NanoGram Corporation (NanoGram), a US-based developer and manufacturer of advanced products and solutions for photovoltaic, optical, and electronic applications, has signed a technology development agreement (TDA) with Teijin Limited (Teijin) to further develop NanoGram's printed silicon ink. The TDA will be focussing 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 with flat panel display backplanes and thin film photovoltaics (TFPV).
Flexible displays and TFPV signifies a next generation growth opportunity within already compelling industries. As per the DisplaySearch, the display market is anticipted to reach $132 billion in 2013. The Prometheus Institute recently targeted TFPV to represent 40% 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 chief executive officer 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.
Company’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 influences NanoGram’s laser pyrolysis-based Nanoparticle Manufacturing (NPM) process for high volume production of crystalline silicon nanoparticles. Intrinsic and doped silicon nanoparticles are cautiously collected and dispersed into a variety of ink formulations developed internally which meet specific printing specifications. The non-pyrophoric inks can be utilized in conventional manufacturing facilities with available printing equipment, thus lowering barriers for device manufacturers to adopt these materials.