FlexMatters is the portal for information, news and opportunities in the manufacturing of flexible displays, electronics and photovoltaics.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT: Ron Kirksey, Kent State, 330-672-8535 Kelly Coolbaugh, NorTech, 216-241-8458

KENT, Ohio – Kent State University announced a new era in focused, 21st-century research and economic development today, unveiling a leading-edge research park in the former bus garage on the Kent Campus.

“The Kent State Centennial Research Park is an important part of my vision for the university as it enters its second century, by cultivating and capitalizing on intellectual property,” said Kent State President Lester A. Lefton. “This innovative research initiative fits our mission as a major public research university to promote academic excellence, to provide regional development opportunities and to push the boundaries of discovery for the good of the public.”

The Research Park will provide space and support for specialized companies to thrive and grow near the university and its other partners. Kent State graduate and undergraduate students will have opportunities for research, internships and employment; faculty researchers from the Liquid Crystal Institute and other disciplines will be available for collaborative projects; and the university has entrepreneurial assets available to aid business growth through its centers that specialize in technology transfer, small business development, business innovation and minority-owned businesses.

The anchor tenant of Kent State’s Centennial Research Park will be the FLEXMatters Accelerator, a broad, public-private high-technology collaboration, designed to produce a new generation of advanced materials and promote regional economic development.

The FLEXMatters Accelerator will work with local companies to develop and produce devices that are typically rigid on flexible polymer substrates. This collaboration will lead to production of liquid crystal-based flexible displays, eyewear, electronics and other devices. FLEXMatters Accelerator, the first step for the Centennial Research Park, arose from a partnership between Kent State and NorTech, a technology-based economic development organization for Northeast Ohio that has been a catalyst in building high-tech regional collaboration.

“This region’s strengths in Kent State’s liquid crystals and the University of Akron’s polymer research form a combination found nowhere else in the world,” said Dr. John L. West, vice president for research and dean of graduate studies at Kent State. “Our vision is to turn this education, research and development effort into an industrial cluster that will put Northeast Ohio in the lead of this emerging global technology.”

Kent State ranks fifth in the world and second nationwide among universities in the number of start-up companies formed per $1 million in research expenditures.

The concept of an “accelerator,” rather than an incubator, came about because the facility and the Research Park will bring together researchers from universities and new and established companies to “accelerate” the region’s ability to commercialize discoveries, West said.

The FLEXMatters Accelerator is a model for further expansion within the Centennial Research Park.

“The great thing about FLEXMatters is that it brings together three of our region’s strengths – liquid crystals, polymers and manufacturing – in a way that enables us to compete globally in the emerging flexible display market,” said NorTech President and CEO Dorothy Baunach. “Northeast Ohio should be able to capture a significant and important share of this market by building on our strengths, which include the innovative prowess of people like John West and the research communities of Kent State and the University of Akron, as well as local companies like Kent Displays, AlphaMicron and Hanna Micro.”

The initial phase of this project is funded by a portion of the Ohio Third Frontier Research Commercialization Project for the Flexible Liquid Crystal Film Manufacturing Alliance. Led by Kent Displays, the alliance joins AlphaMicron, Akron Polymer Systems and Sheldahl with Kent State and the University of Akron to develop and produce flexible liquid crystal displays and eyewear.

The alliance is supported by an additional $8 million in matching funds from the collaborators.

Two additional research and commercialization projects have joined the FLEXMatters initiative to help build this emerging cluster and to market the region’s technology assets. The University of Akron-led Commercialization of Functional Polyimide Films and Nanocomposites joins companies from around the state to develop polyimide films for a wide range of products. The Graftech-led Development and Commercialization of Graphite Nanocomposites for the next Generation of Electronic devices will develop the next generation of thermal management films.

All of the collaborators share the goal of developing locally the materials and manufacturing processes for the next generation of electronic optical devices.

Centennial Research Park is located at the corner of State Routes 59 and 261, in the Fiala Building, the former home of Kent State’s student-operated campus bus service, the nation’s largest such operation. Following a partnership with PARTA, the Portage County transportation network, Kent State no longer needed the 44,000 square feet and 10 surrounding acres as a bus garage.

“Now this facility will have a new life serving future economic development in Northeast Ohio, as a globally significant research park connected to a major research university,” Lefton said.

