Printed Electronics - the Giants Get Involved

Electrophoretic displays are usually only black and white. They are non-emissive, but they need no electricity other than when the message is changed so they are ideal for signage in supermarkets, airports, etc and for electronic newspapers and magazines. Toshiba and others are learning how to do colour versions. Plastic Logic, with Intel, Seiko Epson, BASF and other giant backers, has the printed transistor backplanes that are key to increasing their market tenfold because they and the display can now be flexible, avoiding the dead end of thin film silicon. This company is setting up a factory in Dresden Germany to make complete flexible displays and Sony has been developing similar flexible back plane and front plane technology. The only disappointment has been the recently revised view of some participants that cost-effective, flexible OLED displays of adequate life may have slipped to as much as ten years away.