Andrew Lee is from Dow Electronic Materials and is Global Business Director for Display Technologies and his topic was quantum dots.
The display business is part of the Dow consumer solutions business which handles electronics within the company. The divisions within the business are semiconductor technologies, interconnects, display technologies and growth (emerging materials). The company claims to be number one in OLED emitters and number one in diffusers as well as quantum dots.
Dow believes its products are in 95% of all mobile devices, somewhere (although not always in displays). Dow got into OLEDs by the acquisition of Gracel in Korea in 2007 and is now the top supplier of OLED emissive materials, it believes. Nanoco has QD technology that Dow licenses exclusively. The company also has a joint venture with SKC and Dow (Rohm & Haas) that has a lot of film materials.
Lee went through the benefits of QDs which appeal to panel makers particularly because there is little capital investment needed to adopt the materials. Dow puts the QDs into films to drop into the display film stack.
There needs to be work to continue to develop QDs and develop next generation materials that are more stable and can be used with less barrier film material, possibly allowing solution-processing. Thermally stable QDs would reduce the number of QDs needed and eventually, there is the possibility of luminescent QDs. There is a lot of work still to be done to get there.
Lee concluded his comments about the company by saying that Dow has a good reputation for nano-materials. The company is also flexible, using J/Vs, acquisitions and licensing to meet different market needs.
Looking ahead at the next five years, higher resolution, better colour, flexibility and 3D display are all important areas for development.
Looking even further, wearables and “display of things” as well as public and information displays are likely to be important. Diagnostics are interesting and automotive applications will also increase, transforming the driving experience.
