu Das, CEO of IDTechEx, reports: “This is printed electronics in action, where inkjet printing is used to enable commercial consumer electronics devices today. Kateeva has built a system that continuously provides uniform, reliable and precise function required for the demanding display business.”

In accepting the award, Kateeva’s Chief Product Officer Eli Vronsky thanked the Judging Panel and called the accolade a considerable honor. “Engineering the YIELDjet FLEX system was an extraordinary opportunity for our team,” he said. “But as any product designer will confess, watching it catalyze an industry shift is the greater thrill. We’re proud that by solving certain OLED mass-production challenges, our tool has helped customers clear the path for exciting mobile products that are bendable, foldable and even roll-able. We’re grateful to be recognized for this achievement by our friends in the printed electronics industry.”

Today at the Printed Electronics USA Conference, Kateeva technologist, Xiao Chen, Ph.D. will reveal how YIELDjet technology will soon be applied to mass produce the RGB OLED layer to enable affordable OLED TVs. Dr. Chen’s talk begins at 11:40am.

YIELDjet is trademarked by Kateeva.