Thorn to produce first printed PLED luminaire

Thorn Lighting is leading a UK consortium that has taken a share of £8.4m in Technology Strategy Board funding to scale-up plastic electronic technologies to meet market demands.

The company is leading partners including Cambridge Display Technology (CDT), Tridonic, Pilkington, Conductive Inkjet Technologies (CIT) and Durham University.

Geoff Williams, OLED team leader at Herts-based Thorn Lighting, said he and his colleagues have already demonstrated success in printing small 25cm PLED panels in the laboratory, but now will be proving the manufacturing process on a scaled-up level. An in-depth article on the growth of Britain’s plastic electronics industry − including contributions from Geoff Williams − can be read here.

The consortium will use facilities at the Printable Electronics Technology Centre (PETEC) based in Sedgefield, County Durham, and their goal is to install a large-area coating line there by early 2011.

Williams explained that the printing process works by depositing layers of thermal liquid film and a solvent on a substrate. Each layer is baked to boil off the solvents before the next layer is deposited, he said.