Today, TFT arrays for conventional Liquid Crystal Displays use amorphous silicon as the semiconductor and are fabricated on glass using a high temperature process.

Toppan has taken note of amorphous oxide semiconductor TFT developed by Professor Hosono of Tokyo Institute of Technology, because of its processability under room temperature and electrical properties that exceed those of amorphous silicon TFT.

Toppan processed these TFTs on a plastic substrate under room temperature and fabricated a flexible electronic paper display by combining it with an electrophoretic E Ink front plane laminate. This is the first time an E Ink electronic paper display has been driven by an oxide semiconductor TFT array.

This plastic substrate, amorphous oxide semiconductor TFT array is thinner, lighter and more robust than glass substrate TFTs and is flexible. Such mechanical properties bring next generation flexible displays closer to reality.

Toppan plans to develop flexible TFTs with goals to commercialize thin, lightweight and flexible displays such as electronic paper, starting with a practical prototype display in fiscal 2008. In parallel, we aim to introduce printing methods into the fabrication process of flexible TFTs for simplification and cost reduction.

Though these technologies have application primarily in the IT segment, there are interesting implications for print, given the ability to vary information printed onto a substrate electronically using e Ink.

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