India's Samtel Industries will start manufacturing organic light emitting diode (OLED) displays for mobile phones by 2008. According to Satish Kaura, chief managing director, a working prototype is ready. "We can go for a pilot project now; in 18 months we expect to go for commercial production."
"The prototype is passive matrix, but we have plans to eventually enter the active-matrix segment," said Dr Deepak Gupta, project director.
Preparation work for building a prototype development center began in 2005. Korea's Doosan DND supplied vapor deposition equipment for processing 200 x 200mm full-color OLEDs for R&D purposes. A Class 1000 clean room and facilities for fabrication and characterization have also been set up at the center, which was formally inaugurated this June.
Cost of the initial prototype, developed with the help of Korean scientists, is Rs30 million, according to Gupta, while setting up a manufacturing unit may cost Rs1.5 billion. The company is currently working on a final prototype scheduled for December.
