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Home > About us > History
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| History |
| 1989 |
Initial discovery of organic electroluminescence from polymers. The research group of Professor Richard Friend at the Cavendish Laboratory of Cambridge University in the UK - which included Dr Jeremy Burroughes (now CTO of CDT) - discovers that LEDs could be made using conjugated polymers. Professor Friend, Dr Burroughes and Dr Donal Bradley filed the original patent in this field. Andrew Holmes and his team in the Chemistry Department are also involved and a co-authored paper is published in Nature.
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1991
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First working displays developed (3 x 5 pixels) with very short lifetime.
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1992
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CDT is founded by Cambridge University and seed venture capital.
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1995
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Use of polymers for photovoltaic devices pioneered at the Cavendish Laboratory.
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1996
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CDT secures first licensees (Philips and Uniax).
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1997
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CDT receives an investment of $10 million by a financial group headed by Lord Young of Grafham, former UK Secretary of State for Trade and Industry. Later in the year, Intel, the semiconductor manufacturer, also invests in CDT.
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1998
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Ink jet printing joint venture signed with Seiko-Epson.
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1999
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CDT moves to Greenwich House (Cambridge University Campus) in order to support a rapidly growing number of staff and to provide new chemistry facilities.
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1999
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Kelso Investment Associates and Hillman Capital acquire a majority interest in CDT for a total of $133m. Kelso and Hillman are both private equity funds, based in New York, USA. They provide additional funding of $16m directly to the company to finance ongoing research and development activities.
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2000
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CDT and Seiko-Epson demonstrate the world's first full color active matrix ink-jet printed PLED display. It measures 2.5 sq. inches and is 2 mm thick.
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2001
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A further $28m is raised from shareholders. These funds are raised partly to finance construction of the Technology Development Centre, Godmanchester, UK.
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2002
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CDT announces completion of its new 1,750 square meter US$25 million Technology Development Centre in Godmanchester, U.K. The heart of the centre is a 600m sq. state-of-the-art cleanroom, comprising class 100 and class 1000 areas.
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2002
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CDT receives the Royal Academy of Engineering MacRobert Award. This prestigious prize rewards CDT's rapid commercialization of PLED technology, and the contribution made to establish the UK as a hot bed for innovation in science and engineering on the world stage.
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2002
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First high profile commercial PLED product when Philips launches its innovative shaver with electronic display - featured in James Bond movie "Die Another Day".
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2002
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CDT acquires Oxford-based Opsys Limited. CDT receives ownership of all rights to Opsys' dendrimer OLED technology.
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2003
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CDT announces a dramatic improvement to the lifetime (time to half brightness) of display devices based on P-OLED technology, with 20,000 hours of operation for its blue polymer research devices from 100 cd/ m². The advancement in blue devices is seen as a significant step towards the commercial exploitation of P-OLED technology in consumer applications.
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2003
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Sumitomo Chemical and CDT form joint development project to create high efficiency materials using dendrimer technology, this will be especially important for the development of products requiring low power consumption.
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2004
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Leading Japanese communications company Toppan Printing announced the building of a ¥1bn pilot line to investigate alternative printing methods, including roll processes, for P-OLED display manufacture.
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| 2004 |
Philips incorporates polymer LED display into 'Magic Mirror' mobile telephone.
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| 2004 |
CDT progress on performance of blue materials continued to improve rapidly. Lifetimes to half brightness are now over 80,000 hours from 100 cd/m², thus opening up many new display product possibilities.
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| 2004 |
Osram P-OLED displays are being built into new products including MP3 players, medical devices and professional audio mixer desks.
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| 2004 |
CDT successfully floats on the NASDAQ National Market under the ticker symbol: "OLED".
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| 2005 |
CDT grants Add-Vision Inc. (AVI) a license to certain CDT IP for specialised low resolution display applications and CDT joins the existing AVI private equity investors in a new round of funding to allow AVI to develop the technology more rapidly. In return, CDT acquires a substantial position in AVI.
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| 2005 |
CDT commences work on ‘top emission’ displays, in which light emerges from the cathode side of the device. |
| 2005 |
Original research team receives Jan Rachman prize from Society for Information Display.
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| 2005 |
Sumation™ joint venture established with Sumitomo Chemical for the development and production of materials and inks. |
| 2005 |
CDT shows 14 inch demonstrator with 1280 x 768 pixel resolution, produced using inkjet printing. |
| 2005 |
'Blue lifetime' reaches 150,000 hours at 100cd/m². |
| 2005 |
$17.5 million raised in private stock placement. |
| 2006 |
CDT awarded Jean-Pierre Noblanc Award for Excellence for its participation in a multi-national collaborative project.
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| 2006 |
Lifetimes now quoted from 400 cd/m² as performance continues to improve. Blue fluorescent lifetime now 25,000 hours (equivalent to 400,000 hours from 100 cd/m²). Red phosphorescent devices attain 98,900 hours from 400 cd/m² (equivalent to 400,000 hours from 100 cd/m²).
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| 2006 |
Seiko Epson announces world’s first P-OLED printhead for use in printers, scanners etc.
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| 2006 |
CDT and ULVAC announce project to achieve high resolution displays using inkjet printing. Sharp announces at SID that 202ppi display demonstrators have been achieved, while Toppan Printing and CDT show roll printed display – another world first.
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| 2007 |
CDT acquires the assets of Next Sierra, Inc., a Mountain View, California-based hardware developer that specializes in designing P-OLED/OLED display driver chips.
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| 2007 |
Toshiba Matsushita Display Technology (TMD) announces a new 20.8 inch, full-color, P-OLED television display and shows at the 3rd International FPD Show in Japan, featuring light emitting polymer technology.
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2007
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CDT demonstrates a 160 ppi, wide format, three-inch, full-color display incorporating CDT's P-OLED technology at SID 2007 in California. The high resolution display was printed at CDT using Litrex Gen 2 inkjet printers on amorphous Si TFT substrates provided by Casio.
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| 2007 |
CDT licensee MicroEmissive Displays (MED) announces completion of its volume manufacturing facility for P-OLED based microdisplays in Dresden; initial production is expected in July 2007.
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| 2007 |
Lifetimes now quoted from 1000 cd/m² as green P-OLED materials demonstrate lifetimes of 50,000 hours, representing a 40% increase in lifetime compared to results announced earlier in 2007. Blue materials have now been developed with a demonstrated lifetime 10,000 hours from an initial luminance of 1000 cd/m².
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| 2007 |
Sumitomo Chemical Company and CDT jointly announce that they have entered into a definitive merger agreement whereby Sumitomo Chemical will acquire CDT Inc.
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| 2007 |
Sumitomo Chemical Company completes acquisition of CDT for $12 per Share, on the 19th of September 2007.
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