Mar 16 2009
NanoGram Corporation, a leading developer and manufacturer of advanced products and solutions for optical, electronic and energy applications, announced today that it has entered into a technology development agreement (TDA) with Teijin Limited to further develop NanoGram's printed silicon ink.
The TDA will focus on extending NanoGram’s printed silicon ink technology for use with Teijin’s flexible substrates. The ink-substrate package targets light, flexible and printed electronics applications including flat panel display backplanes and thin film photovoltaics (TFPV).
Flexible displays and TFPV represent a next generation growth opportunity within already compelling industries. According to DisplaySearch, the display market is expected to reach $132B in 2013. The Prometheus Institute recently targeted TFPV to represent 40 percent of the overall photovoltaics market by 2012.
“Our new relationship with Teijin speaks to NanoGram’s mission of providing low-cost, high performance silicon solutions for energy and electronics,” said NanoGram President and CEO Dr. Kieran Drain. “This TDA is an important next step in the realization of printed silicon electronics.”
“We are excited to be working jointly with NanoGram to develop flexible energy and electronics utilizing Teijin’s market-leading substrates,” said Teijin Group Executive Officer Kenji Kubo. “Integration of silicon on plastics promises to open new large markets.”
NanoGram’s silicon inks are designed to fulfill a much sought-after need within the printed electronics toolkit – that of a printable semiconductor capable of exceeding incumbent silicon transistor performance.
The inks leverage NanoGram’s laser pyrolysis-based Nanoparticle Manufacturing (NPM™) process for high volume production of crystalline silicon nanoparticles. Intrinsic and doped silicon nanoparticles are carefully collected and dispersed into a variety of ink formulations developed internally which meet specific printing specifications. The non-pyrophoric inks can be used in conventional manufacturing facilities with available printing equipment, thus lowering barriers for device manufacturers to adopt these materials.