SmartKem and RiTdisplay Sign Joint Development Agreement on OTFT-Based AMOLEDs for Small Displays
Organic TFT material supplier SmartKem signed a joint development agreement last week with RiTdisplay to produce a full color demo of an AMOLED display using SmartKem’s TRUFLEX backplane technology and ink materials and RiTdisplay’s OLED process, fab and drive electronics. RiTdisplay CEO D.C. Wang indicated that this partnership signifies RiTdisplay’s opportunity in AMOLEDs. RiTdisplay has built a nice business in PMOLEDs. Their PMOLEDs range in size from 0.42” to 3.8” in monochrome and from 0.95” to 1.8” in full color. They are targeting the industrial, IoT, wearable and other small display markets. They claim 15K substrates per month at 370 x 470mm. RiTdisplay likely sees AMOLEDs as a way to boost growth. But rather than compete with existing players with a similar process, they see a partnership with SmartKem to compete with a lower backplane cost and possibly higher performance as well. The OTFT process does not require expensive LTPS, implant or CVD steps. The release says that RiTdisplay believes the partnership with SmartKem will create displays with higher brightness, higher resolution, better reliability, larger sizes along with super slim and bendable characteristics.