April 14 (Reuters) – Companies in the ‘bendable’
displays business:
Producers of thin, flexible glass products (none has yet
ventured into plastic):
* Corning Inc
* Schott AG
* Asahi Glass Co Ltd
* Nippon Electric Glass Co Ltd
* Heraeus, family-owned firm based in Germany
* Agfa-Gevert NV
* Fujitsu Ltd
* Cima Nanotech (investors include Och-Ziff Capital
and Nippon Venture Capital Co Ltd)
* Cambrios Technologies Corp (investors include Samsung
Venture Investment Corp)
Some big firms showing interest in alternatives to Indium
Tin Oxide (ITO):
* Dow Chemical Co
* Linde AG
* Saint-Gobain Oberland AG
* Sumitomo Chemical Co Ltd
Barrier films and encapsulation:
* Tera-Barrier Films Pte (Singapore)
* Beneq (Finland)
* Universal Display Corp
* Cambridge Nanotech (now part of Ultratech Inc )
* Vitex Systems (part of Samsung Electronics Co Ltd
)
* 3M (developing bendable OLED device encapsulation
films)
* Fujifilm Holdings Corp
Samsung has interests in most of these technologies and
materials. It is the world’s largest manufacturer of OLED and
has already built OLED into many of its flagship devices. While
it has been working on plastic displays, it also has a joint
venture with Corning – Samsung Corning Precision Materials –
which develops glass substrates.
On ITO replacements, Samsung is working on graphene and with
California-based Unidym, part of South Korean electronics firm
Wisepower Co Ltd, on carbon-nanotubes, according to
Lawrence Gasman, principal analyst at Nanomarkets. Samsung
acquired the barrier technologies of Vitex Systems in 2011.
(Reporting By Jeremy Wagstaff; Editing by Ian Geoghegan)