In the next decade a new industry will emerge that will manufacture optical and electronic devices on flexible plastic substrates.  This new industry will produce flexible versions of current devices such as flat panel displays, that are now made on rigid substrates.  It will also make possible entirely new products such as electrically tunable eyewear and electronic fabrics. Ohio's research and industrial strengths in polymers, liquid crystals and advanced materials such as flexible graphite thermal management films make it a natural home for this new industry.  Flexmatters combines the innovative and entrepreneurial talent in our region that will be required to build and sustain this industry. 
Three focused research and commercialization projects, with a total of nearly $50M in state, industrial and academic support have joined the Flexmatters initiative:

Commercialization of Functional Polyimide Films and Nanocomposites:  Led by the University of Akron this project targets the market applications of polyimides. It is an extension of the Center for Multifunctional Polymer Nanomaterials and Devices (CMPND), a 2005 Wright Center of Innovation. Polyimides (PIs) are high performance polymers with a wide range of properties that can be easily adapted to withstand extreme thermal, electrical, and mechanical environments.

Development and Commercialization of Graphite Nanocomposites for the Next Generation of Electronic Devices: Led by Graftech International this project will develop graphite-based nanocomposites for improved thermal and electrical conductivity. The project will strengthen Ohio's presence in the lightweight, high performance electronic device market and make it more cost effective.

Flexible Liquid Crystal Film Manufacturing Alliance: Led by Kent Displays this project will develop specialized flexible liquid crystal displays and liquid crystal eyewear. The grant will support the development of two roll-to-roll processing lines of liquid crystal film, one for flexible displays such as credit cards, wrist watches, and ID tags, and a separate line for eyewear.

Through Flexmatters the partners will work together to build a new manufacturing infrastructure, supporting local companies and attracting new companies to the region.

FlexMatters Partners include: Kent State University, Kent Displays, AlphaMicron, University of Akron, CMPND, NorTech, the Fund for Our Economic Future, GrafTech International, Sheldahl, Center for Photochemical Sciences at Bowling Green State University, Akron Polymer Systems, and the Functional Polymides Center at University of Akron.

New technologies breaking into the market either have to displace an already established technology or find entirely new applications.  For example the introduction of the compact disc over twenty years ago, displaced the well established vinyl LP market.  The new technology was so far superior and the costs fell so rapidly that within a few years the LP was history. 

Alternatively, the LCD industry, which began over thirty years ago with wristwatch and calculator displays, only really took off with the advent of the lap-top computer.  This entirely new application fed the LCD industry. The lap-top computer display was the killer application that allowed the LCD industry to grow and thrive.  For years consumers tolerated poor performance and relatively high prices because it was the only game in town.  The industry rapidly grew.  The quality of displays greatly improved and the prices fell.

By the late 90's the industry was ready to take on the deeply entrenched CRT industry.  The first target was the desktop monitor, where small size and stable images were premiums consumers would pay for.  It is only in the last couple of years that LC TV's have taken on the CRT head to head and consumers are finally replacing those behemoths in their living rooms.     Plasma TVs followed a bit of a different track, finding their initial killer application in large, direct view flat screens.

So how will flexible displays enter the market?  Will they challenge directly established glass based displays or create their own markets? The jury is clearly still out on this one.  The consumer has yet to speak.  Everyone in the industry knows flexible is coming and many bets have been placed on a variety of technologies.  The vision of the killer application depends not only on the technology selected but also the return required to justify the investments made to develop a technology and bring it to market.  If a technology has eaten up hundreds of millions or even billions in development the killer application is necessarily pushed to the high-end displays that compete in quality and performance with the current glass displays.  They demand a quick "CD" type of replacement of an embedded technology. 

However, if the investments have been more modest the first killer application may also be much more modest, such as monochrome displays for watches or credit cards.  The return on investment can be justified and the manufacturing infrastructure built from initial modest beginnings.  As the production processes improve and the quality of the displays grow the applications will become more sophisticated and eventually we will make that display that rolls out from a cell phone or pen.  

The companies in FLEXMatters have followed a very lean financial approach.  They are moving to market with relatively modest investments and can therefore succeed by serving initially relatively small markets.  As they build the manufacturing infrastructure they can continue to improve the performance of their flexible displays, expand the markets and grow the industry.  As I said above, the jury is still out on what the killer application will be for flexible displays.   I think it will be relatively simple and serve a very specific niche.  The trick is to make our investment match the potential return.  In this game to large of a bet may shut you out of the competition.  The next few years will be interesting.

