Roll-to-roll

This is a sponsored post by Ergis Group

In 2020, Poland-based Ergis Group launched the noDiffusion film platform, a high-barrier film that offers high level of optical transmittance and low level of light scattering, and the ability to contain transparent conductive electrodes. The new technologies adopted in the production of the barrier films offer a combination of high performance and competitive pricing.

Ergis has been busy since 2020, scaling up its production capabilities, and progressing towards production in a roll-to-roll configuration (rather than the batch system it used before). Ergis is using two different technologies - ALD and sputtering to deposit the barrier and the conductive electrodes.

Sinovia Technologies developed roll-to-roll printed OLED production technologies, that enable the companies to produce simple (segmented) flexible OLED displays at low cost.

The company has a pilot OLED production line for smart labeling, packaging, etc. The company demonstrated some of its displays at Display Week 2023. Even thought these are low-cost solutions, the performance of the OLEDs is good, with over 10,000 operating hours.

An AILU (Association of Industrial Laser Users) webinar, scheduled for September 15, will introduce the basics of OLED lighting, discuss the choice for the right substrate and encapsulation material as well as the current status of roll-to-roll processing. The webinar is sponsored by 3D Micromac, the industry leader in laser micromachining and roll-to-roll laser systems.

The webinar will also show results from the EU-funded LAOLA project, which is a collaboration between German and Japanese companies and research institutes. The LAOLA project, led by the Fraunhofer FEP, develops the use of ultra-thin flexible glass as a substrate and encapsulation material in roll-to-roll technology for this purpose.

Researchers from the University of Michigan, in collaboration with Universal Display are developing a low-cost roll-to-roll (R2R) process to produce flexible OLED lighting panels. The goal is to achieve a panel cost of less than $10 per klm - a tenfold reduction compared to current costs.

The roll-to-coll system can continuously produce encapsulation panels, at high speeds and reduce costs. The front plane (organic stack) deposition is done via OVPD. The researchers say the will demonstrate reliable, encapsulated 25 cm² flexible white OLED panels with an efficacy of 50 lm/W and a CRI >85 on barrier-coated plastic films or thin glass.

In 2016 the EU launched the PI-SCALE project, which established a European-wide roll-to-roll flexible OLED lighting pilot production line, with an aim to enable companies of all sizes to quickly and cost effectively test and scale up their flexible OLED lighting concepts. In 2018 the EU has launched a €14 million initiative within PI-SCALE called LYTEUS, which provides the expertise and capability required to progress an OLED lighting concept from an idea and into a commercialized product.

The PI-SCALE project has successfully been completed, and the Fruanhofer FEP institute now announced that following a meeting with the EU Commission representatives, it was decided that the OLED lighting pilot line services will continue to be funded, under the lead of the Fraunhofer FEP. The pilot line service will continue under the name LYTEUS.

According to Digitimes, PMOLED display maker RiTdisplay has started to produce flexible OLED lighting panels, targeting the automotive, medical and consumer (home) applications.

For the automotive market, the RiTdisplay is apparently collaborating with Luminit, through its Taiwan-subsidiary Luminit Automotive Technology. RiTdisplay is holding 30% at LAT which is already starting to supply OLED lighting panels for automotive brake lights and started low-volume shipments in Q1 2019.

The Fraunhofer FEP institute, the Holst Center and other partners have developed a 15-meter long OLED lighting panel, the longer OLED device ever (beating their own 2017 record of a 10-meter OLED). This work was done as part of the Lyteus, the EU's €14 million initiative within PI-SCALE.

The partners in this project say that this is the first OLED produced using a new unique roll-to-roll (R2R) process that combines the performance of an evaporated OLED stack with solution processing of auxiliary layers.

The Fraunhofer FEP announced that it developed a new technology to produce ultra-smooth polymer films. The new technology can be used to produce low-defect density films in a roll-to-roll based process, suitable for a wide range of applications - including encapsulation films, touch layers and as OLED substrates.

This technology was developed as part of the EU-funded OptiPerm project. The Fraunhofer researchers say that this new innovative process does not require any special processing environment and could be used under standard factory conditions.

In 2016 the EU launched the PI-SCALE project, which established a European-wide roll-to-roll flexible OLED lighting pilot production line, with an aim to enable companies of all sizes to quickly and cost effectively test and scale up their flexible OLED lighting concepts.

Now the EU has launched a €14 million initiative within PI-SCALE called LYTEUS, which provides the expertise and capability required to progress an OLED lighting concept from an idea and into a commercialized product. Lyteus helps companies with sheet-to-sheet and roll-to-roll prototyping of flexible OLEDs, technology transfer, device encapsulation and more. At launch Lyteus serves four customers: Audi, Rehau, Emde and Pilkington, to develop flexible OLED lighting products in the automotive, aeronautics and designer luminaires sectors.

Taiwan's ITRI institute says that recent advances in OLED materials and production methods has enabled it to greatly reduce OLED lighting production costs. Recent technical achievements at ITRI include a new flexible substrate transfer, R2R production process integration, and soft light source system design.

In 2016 ITRI constructed a pilot roll-to-roll production line for flexible OLEDs. ITRI now says that these technical achievements will enable it to increase the production line capacity for 50,000 monthly panels. ITRI also developed a new flexible OLED that weighs only 10.7 grams and is less than 0.5 mm thick.