Memorandum 124
Submission from cintelliq Ltd
Since its formation in 2002 cintelliq has been
tracking the commercial and technical activities of the organic
semiconductor and organic electronics industries. cintelliq provides
information services and technology consulting to the organic
semiconductor industry. cintelliq is responsible for providing
the following services:
- free weekly newsletter to the industry
(OSA Direct);
- bi-monthly journal (Organic Semiconductor
Industry Journal);
- quarterly report on patents covering organic
semiconductor and organic electronic technologies (Organic Semiconductor
Patent Analyst) first published in March 2004;
- annual conferences since 2003 (OSC-03,
OSC-04, OSC-05,OEC-06,OEC-07,OSC-08); and
- consulting activities-projects for many
of the major companies in the organic semiconductor/electronics
industry- project include-patent analysis, market evaluation,
due diligence, analysis of government funding and VC investments.
cintelliq limited is based at St John's Innovation
Centre, Cambridge, UK.
Prior to founding cintelliq Limited I have spent
much of my career identifying, selecting, acquiring and exploiting
new technologies. This includes working for:
- Cambridge Display Technology the inventors
of light-emitting polymers.
- Cambridge Consultants (Arthur. D. Little)
where I was directly involved in providing strategic and operational
advice to clients dealing with the commercialisation and impact
of emerging technologies. Key experience gained-developing technology
and product roadmaps; technology intelligence; technology due
diligence and reviewing strategic and operational options of R
& D groups.
- Institute of Manufacturing (University
of Cambridge) where I was involved in developing tools and techniques
for auditing technology management processes.
Academic qualifications are-a BSc in Physics,
MSc. Digital Systems and an MBA from Manchester Business School.
1. The UK needs to rapidly increase UK engineering
and manufacturing capability in "plastic electronics"
if it is to retain its current world class position during the
next phase of industry growth
- The UK has developed a significant IP position
in both OLEDs and Organic transistors.
- However, despite the UK holding a key IP
position in fundamental OLED technology all manufacturing of displays
has migrated to the Far East.
- The majority of UK and European organisations
involved in "plastic electronics" are typically small
companies who have spun-out from either university labs or large
companies. The staffing of these companies are primarily scientists,
and there are few staff with engineering or manufacturing disciplines.
- Compared to the Far East the UK, and Europe,
has few significantly large product focused organisation developing
"plastic electronics".
- In the Far East the situation is radically
different. The top ten organisation developing organic electronics
are large and well known-Sony, Samsung, Epson, Toshiba and other.
They have the ability to quickly refocus internal engineering
and manufacturing resources on to the commercialisation of "plastic
electronics".
- The consequence is that in the UK and Europe
there is a shortage of engineering and manufacturing expertise
with direct knowledge of "plastic electronics" to assist
in the next phase of industry development.
- Without such engineering and manufacturing
capability the clear lead already obtained in "plastic electronics"
in the UK and Europe could be eroded and eventually lost.
2. "Plastic Electronics" is important
to the UK
"Plastic Electronics" is important
to the UK for the following reasons:
- Over the past 20 years the UK has developed
a world class position in organic semiconductor and organic electronics.
Including both materials know-how and process know-how
- The "plastic electronics" market
is expected to be worth between several billions of dollars and
several hundred billion dollars over the next 5 to 20 years.
- More than $1.3 billion invested by Governments
and VC investments (Europe and US) for the period 2000-Q1 to 2007-Q2
- The largest ever single VC investment ($100
million) in Europe was made to finance the world's first large-scale
manufacturing facility being built by Plastic Logic (UK) in Dresden
- Polymer Vision, a spin-out from Philips,
has built its first manufacturing line for organic transistors
in Southampton
- The world's first substrate supplier to
both Plastic Logic and Polymer Vision is DuPont Teijin Film based
in the UK
- The UK has a growing number of companies
who are actively participating on an international level in "Plastic
Electronics"-this include Cambridge Display Technology, Plastic
Logic, Merck (UK), DuPont Teijin Films, OLED-T, Novalia, and CENAMPS
- The majority innovation in the UK on "Plastic
Electronics" is predominantly being developed by starts-up
and key research projects in universities
3. "Plastic Electronics" worldwide
is important
3.1 Over the past 20+ years there has been
much research and development worldwide on a new class of electronics
that takes advance of organic materials with semiconducting properties.
These organic semiconducting materials can be formed in to individual
electronic components-leds, transistors, photovoltaic, lasers,
memory and sensors.
3.2 By combining these individual components
into arrays and circuits new products and applications can be
created these include-ultra-thin displays, flexible displays,
eBooks, solid-state lighting, solar cells, memory and RFID.
