The Flatnet thematic network, a 36 months project, brought together key industrial and academic groups researching flat panel display technologies within the European Union. The goal was to provide state of the art information to European organisations and draw attention to new opportunities and challenges presented by the display market, and to exchange ideas on display technologies among network partners. The network co-ordinated EU-projects covered the following technologies: ferroelectric liquid crystals, nematic liquid crystals, light emitting diodes, field emission displays, organic light emitting materials, active matrices, plasma panels and thin film fluorescence. Most of the information exchanged in the meetings is strictly confidential and can not be disclosed to the public.
During the reporting period 2001/2002 two plenary meetings were held in Brussels (June, 2001) and in Cambridge (February 2002). The specific technical objectives were:
- Concertation meeting of EC projects related to displays and hardware interfaces. The following topics were presented and discussed:
-- Presentation of LCD related work performed within different EU-sponsored projects, such as CARBINE, OCDIS, OEDIPUS, CROMATEAM, MOSAREL, HELICOS and DEPODIS . Rolic Research Ltd. participates in OCDIS.
-- Presentations related to the plasma panel project: PLADIS
-- IST/Esprit Project presentations: i) PLEDs: HIGHLIGHT, ii) FEDs: ACDIS, CANADIS, PRINDIS.
- Status meeting on OLED technologies by J. Norman Bardley, U.S. Display Consortium. European strengths and weaknesses in OLED technology were discussed covering: Research & Development, Process Development, Material Production, Equipment Suppliers and Manufacturing Experience. The two extreme positions presented were: R&D is strong in Europe whereas Equipment Suppliers are weak. The other three issues Process Development, Material Production and Manufacturing Experience ranged in the middle between the two extremes. One of the major OLED problems remains the limited lifetime of blue OLED materials.
- Display Materials Overview meeting: presentation by Dr. M. Goulding, Merck NB-SC, UK. The main topics of the presentations were: i) outlook of the various display application fields from 2002 to 2006, ii) outlook of the major display technologies from 2002 to 2006, iii) consequences for specific display materials. iv) Which technologies could possibly compete with LCDs?
The development of the internet Web site
http://www.flatnet.org is complete. This web site facilitates the communication between partners. The site has an open area, accessible to the general public, and a private area accessible only to network members. Copies of almost all presentations are accessible only in the member ship part of the web site.