            Last week Kent State University hosted the 26^th International Display Research Conference.  Flexible displays played a key role at the conference.  Jun Souk, Executive Vice President for the LCD division of Samsung gave the keynote address: Flat Panel Display World 2012.  In his talk he predicted that glass displays will continue to dominate for the next five years but then flexible displays will lead the next generation.  The conference also featured three sessions on flexible displays and a complementary session on electronic paper and reflective displays.

            The conference provided a great opportunity to "roll out" FLEXMatters.  It also provided me an opportunity to talk with researchers from around the world working in the field and to present to them our vision.  As the keynote address made clear, flexible does indeed matter. 

            The FLEXMatters vision was strongly supported by the presentations of Kent Displays.  They showed how they are entering the market now with innovative products.  Check out the video of Kent Displays flag, which is a cholesteric display printed on a woven fabric substrate to see just how far they have come.  They also demonstrated how they can ink jet print conducting polymer electrodes on polyester substrates to make full color displays. 

            Among the people I had an opportunity to talk with was Greg Crawford.  Greg graduated from KSU in the late 80's and has done extremely well.  He is now Dean of Engineering at Brown University and author of Flexible Flat Panel Displays.  He was enthusiastic about FLEXMatters and our vision.  He agreed that our innovative approach provides us with an early entry to the market and an opportunity to grow this industrial cluster in Northeast Ohio.  I have asked him to be a guest columnist so stay tuned for a perspective from outside of Kent on FLEXMatters.

Welcome to FLEXMatters, the Northeastern Ohio initiative to build an industrial cluster for the manufacture of flexible displays and electronic devices. FLEXMatters joins universities, industry and federal labs across the region to work together on this common goal. The potential for this new industry is huge. Over the next decades the glass and rigid substrates and batch manufacturing processes used to produce displays, electronics and photovolatics are destined to be replaced with flexible substrates and continuous reel-to-reel manufacturing.

Ohio is a logical home for this industry. Our combination of research strengths in liquid crystals and polymers are found nowhere else. The results of our research have spawned a host of spin off companies that are taking an early lead in the commercialization of flexible displays and devices. Local companies working in liquid crystals and in displays include Akron Polymer Systems, AlphaMicron, CoAdna, Global Lighting, Grafix Plastics, HanaMicrodisplays, Kent Displays, Kent Optronics, LXD and NanoFilm. Unlike our competitors, many of these local companies are utilizing technologies that are compatible with commercially available substrates and can be produced using relatively simple manufacturing techniques. We therefore plan an early market entry. These companies are supported by a huge polymer industry. Ohio is a leader in the global polymer industry and is among the top states in the nation for plastics and rubber production, www.polymerohio.org.

There are many groups around the world pursuing flexible displays and electronics. They are pursuing technologies that require significant materials breakthroughs to enter the market. For example OLED materials are sensitive to oxygen and water vapor and therefore require gas diffusion barrier layers that are not available for flexible substrates. Conventional LCD affects require polarized light and therefore nonbirefringent substrates that again are not commercially available. Finally most of the other technologies require active matrix substrates to produce high-resolution images. The organic semiconductors required to produce an active matrix on flexible substrates are again not yet ready for commercializaiton.

By utilizing simple technologies that utilize commercially available materials Ohio companies are entering the market now. AlphaMicron, www.alphamicron.com, has already commercialized electrically adjustable lenses using their proprietary VALid Technology. Incorporated in UVex Ski Goggles, the lenses have proven their commercial viability and won the “Best Of What’s New” award from Popular Science magazine. If you’d like to buy a pair just go to the Hammacher Schlemmer catalog, www.hammacher.com.

Kent Displays, www.kentdisplays.com, is poised to be the first to commercialize flexible displays produced in a reel-to-reel process. Using their proprietary encapsulated bistable cholesteric technology they have demonstrated fabricating displays on single substrates and even on woven fabrics As we ramp up production of these products, we will develop an entirely new manufacturing infrastructure. We are already able to reliably print transparent conducting electrodes, We know how to singulate individual devices from the continuous web produced in reel-to-reel manufacturing and know how to effectively connect the drive electronics.

Ohio is providing substantial support as we pioneer this new industry. Through FLEXMatters we are collaborating to build the manufacturing infrastructure required to grow the industry. You can chart our progress through this web site. I welcome your comments and questions. And of course, when you are ready, let me know and we’ll plan for you to join us and help grow this new industry.