Next Chips: Organic Transistors and Memories and the Applications They Will Enable

Commercialization of OTFTs (and organic electronics generally) are also encouraging. In the past year organic electronics firms, including those offering specialized organic semiconductor materials have received significant funding. In at least two cases - Plastic Electronics and Polymer Vision - such firms have announced the imminent arrival of full-scale production. Other TFT-oriented firms such as OrganicID, PolyIC and ORFID also seem headed in the same direction. And while the most attention in organic electronics goes to the smaller technology developers who deliberately court publicity, an examination of strategic investors and internal corporate R&D quickly shows that there are also giant firms that have involved themselves with OTFTs to one degree or another. Such firms include 3M, AMD, BASF, Canon, Dai Nippon Printing, H-P, Hitachi, IBM, Intel, Konica Minolta, LG, Matsushita, Philips, Pioneer, Ricoh, Samsung, Seiko Epson, Siemens, Sony, Spansion, ST Microelectronics, and Xerox. There are also numerous centers of academic research into OTFTs throughout the world.