The display device design and process technology developed by the Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI) will be transferred to a public fab and is expected to be actively utilized for technology development in the display field as well as supporting small and medium-sized enterprises.

ETRI announced on the 6th that it signed a contract to transfer technology for 'oxide thin film transistor (TFT)-based display backplane technology and OLED element technology' to the Chungnam Technopark Display Innovation Process Group for 600 million won.

The technology transferred by ETRI is the display device/panel technology developed by the Hyper-Realistic Metaverse Research Institute’s Real-Time Device Research Center.

It includes: △Oxide TFT device technology used in display backplanes; △OLED device technology used in display frontplanes; and △Panel design and driving/circuit technology.

Since publishing the first OLED device paper in Korea in 1994, ETRI has been developing various technologies in the display field.

In particular, in 2009, the world's first transparent display using oxide TFT was developed.

In 2013, Korea's first user-adaptive OLED lighting technology, in 2017, the world's largest graphene substrate OLED element technology, and in 2020, the world's highest resolution holographic spatial light modulation device (SLM) The technology was successfully researched and developed.

In 2022, we successfully developed domestic technology for ultra-high-resolution, low-temperature curing color filters used in OLEDoS, applied it to 3,147ppi OLEDoS, demonstrated it, and transferred the technology to a domestic company.

In addition, ETRI is building and operating a flexible display batch process R&D platform (FERP) that uses 6-inch glass wafers as substrates.

In 2020, it was selected as a nationally designated research laboratory (N-Lab) in the field of display panel technology and is currently carrying out corporate support activities.

In addition, the research center provides materials, parts, and equipment verification, prototype manufacturing services, and practical training to display small and medium-sized companies based on ETRI's device/panel and manufacturing/evaluation technologies.

In the case of performance evaluation support through component manufacturing, a total of 22 companies were supported by 2023.

This year, we are supporting four companies: Solbrain, Seoul Asan Medical Center, Glotech, and Gosantech.

The Display Innovation Process Center, which recently received technology transfer, is the result of the 'Display Innovation Process Platform Construction Project' that the government has been promoting since 2019 to build an R&D-infrastructure linkage platform for the advancement of the display industry and to solidify industrial competitiveness.

In particular, 63 types and 65 units of 2nd generation OLED process and test evaluation equipment are being built, and construction is scheduled to be completed this year and full-scale services will be provided after 2025.

Through this, it is expected to serve as an infrastructure for R&D (material/process development, product evaluation, and test evaluation response) and human resource development for small and medium-sized display companies.

Meanwhile, ETRI started the 'New Market Creation Type OLED Panel Manufacturing and Process for It' project in April of this year. We are participating in the 'Library IP Construction' project and are developing process IP for OLED panel manufacturing at the Display Innovation Process Center of Chungnam Techno Park.

The company plans to develop TFT and OLED device IP for 16-inch AMOLED panels by 2025.

ETRI’s Park Chan-woo, head of the Sensor Device Research Division, said, “In order for the Innovation Process Center, which will become the core axis of our country’s display R&D infrastructure linked to the industry, to be successfully operated, it is very important to establish a batch process for panel manufacturing early. We expect that the initial stabilization period of the batch process will be significantly accelerated through the transfer of core technologies developed by ETRI.”

The research team plans to ensure that the achievements of this technology transfer are not a one-time achievement, but rather that they maintain a close cooperative relationship with the Innovation Process Center and actively seek out its role as a government-funded research institute so that the center can successfully fulfill its role as a technology hub to support the display small and medium-sized business industry.

This technical support was carried out through the Ministry of Science and ICT’s ‘ICT Material, Component, and Equipment Self-reliance and Development of Challenge Technologies.’