Cambridge Display Technology (CDT) has joined forces with ILFORD Imaging Switzerland, in a project that investigates the use of nanoparticulate layer technology for improved efficiency displays.

All displays produce more light than is actually seen by the user, due to internal losses in the display itself. By increasing the proportion of observed light, (the ‘opticalefficiency’), display devices can be made brighter for a given energy input, or energyconsumption can be reduced for a given brightness.

ILFORD manufactures precision coated, inkjet printing consumables, and has discovered that certain nanoporous structures have potentially valuable properties when applied to polymer light emitting diode (PLED) displays.

The new materials, when integrated into a display device, have optical properties which help to transmit light, which would otherwise be trapped and lost. The project - which will complete its initial proof-of-principle phase by the end of the first quarter of 2005, is designed to evaluate and quantify the performance advantages that may be available from this novel approach.

Work is ongoing and centered at CDT’s Technology Development Centre nearCambridge, UK, where much of the work is carried out in developing and preparing PLED technology for commercialization.