3.3 The technology will lead itself to the
development of low-cost and disposable electronics for consumer
applications.
3.4 Products made from these devices can
result in lower-cost, more energy efficient, more environmentally
friendly, and because these devices are constructed from thin
films (100nm or less) will use less materials.
3.5 These new devices can be manufactured
by adopting not just conventional vacuum deposition techniques
but also a wide range of printing techniques such as ink-jet gravure,
and flexo-graphic.
3.6 In terms of maturity it has been said
that the "organic semiconductor" industry is probably
at the same level of maturity as the silicon industry was around
the late 1960s or early 1970s.
NOTE: The term "Plastic Electronics"
are used frequently by the press. However, it is important to
point out that many other terms are used to describe the same
range of components, products. This includes the terms:
- Organic semiconductors.
cintelliq uses the terms "organic semiconductors"
and "organic electronics".
3.7 The size of the opportunity: Organic
electronics is still very much an emerging technology, and there
are hundreds of companies worldwide that are currently developing
innovations in new materials, new devices and new processes to
realise new products and new applications. Forecasted market sizes
vary but it is expected that over the next 5 to 20 years the overall
value of the market could between a few billion dollars to several
100 billion dollars. While the size and timings will vary the
key point to note is that there is a growing consensus that there
is a sizable market ahead.
3.8 The first segment of this market to
begin commercialisation is OLED based displays. In 2007 sales
of OLED based displays reach about $500m (DisplaySearch, Mar 2008).
3.9 Organic Electronics sales are not yet
established with several companies developing manufacturing facilities.
3.10 The most commercially advanced are
transistors. Initial applications of organic transistors are as
backplane drivers of e-paper products.
3.11 Two companies poised for commercial
launch of e-book applications
- Plastic Logic, based in Cambridge, is currently
building their production facility in Dresden, and expects first
commercial products during the early part of 2009.
- Polymer Vision, based in The Netherlands,
will begin production this year at their manufacturing facility
in Southampton.
3.12 These two production facilities are
the first commercially available of organic backplanes in the
world, and OLED will commercialise these include-RFID, solar-cells,
memory, sensors and lighting.
3.13 Over the course of the next five years
more applications based on organic electronics.
4. Organic Semiconductor Patents 2004-07
4.1 Patents are a key indicator of technological
innovation. The number of granted and application patents published
on organic semiconductor and organic electronics has grown steadily
each quarter since 2004-Q1.
Figure 1
ORGANIC SEMICONDUCTOR PATENT FILING-2004-Q1
TO 2007-Q4
Source: cintelliq Ltd.
4.2 Prior to 2005 only EP, US and WO where
fully classified. Since 2005 all EP, US, WO and JP the patents
were fully classified. The following analysis is based on patent
data for the 30 month period 2005-Q1 to 2007-Q2.
4.3 Intellectual property (IP) is being
filed worldwide across the full range of organic electronic devices-led,
transistors, photovoltaic, lasers, sensors and memories are being
developed.
Table 1
ORGANIC SEMICONDUCTOR PATENTS-2005-Q1 TO
2007-Q2: DEVICES
|
| Organic semiconductor based devices
|
| OLED
| Organic Electronics
| | | |
| |
| | |
| | Other
| Total |
| |
| Priority Region | LED
| Transistors | Photovoltaic
| Laser | Sensors
| Memory
Cell |
Other | Total
|
|
| Europe | 1133
| 184 | 79
| 3 | 23
| 89 | 304
| 1,815 |
| US | 1826 |
225 | 136
| 25 | 22
| 173 | 365
| 2,772 |
| Far East | 9,942
| 772 | 118
| 18 | 33
| 113 | 705
| 11,701 |
| Total | 12,901
| 1,181 | 333
| 46 | 78
| 375 | 1,374
| 16,288 |
|
| Source: cintelliq Ltd |
NOTE: There have been academic studies on the differences
between Japanese patent filings strategies and European/US patent
filing strategies. One of the findings is that Japanese companies
tend to file patents with narrower claims, whereas European and
US companies tend to file patents with broader claims. The result
is that Japanese companies may file more patents whereas European
and US companies may file fewer patents for similar inventions.
4.4 Organic semiconductor patents can also be classified
in terms of the intellectual property they seek to protect. Again
these can be divided in to two distinct groups-materials related
patents and process related patents.
