Hague Corp.'s wholly owned subsidiary Solterra Renewable Technologies announced an exclusive worldwide licensing agreement with the University of Arizona for the patented, intellectual property covering screen-printing techniques for the fabrication of organic light emitting diodes.

Solterra's CEO Stephen Squires explained that there are essential similarities between the screen-printing techniques to fabricate LEDs and the screen printing technology that Solterra is currently optimizing to print quantum dots to make thin-film solar cells.

Using this licensing agreement to fabricate LEDs using screen printing techniques will greatly reduce the costs of LEDs, Squires explained. The high cost of producing LEDs has limited its uses; and therefore a dramatic cost reduction will greatly expand LED use, he added.

"There are useful similarities in the underlying design and manufacturing technology for quantum dot solar cells and other printed electronics applications such as batteries, sensors, conductors, lighting, logic and memory," he said.

Squires noted LED/OLED displays will likely emerge as the second most significant market for printed electronics.

"When you can leverage a single enabling technology, such as our semiconductor quantum dots, to enter two or more different, but massive, markets without straying from your core competencies, the business opportunity is very compelling," he said.

Squires said there is a frenzied pace of amazing discoveries in light-related applications. However, it was clear new work would be limited in commercial application by raw material costs. Access to high quality, affordable quantum dots emerged as the key ingredient for a number of these exciting developments. When coupled with high-throughput, inexpensive manufacturing such as screen printing, we believe wide market penetration is inevitable.

According to the IDTechEx report, Printed, Organic & Flexible Electronics Forecasts, Players & Opportunities 2009-2029, the market for printed and potentially printed electronics, including organics, inorganics and composites will rise from $1.92 billion in 2009 to $57.16 billion in 2019. The majority of the market in 2009 -- 71% -- is for electronics which are relatively mature -- conductive inks (for membrane keyboards, Printed Circuit Boards, flex connectors, membrane keyboards, sensors (e.g. disposable blood glucose sensors for those with diabetes) and Organic Light Emitting Displays (OLEDs) which are on glass substrates and not printed as yet. Source: www.idtechex.com

The University of Arizona pioneering technology makes significant improvements over prior art. Organic LED / OLED based displays now have the potential to be manufactured using very high volume, low cost roll-to-roll print processing on inexpensive substrates.

In addition to the potential to deliver a significantly lower price point, this technology can also provide, higher definition, increased viewing angles, lower power consumption and reduced response time for an enhanced picture, all in a very thin, light weight, format. These characteristics enable display technologies to flourish in environments that have previously been uneconomical or simply not viable.

The market for organic light emitting diode displays alone is estimated to exceed $4.5 billion, according to industry researchers.