Defeating 600 Invention Entries in the World, ITRI's Flexible Display Technology Won the Grand Gold Medal of “Technology Innovation Award” and the “R&D 100 Awards” in 2010.

Industrial Technology Research Institute (“ITRI”) won the international awards for its R&D technology again.  Wall Street Journal announced the winner of Technology Innovation Award 2010 on 27 September.  ITRI, defeating the world-renowned enterprises, including Nokia, Microsoft and Ford, won the Grand Gold Medal of the Award with the 0.01-cm ultra-slim “FlexUPD” researched and developed by the institute.

Technology Innovation Award organized by Wall Street Journal came to the 10th term this year.  There were a total of 597 entrants, including research organizations and individuals, from 30 countries in the world participating in the said Award.  Only 49 entries would be awarded.  In other words, the chance of winning award was 8% only.  With the same technology, ITRI has also won the American R&D magazine’s R&D 100 Awards for year 2010 earlier on.

Making electronic products flexible is an inevitable trend.  The “FlexUPD” was developed based on the critical technology, i.e. the light, slim and transparent flexible plastic substrate.  With such technology, the flexible plastic substrate may still be removed from the glass platform by cutting, despite the multi-layer structured “flexible electronic components”, and a 0.01cm flexible color ultra-slim display is made finally.  The know-how resides in the de-bonding layer researched and developed by ITRI independently, which helps remove the flexible plastic substrate from the glass platform successively.

This innovative technology enables ITRI to prevail overwhelmingly among many leading manufacturers in the world that still use application of the metal foil substrate or laser cutting technology.  ITRI’s technology is simple and low-cost, moreover able to help the local LCD panel makers utilizing its current niche in glass manufacturing process for diverting into the production of flexible displays or other flexible electronic components.

The 6-inch color ultra-slim flexible screen released by ITRI recently was developed exactly based on such innovative technology.  When the 0.01cm screen is bent, the colorful film can still be played continuously, and the radius of bend may reach within 5cm, with the brightness of 150nits.  Even if the screen is bent for more than 15,000 times, its function for displaying motion pictures will not be affected.

ITRI has initiated the R&D of “FlexUPD” since 2008, and applied for a total of 95 patents around the world.  According to ITRI, it looks forward to negotiating with any suppliers interested in the technology for transfer and cooperation of such technology.

Wall Street Journal had a half-page report about the honor awarded to ITRI yesterday.  Barry H. Jaruzels, one of the judges and also one of the co-founders of Booz & Co., the top global management consulting firm, affirmed in the report that ITRI’s new technology possess stability, property for mass production, and price competitiveness, and will open the market for extensive application of consumer electronics and interactive terminal products.  (2010.09)
/DC