Aixtron has acquired US-based thin-film encapsulation (TFE) developer PlasmaSi for $16 million. Aixtron will combine the encapsulation technology with its OVPD OLED deposition equipment. Aixtron will also integrate PlasmaSi’s thin-film encapsulation process into its existing OLED cluster for customer demonstration purposes.
Aixtron OVPD R&D Demo Cluster
PlasmaSi developed organic thin-film deposition technology based on very low temperature silicon nitride Plasma Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition (PECVD). The technology can also be used to deposit large-area OLED lighting panels and flexible Integrated Circuits.
Encapsulation is one of the major challenges towards flexible OLED mass production. There are several competing TFE technologies, including ALD (Veeco's Fast-ALD, for example), Inkjet Printing (Kateeva's YieldJET Flex, for example) and Universal Display's UniversalBarrier.
Comments
What relevance does this have in light of an article about encap technology?
Besides:
there is no such thing as usage rights for patents. a patent is a right to forbid using a certain technology, so that the patent holder enjoys exclusivity;
in the specific case, UDC licenses the right to use OVPD technology to Aixtron
In return, it does not mean, that UDC has rights to what Aixtron developed from UDC technology; e.g. the showerhead technology is very likely proprietary to Aixtron
Well, UDC will get paid if Aixtron sells OVPD systems. This new encapsulation tool enhances AIxtron's chances to sell complete production systems which include OVPD, so it should be good news for UDC as well. Not sure if this is crucial for UDC, though...
US-based Universal Display Corp. (UDC) holds the usage rights for the OVPD patents, and licensed them exclusively to AIXTRON in 1999 for the development, production, and marketing of OVPD systems.