DuPont Innovation Builds Flat Panel Displays from the Inside-Out

Advances in Breakthrough Technologies for LCDs, OLEDs, PDPs and FED

Spanning a broad range of technologies and products, DuPont today announced its latest offerings to the displays industry, including ground-breaking solutions with significantly improved performance and commercially available products for liquid crystal displays (LCDs), organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs), plasma display panels (PDPs) and field emission displays (FEDs).

The company is showcasing its innovations in material, process and film technologies for flat panel displays at the Society for Information Display’s (SID) International Symposium in Long Beach, Calif., this week.

“DuPont’s approach to innovation focuses on making our work market-relevant, creating unique technologies and then commercializing them,” said Thomas M. Connelly, DuPont executive vice president and chief innovation officer. “The displays marketplace is a great example of DuPont science at work for a multi-billion dollar industry where our innovative technologies and products provide better and lower cost solutions for our customers and consumers around the world.”

DuPont display innovations include:

Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) technologies:

* DuPont™ Thermal Color Filters (TCF) system, a maskless, direct writing color filter manufacturing system, is highly scalable and significantly reduces production costs, process steps and cleanroom space. In the final stages of commercialization, the TCF system includes equipment, process, and red, green and blue (RGB) donor films, and is currently in beta trials in a LCD fab.
* New commercial applications of DuPont™ Direct Bonding technology, which increases a display’s sunlight readability by as much as 400 percent and impact and scratch resistance up to 300 percent. With two new production lines in Shenzhen, China, DuPont offers this cost-effective advanced technology, traditionally used in specialized avionics and military applications, for demanding tablet personal computer and marine electronics applications.
* Newly available DuPont™ Optilon™ anti-reflective film coating solutions for the manufacture of single-layer, wet-coated anti-reflective films that decrease LCD surface reflections, provide excellent abrasion resistance and reduce overall display costs by simplifying the traditional multilayer manufacturing process.
* DuPont™ Optilon™ advanced composite reflectors film (ACR) for improved display luminance in applications ranging from televisions to notebooks, monitors and industrial displays.

Organic Light Emitting Diode (OLED) technologies:

* A unique manufacturing process utilizing solution processing of small molecule materials for OLED displays and a material set including DuPont™ HIL hole injection layer and DuPont light emitting and charge transport materials – the essential materials used to make an OLED display.
* DuPont™ Drylox™ cover glass is an encapsulation technology that effectively absorbs moisture and other contaminants while simplifying the manufacturing process. Plasma

Display Panel (PDP) technologies:

* Lead-free DuPont™ Fodel® paste is now available with reduced ruthenium content. The global industry standard for thick-film metallization, Fodel(R) is environmentally smart, cost-effective, easy-to-use and provides the fine-line resolution required for full HDTV.
* A dry film-based metallization technology providing finer line resolutions than previously possible. Now in the final stages of commercialization, Transfer Materials Technology (TMT) is highly scalable and easily automated for higher yield and lower cost of ownership.

Field Emission Display (FED) technologies:

* Introducing a photoimageable, thick-film paste now in development with high electron emission efficiency, high intrinsic material lifetime and easy processing. This emitter paste, with associated activation process technology, provides low power consumption and high-speed switching for applications ranging from TV to LCD backlighting, x-ray sources and vehicle displays.

Optical Films from DuPont Teijin Films:

* Melinex®, Mylar® and Teijin® Tetoron® brands of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) films and Teonex(R) polyethylene naphthalate (PEN) films are the substrates of choice for applications such as reflectors, diffusers, electromagnetic interference (EMI) and optical filters, anti-reflective films and hard-coated films.
* High-performance films for flexible displays, designed to meet the unique requirements of the flexible display and printable electronics markets, with key characteristics such as flatness, low shrinkage and predictable dimensional changes with variable heat and moisture.
* Newly launched planarized PET films, which offer glass-like surface smoothness and cleanliness, are now commercially available.