Table 2
ORGANIC SEMICONDUCTOR PATENTS-2005-Q1 TO 2007-Q2: MATERIALS
AND PROCESS
|
| Materials
| Process |
| | |
| | | |
| Both |
| Priority Region | Material
| Substrates | Encapsulation
| Patterning | Deposition
| Device
Structure
| Fabrication | Other
|
|
| Europe | 747
| 28 | 75
| 56 | 68
| 454 | 162
| 225 |
| US | 946 |
23 | 152
| 64 | 175
| 749 | 256
| 407 |
| Far East | 2,999
| 246 | 718
| 256 | 653
| 2,695 | 1,631
| 2,503 |
| Total | 4,692
| 297 | 945
| 376 | 896
| 3,898 | 2,049
| 3,135 |
|
| Source: cintelliq Ltd.
|
4.5 Combining the two previous tables makes it easier
to compare and contrast the differences between priority regions.
Table 3
ORGANIC SEMICONDUCTOR PATENTS-2005-Q1 TO 2007-Q2: DEVICES
VS MATERIALS AND PROCESS
|
| Priority Region | |
OLED | Organic
Electronics
| Both | Total
|
|
| Europe | Materials
| 566 | 95
| 189 | 850
|
| Process |
405 | 235
| 100 | 740
|
| Both |
162 | 48
| 15 | 225
|
| US | Materials
| 739 | 176
| 206 | 1,121
|
| Process |
757 | 342
| 145 | 1,244
|
| Both |
330 | 63
| 14 | 407
|
| Far East | Materials
| 3,284 | 321
| 358 | 3,963
|
| Process |
4,260 | 662
| 313 | 5,235
|
| Both |
2,398 | 71
| 34 | 2,503
|
| Total | | 12,901
| 2,013 | 1,374
| 16,288 |
|
| Source: cintelliq Ltd.
|
4.6 OLED dominates the patent landscape, but this is
only to be expected as it was first to be discovered/invented
in the late 1980s. Eastman Kodak discovered small molecule based
OLEDs around 1985 and Cambridge University discovered polymer
based OLEDs around 1988. Cambridge Display Technology was founded
in 1992 to exploit polymer based OLEDs.
4.7 OLED IP (Europe): Europe has developed a strong IP
position in materials and device structures. However as virtually
all OLED displays are manufactured in the Far East namely -Taiwan,
Korea and Japan-this is where the majority for the process related
IP has been developed. This can be seen in the number of process
related patents filed in the Far East compared to Europe.
4.8 The early work in the UK on polymer based OLED devices
has enabled a strong IP position in fundamental polymer based
OLED IP.
4.9 Only two of the top ten European assignees manufacture
end user products-Osram and Philips (displays and lighting). The
remaining assignees are either material suppliers or licensing
companies.
4.10 These top ten assignees account for 64% (715/1,123)
of the European OLED patents.
Table 4
TOP TEN EUROPEAN PATENTS ASSIGNEES-2005-Q1 TO 2007-Q2:
OLEDS
|
| Assignee | Materials
| Process | Both
| Total |
|
| Cambridge Display Technology Ltd | 55
| 60 | 18
| 133 |
| Koninklijke Philips Electronics NV | 29
| 65 | 32
| 126 |
| Merck Patent GmbH | 88
| 6 | |
94 |
| Covion Organic Semiconductors GmbH | 76
| 4 | |
80 |
| Novaled GmbH | 20
| 42 | 9
| 71 |
| Philips Intellectual Property and Standards GmbH ... Koninklijke Philips NV
| 15 | 29
| 11 | 55
|
| Thomson Licensing SA | 6
| 20 | 15
| 41 |
| Osram Opto Semiconductors GmbH | 20
| 20 | 1
| 41 |
| Ciba Specialty Chemicals Holding Inc | 39
| | | 39
|
| BASF AG | 34
| 1 | |
35 |
| Total | 382
| 247 | 86
| 715 |
|
| Source: cintelliq. |
NOTE: Philips files patents under different assignees,
if combined they would rank 1st(181); Merck acquired Covion and
combined would rank 2nd (174) and CDT would rank 3rd (133)
4.11 OLED IP (Far East): Like Europe the Far East has
developed a substantial amount of OLED IP, the majority of this
IP is focused on process innovation. This is not surprising as
the majority of OLED based displays are manufactured in the Far
East.
4.12 In contrast to European assignees many of the top
ten Far East assignees manufacture end user products (displays).
They are all household names-Epson, Samsung, Sanyo, Sony, LG Electronics
and Canon. There is only one materials company listed in the top
ten Far East assignees-Idemistsu Kosan.
4.13 These top ten Far East assignees account for 52%
(5,222/9,965) of the Far East OLED patents.
