Idemitsu Kosan has announced plans to establish, in January 2017, an OLED materials development company in Switzerland, in order to enhance its development structure in preparation for future growth in demand for OLED materials.
The new company's facility in Basel will be Idemitsu's second R&D facility in the OLED field.
The goal of the new facility is to enhance Idemitsu’s development structure further and strengthen and expand its OLED materials business in order to provide OLED materials that meet its customers' needs.
According to the announcement Idemitsu says in recent years there has been considerable advances in the use of OLED displays in a growing number of products, including smartphones and large-screen TVs.
As the performance requirements for displays have increased, suitable high-performance OLED materials have become essential. For this reason, Idemitsu has decided to enhance its development capability by establishing an OLED materials development company to develop innovative OLED materials based on new ideas and advanced materials/synthesis technologies.
Idemitsu and BASF Schweiz AG have been sharing OLED technology for a number of years. As a result of this collaboration Idemitsu has decided to establish the new company by hiring the OLED researchers from BASF.
Switzerland is a worldwide leading area for fine chemical synthesis, and the new company will carry out development with researchers from diverse technical backgrounds who possess knowledge and experience concerning the development of OLED materials.
Idemitsu already has an Electronic Materials Development Center located in the city of Sodegaura, Chiba Prefecture, Japan.