There are many advances being made in the field of displays, with companies looking at ways to create low-cost systems that can be recycled after use. LunaLEC, a 2012 spin-out from Lunavation AB, has developed prototypes for its Liquid Light polymer light-emitting electrochemical cells (LECs) (please see the video here).

Created by professors Nathaniel Robinson at Linköping University and Ludvig Edman at Umeå University, LECs are metal-free, flexible and printable light-emitting devices. LunaLEC patented the first all-organic LECs, taking advantage of the fact that in an LEC you can surprisingly use graphene as a cathode. LunaLEC earned honors at LOPEC 2013, where its LEC technology received the Investor Forum Award for Most Impactful Technology/Product, and the company is making progress.

Patric Stafshede, managing director for LunaLEC AB, noted that LunaLEC demonstrated proof-of-concept devices at LOPEC 2014, although it has not provided any customer specific prototypes yet. He added that LunaLEC has made important advances in its Liquid Light technology, which are receiving favorable reactions from customers. LunaLEC is sending its g1y-p1 to select potential customers, and the p2y-p1 will be available through the Printoo project in fourth quarter.

“These advances are primarily in our ability to know the trade-offs we can make between life-time, turn-on time, brightness and driving voltage, depending on customer requirements,” Stafshede said.

Stafshede said that there are three key benefits of LunaLEC’s Liquid Light technology, beginning with the possibility of making all-organic lighting devices.

“The requirements of the electrodes are much less stringent for a LEC compared with other lighting devices,” he said. “That enables us to create all-organic, metal-free lighting devices, which in turn can have a significant impact on the recycling of these kind of devices.”

Ease of production is another important asset.

“Since we are developing the option of using manufacturing in ambient air, the customers only needs to have basic ventilation requirements in place, and could print their own patterns and shapes without investing in expensive manufacturing equipment,” said Stafshede. “We can provide customization in small series, as we don’t require expensive equipment, and inexpensive integration into printed electronics.”

The printing of irregular-shaped objects is another potential benefit, although that possibility has not progressed to the prototype stage.

“The LEC production process enables the customer to cover 3D-objects with a lighting surface,” Stafshede reported. “This is so far a concept, since we don’t yet have a encapsulation step that can handle 3D-objects.”

LunaLEC is targeting its Liquid Light technology for marketing materials, packaging and integrated sensor systems.

“Our key segments are marketing material, where we see the scale (larger area) and customization as our primary benefit (imagine having all your conference roll-ups emitting light) and applications where our panels are integrated with smart sensors or other printed electronics.”

Stafshede said there are a lot of challenges in the integration of printed electronics, which will require a lot of endurance before the industry gets the first killer applications out there, but when everything comes together, new products will begin to flow.

“The trade-off between price and performance compared to silicon is similar to the trade-off for LECs and LEDs,” he added. “When the producers will get the right application, there will be an entirely new niche of products coming out.”