Table 5
TOP TEN FAR EAST PATENTS ASSIGNEES-2005-Q1 TO 2007-Q2:
OLEDS
|
| Assignee | Materials
| Process | Both
| Total |
|
| Seiko Epson Corp | 130
| 733 | 391
| 1,254 |
| Samsung SDI Co Ltd | 204
| 491 | 286
| 981 |
| Semiconductor Energy Lab Co Ltd | 246
| 356 | 194
| 796 |
| Idemitsu Kosan Co Ltd | 289
| 106 | 15
| 410 |
| Sony Corp | 75
| 137 | 169
| 381 |
| Fuji Photo Film Co Ltd | 214
| 106 | 31
| 351 |
| Sanyo Electric Co Ltd | 71
| 146 | 111
| 328 |
| LG Electronics Inc | 79
| 143 | 55
| 277 |
| Konica Minolta Holdings Inc | 151
| 75 | 10
| 236 |
| Canon KK | 124
| 61 | 23
| 208 |
| Total | 1,583
| 2,354 | 1,285
| 5,222 |
|
| Source: cintelliq Ltd.
| | | |
4.14 Organic Electronics IP (Europe): Europe is clearly
developing a substantial IP position in Organic Electronics with
respect to both the US and Far East.
4.15 This is predominantly driven by developers of transistors
and memory devices. Infineon is currently ranked 1st, however
this will change in the future as Infineon quietly withdrew from
developing organic electronics a few years ago.
4.16 In the UK Plastic Logic is developing organic transistors
for use in e-Paper applications.
4.17 Memory devices are important but often not widely
noticed. Thin Film Electronics (SE) has been active since the
late 1990s.
4.18 It is worth noting that Cambridge University is
the only academic assignee to appear in the top ten.
4.19 The majority of the Merck patents listed were developed
in the UK at the Merck Southampton facility.
4.20 Top ten Far East assignees account for 262/677 =
39%
4.21 There is a greater emphasis on Process IP (device
architecture, fabrication, deposition and patterning) than observed
in OLED IP.
Table 6
TOP TEN EUROPEAN PATENTS ASSIGNEES-2005-Q1 TO 2007-Q2:
ORGANIC ELECTRONICS
|
| Assignee | Materials
| Process | Both
| Total |
|
| Infineon Technologies AG | 22
| 29 | |
51 |
| Thin Film Electronics ASA |
| 27 | 20
| 47 |
| PolyIC GmbH | 1
| 18 | 10
| 29 |
| Plastic Logic Ltd | | 24
| 5 | 29
|
| Siemens AG | 4
| 21 | 2
| 27 |
| Koninklijke Philips Electronics NV | 5
| 11 | 5
| 21 |
| Konarka Technologies Inc | 3
| 15 | |
18 |
| Merck Patent GmbH | 10
| 2 | |
12 |
| Cambridge University Technical Services Ltd
| 3 | 7
| | 10 |
| Samsung SDI Co Ltd | | 9
| | 9 |
| Cambridge Display Technology Ltd | 2
| 6 | 1
| 9 |
| Total | 50
| 169 | 43
| 262 |
|
| Source: cintelliq Ltd.
|
4.22 Organic Electronics IP (Far East): The Far East,
like Europe, is actively developing Organic Electronic IP. As
with OLED there is a greater focus on process IP rather than materials
IP. Again the top ten assignees are predominantly large well-know
manufacturers of consumer products.
Table 7
TOP TEN FAR EAST PATENTS ASSIGNEES-2005-Q1 TO 2007-Q2:
ORGANIC ELECTRONICS
|
| Assignee | Materials
| Process | Both
| Total |
|
| Samsung Electronics Co Ltd | 30
| 57 | 3
| 90 |
| Konica Minolta Holdings Inc | 52
| 29 | 2
| 83 |
| Semiconductor Energy Lab Co Ltd | 3
| 65 | 9
| 77 |
| Samsung SDI Co Ltd | 9
| 63 | 5
| 77 |
| Canon KK | 21
| 32 | 3
| 56 |
| Seiko Epson Corp | 3
| 48 | 3
| 54 |
| Ricoh Co Ltd | 22
| 24 | 1
| 47 |
| Matsushita Electric Industrial Co Ltd | 10
| 33 | 2
| 45 |
| Sony Corp | 7
| 28 | 5
| 40 |
| Sharp Corp | 11
| 17 | 4
| 32 |
| Total | 168
| 396 | 37
| 601 |
|
| Source: cintelliq Ltd.
|
Top ten assignees account for 601/1769 = 34%
5. Investments
- It is also worth briefly mentioning Government funding
and VC investment in organic electronics. More than $1.3 billion
invested by Governments and VC investments (Europe and US) for
the period 2000-Q1 to 2007-Q2
Figure 2
CUMULATIVE INVESTMENT IN ORGANIC ELECTRONICS-2000-Q1 TO
2007-Q2
Source: cintelliq Ltd.
March 2008
|
