Plextronics, a U.S. based global company specializing in conductive polymer technology, announced that it is the recipient of a Phase I Release 2 Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Award for the design and development of low-cost processes of printed electrodes for OLED lighting.

The SBIR program is well recognized for supporting important technological advances. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, it received 756 applications for the latest round of SBIR grants. Plextronics was among 79 grant recipients. The company will receive a $175,000 grant from the SBIR program and will partner with Electroninks, a spin-off of the University of Illinois and provider of printable metal inks.
 
"The Department of Energy's Solid State Lighting Roadmap estimates that over 50 percent of the cost of OLED technology relates to the anode fabrication," said Robert Kumpf, Chief Operating Officer of Plextronics. "This SBIR grant allows Plextronics to develop new process integration schemes incorporating its conductive polymer inks with proprietary printable metal inks from Electroninks to address this substantial industry need ."

Plextronics' approach leverages the unique properties of its Plexcore® hole injection layer (HIL) materials based on the company's conductive polymer platform. These materials offer high transparency at thicknesses greater than competitive HIL technologies, thereby allowing for novel integration with printed metal lines that are created with metal-containing inks. Printed metal lines are important in the design of OLED lighting panels to ensure high power efficiency and good light uniformity as OLED panels increase in size.