The University of Oxford has spun out one of its developments to be handled by a new company, Bodle Technologies. The work is based on phase change materials, which change their state in response to an external stimulus – such as an electrical charge. We covered the work last year ( ‘Nano-Pixels’ Promise Low-Power, High-Res and Flexible Displays, Display Monitor Vol 21 No 29).
The lead investor in the new company is Oxford Sciences Innovation, an investment company set up to provide capital and scaling expertise to Oxford spinouts. Others include the University of Oxford Isis Fund II and the Oxford Technology and Innovations EIS Fund.
David Fyfe, former CEO of Cambridge Display Technologies, will join Bodle as executive chairman.
Unlike E Ink’s electrochromic technology, Bodle’s system can reproduce colour. The company says that the ‘very deep’ colour hues can match or even exceed the range of colours produced by the latest display technologies. In addition, resolution can be high, with pixel sizes of sub-100nm. Bodle also says that high-speed switching is possible, making any display using the technology capable of showing video in reflective mode; even holographic displays are possible.
