DuPont Displays (DuPont) and leading inkjet equipment manufacturerKateeva announced today that they will join forces to develop optimized inks, equipment, and processes to further advance inkjet printing technology for Organic Light Emitting Diode (OLED) display devices.  The companies will work closely to leverage DuPont technical leadership in solution materials for printed OLED devices with Kateeva’s exclusive YIELDjet™ inkjet printing platform.  The aim of this cooperation is to establish a proven, cohesive offering for OLED device manufacturers that enables a simpler yet highly effective process for manufacturing OLED TV displays using inkjet technology.

“DuPont is focused on providing best-in-class OLED materials and technology to help large format OLED TVs achieve mass commercialization,” said Avi Avula, global business director, DuPont Displays.  “We expect that our collaboration with Kateeva will streamline the decision making process for device and display makers and enable them to successfully manufacture printed OLED devices, at scale, sooner.”

Kateeva’s YIELDjet™ Inkjet Printing Platform; DuPont Displays and Kateeva announced today that they will join forces to develop optimized inks, equipment, and processes to further advance inkjet printing technology for OLED TVs. (Kateeva/LEDinside)

The DuPont and Kateeva cooperation is non-exclusive and manufacturers will not be restricted in their choice of equipment or materials through this effort; it will only aim to increase viable, manufacturing-ready options. The companies expect to provide cross-referenced data for DuPont materials with Kateeva printing equipment.

The OLED industry is collectively working towards mass production of OLED TVs using soluble OLED materials to economically produce high-performance displays while dramatically reducing the material waste associated with current evaporative processes.  Historically, device performance using soluble production has lagged. 

“With Kateeva and DuPont combining their considerable expertise in inkjet printing and OLED materials, the industry is poised to take a significant step forward in achieving low cost mass production of OLED TV,” said Steven Van Slyke, chief technology officer at Kateeva. 

Kateeva’s YIELDjet platform offers OLED manufacturers a mass-production equipment solution with dramatically lower cost-of-ownership advantages than the vacuum evaporation technologies currently used to pattern red, green and blue (RGB) OLED pixels. This vacuum-based RGB patterning process is one of the critical barriers to the realization of low-cost OLED TV mass production. Thanks to a novel architecture and unique technologies, the YIELDjet platform helps manufacturers maximize OLED device lifetime and quality, while also offering ultra-low particle performance, consistent process reliability, and high uptime.