OLED is one of the technologies competing for an ever-larger share of the display and lighting segment. One key to the future of OLEDs are the advanced materials needed to improve OLEDs’ performance. OTI Lumionics is working on that aspect of OLED technology, bringing advanced materials to transparent OLED displays.

To that end, OTI Lumionics recently announced that it received a strategic investment from LG Technology Ventures, the venture capital investment arm of LG Group.

Michael Helander, co-founder and CEO of OTI Lumionics, noted that OTI was founded out of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Toronto to commercialize disruptive electronic materials and process technology developed from over a decade of research.

“OTI was originally focused on developing low cost manufacturing solutions for flexible and transparent OLEDs and was an early alumni of the Creative Destruction Lab, along with being first to successfully commercialize consumer ready OLED lighting,” Helander said. “The company was also the first to launch flexible OLEDs for print and packaging from their own pilot production line developed with support from Sustainable Development Technology Canada.” 

Based on strong customer demand, OTI now focuses exclusively on supplying advanced materials for the electronics sector.

“By combining its years of expertise in pilot production with leading computational materials design capabilities, OTI has become a leader in the development of advanced materials for consumer electronics,” Helander reported. “By combining state-of-the-art chemical simulations, including quantum computing based methods, with in-house pilot testing, the company can rapidly develop new specialty chemicals and electronic materials.”

At SID Display Week 2020, OTI announced the availability of its latest ConducTorr CPM materials for use in next generation mobile devices with under display camera and face unlock. The company will start shipping in the fourth quarter of 2020 for use in next generation mobile devices and other displays.

OTI’s ConducTorr CPM materials are being applied in a wide variety of consumer electronics, such as smart phones, tablets, laptops and TVs, for the purpose of enabling under-display cameras and sensors.

OTI’s ConducTorr CPM is the only material-based metal patterning solution in the electronics industry and is protected by a global IP portfolio covering materials, process, device and application, Helander said.

“The biggest challenge for innovation in the electronics industry is that manufacturers are hesitant to change the current processes used in mass production due to the high cost and risk. OTI’s ConducTorr CPM materials use the same process already used in display mass production and therefore do not require introducing new equipment into the fab, which reduces both cost and risk,” Helander noted.

“Additionally, the automotive industry is also interested in these materials for new features such as heads up displays and transparent touch screen dashboard control panels,” Helander observed. “The company is also exploring markets for its unique metal self-assembly patterning technology, including antennas for 5G, IOT sensors, energy storage, semiconductors and biomedical.”

Helander said that OTI is developing specialty chemicals to enable the self-assembly patterning of various metal layers used in displays. 

“If you look at the cross-section of an OLED display, it is made up of layers stacked on top of one another. The top layer of the display is a thin common electrode layer that provides the electrical current to all the pixels. This top layer of metal – the common cathode layer in the stack – has seen very little change in the past 30 years,” he observed.

“The challenge has been in manufacturing how to effectively pattern this metal layer in order to let more light in and produce more transparent displays or produce different areas with different thickness to produce a bright display with lower power consumption,”Helander continued.

To date, patterning of metal layers has been limited to destructive techniques, like photolithography or laser ablation, which damage the display when used to pattern the top cathode layer. OTI’s solution is to deposit a thin layer of their proprietary cathode patterning material (CPM), which cases the deposited metal layer to “self-assemble” into well controlled patterns.

“The typical feedback we get from customers is ‘this works like magic,’” Helander added. “This technology therefore introduces new capabilities into display manufacturing, including a high-level of optimization that was previously not available in the manufacturing process.”
 
Helander noted that OTI is currently working closely with the top consumer electronic brands in the US, China, and Korea as well as with the top display panel makers in Korea and China. OTI expects to see the first products within the market in 2021.

Helander said that the collaboration with LG is ideal for OTI.

“As not only a top global brand in consumer electronics (LG Electronics), but also as a leader in display manufacturing (LG Display) and fine chemicals (LG Chemical), LG brings an enormous wealth of experience across the entire electronics supply chain to help us scale faster,” Helander concluded. “The strategic investment made by LG Technology Ventures will be used to grow and scale OTI’s current product line of advanced materials as well as accelerate the adoption of OTI’s materials in mass production, including our ConducTorr CPM solution for under-display cameras and sensors.”